[UK-CONTEST] O/T GPO & all that

[Giles Herbert]

Ken,

Further to your comments about Ongar,  The first Amateur signal I ever identified was G3OAP, an Ariel Radio Group (BBC Club) station at Rampisham Dorset.  Rampisham was, and is still, one of several sites transmitting BBC World Service from multiple 400Kw senders from 150 acres (?)  with large numbers of directional arrays.

G3OAP was sited in the Aerial Senior Maintenance engineer's office using an ET 4336 and an AR88.  The aerial was an end fed probably 132' long and no doubt fed against a mass of buried scrap copper.  My Father who was developing high power multi band arrays needed to take measurements and this being well before VNAs and computer simulation, used an oscillator, modified Wayne Kerr admittance bridge and Eddystone 680X receiver attached to a large array.  The aerial he was bridging was in among all the others and exposed to coupling from numerous others.

>From what I remember as a child "helping" him from time to time in the school holidays, this receiver was "Bomb Proof".  The technique required finding a progression of frequencies  in the required range that were "QUIET", then netting the oscillator and taking the measurement by balancing the bridge.  In both cases, amateur and professional, the receivers had arguably the greatest exposure to extraneous rf at huge levels and performed their function.

Giles Herbert
G0NXA
Often on 3.716 MHz





> Date: Wed, 25 May 2011 21:02:05 +0000
> From: ken.g3lvp at btinternet.com
> To: uk-contest at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] O/T GPO & all that
> 
> Alex/Dave,
> 
> I'm sure that when I was at Stone in the early 60's there was a 
> different local brew. As for guests in the rooms there wasn't much 
> opportunity for that because all the rooms were shared between two 
> chaps. Not many girls in engineering in those days either more's the pity!
> 
> I remember someone who had I think an old ZC1 in his room (how many 
> people remember the ZC1 today?). I think the individual concerned was 
> Bob G3ORI, somewhere I have an old B&W photo but apologies if I've got 
> the wrong person.
> 
> I was last there about 10 years ago when elf'n'safety decreed that 
> anyone who might conceivably work on anything above head height should 
> do a 'Flat Roof Course'. A bit late for me as in a previous life working 
> on radar systems I'd regularly climbed up to 70 ft & more, no training 
> then, no harness or hard hats!
> 
> At least operating the RSO club station from the middle of an HF station 
> would have eliminated any TVI or planning problems but must have 
> required a good RX with all those kW's around. I know that on one 
> occasion I received an RF burn from a disconnected feeder, not as bad as 
> the one that I almost got from a 40kW TX, I was very very lucky!
> 
> 73...
> 
> Ken
> 
> G3LVP
> 
> 
> >
> > Ken and Co
> >
> > I can confirm there was an Amateur Station at Post Office Central
> > Training School. AKA BT Technical College, Yarnfield . Staffs.
> >
> > Hence the CTS call. I never got the opportunity us use it , Probably
> > too busy out Night Clubbing and quality checking Boddingtons.
> >
> > I bought an old ARRL handbook from the college library as the old
> > part of the training school was closing. The Radio training already
> > had moved by then,
> >
> > That would have been early 1970,s
> >
> >
> > As for keeping the locals in order some were very local ie Students.
> > I got dragged in front of the Vice Principal as got fed up with the
> > regular tidying up of the bedrooms by domestic staff. So I put a
> > Danger High Voltage do not touch on an old SCR 522 AM TX? . That
> > certainly curtailed my wireless operations .. At least I did not get
> > sent home, I think you needed to be caught with a woman in your room
> > by the security staff for that. One of the lecturing staff did tell
> > me there was nothing in the rule book about being caught with a man
> > !
> >
> >
> > Last visit was in 2009 doing BT 21 Century Network training.
> >
> > Imagine the QRM on 160/80 mrs close to the college must be awful now
> > !
> >
> > Even worse than the old sparking Strowger and Crossbar technolgy ?
> >
> > Alex G8FCQ
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> 
> >
> >
> >
> > Yes - Ongar Radio Station held the call sign G3RSO - indeed I still
> > have the affiliated society certificate from RSGB. (Radio Station
> > Ongar)
> >
> > It was a great site - on the Epping Ridge. It was very successful on
> > HF and VHF. We had a tower with many Yagis and wire aerials.
> > Surprisingly we didnt suffer too badly from the HF TX'ers on site.
> >
> > I moved my home QTH to the Ongar Site in the 1970's and won many VHF
> > contests from there.
> >
> > 73 David G4ASR
> >
> 
> >
> >
> >
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