# Memories of Lisle Street



## Worldspan (Jan 2, 2012)

I loved going along Lisle Street after college on a Friday … ogling the stuff in the shop windows (and in the doorways, too.) Ken Colyer's jazz club was in a basement at the Shaftesbury Avenue end … Great Newport Street perhaps.

Now, can anyone identify two bits of government surplus gear that I bought?

1) A large VHF receiver, almost certainly ex RAF for use in control towers. It had a semi-circular dial rather like that of the R1155 but I seem to remember that you turned the pointer with small crank handle. I could receive air traffic, also the local police and TV sound.

2) Another piece of kit was (I think) part of Gee receivers. There were several different types and they acted as converters for my CR300 enabling me to tune up to 30 mc/s and above. I had two or three for different frequency ranges. One had a Muirhead drive and another had a number of switched positions. They measured around 30 cm deep x 20 cm high x 20 cm wide.

Incidentally, I was always a bit disappointed with the knowledge of the staff in the shops. I had imagined they were all enthusiastic radio amateurs, fully aware of the history of the bits of kit and of their power requirements. But this was usually not the case.

W


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