# Radio Officer extraordinaire



## R651400 (Jun 18, 2005)

When I received this from tfclist.net this morning I recognised the VK5EEE amateur radio call as a SN member. 
Louis I hope you don't mind further SN exposure!

http://www.trafficlist.net/radio-officer/louis-szondy/


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## Varley (Oct 1, 2006)

Popeye always goaded us with the Scouts. Our performance being unfavourably compared to theirs (he taught at camps hosted in college holidays).

Perhaps if I had started morse at that age I would also have been a star, as it was I was busy building the kit.


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## R651400 (Jun 18, 2005)

Kit as the operative word...
Was that chess box or baccy tin?


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## Varley (Oct 1, 2006)

Chess box. Not official kit but bits Pa brought back from the smoke. I doubt it would have been Tottenham Court Road stuff but Middlesex Street (Petticoat Lane) he could just about walk from BP it to the Bell for 'lunch'. An afterthought. Maybe through the post from an Exchange and Mart advert., how I miss that, paper Ebay.

Now you remind me of baccy tins I did produce a multivibrator "signal generator" or two using Pa's Whisky Flake tins. I was a bit older for those 'though.


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

I had heard the story elsewhere, but was sceptical - the pic confirms it.

Wonder why he didn't go to sea?


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## R651400 (Jun 18, 2005)

Maybe he didn't have the time.. VK5EEE morse-wise shows someone in a big hurry.
#4.. Lisle Street Soho was the radio (amongst other things) Aladdin's cave in my time..


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## Varley (Oct 1, 2006)

I fear I must have been sidetracked before I managed to get as far as Lisle Street. Was that before or after the high days of Tottenham Court Road (certainly still the place in early 70s Proops, Lasky's, Henry's, Heathkit and much else).


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## R651400 (Jun 18, 2005)

Long before...
Lisle Street as I remember early 50's was mainly war surplus advertising through F J Camm comic Practical Wireless and Iliffe's Wireless World..


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## Varley (Oct 1, 2006)

In the 50's I was still more interested in Hamleys than Henry's. I suppose I started taking Practical Wireless at about the same time as I stopped taking the Eagle. As I recal, Wireless World was a later periodical that I took when Practical Wireless stopped. I still find odd piles of either when I cupboard rummage.


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## Mad Landsman (Dec 1, 2005)

Wireless World is, I believe over 100yrs old - Now called Electronics World.

Practical Wireless (I also started reading it in lieu of other boys' comics) spawned Practical Electronics - all gone now.

The shop I used was 'Wireless Supplies Unlimited' in Bournemouth. They lost their roots and went all up-market for a time but the premises is now a hairdresser!


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## Bill.B (Oct 19, 2013)

Wasn't there a Henrys in Tottenham Court road? By the time I had money the ex WWII gear was all gone. Made several pilgrimages to Lisle St too. Bought my first kit, Codar something or other., from Henrys. All those adverts for R1155 receivers and AR88D. Got a 62 set from a surplus shop in Portsmouth on holiday as a teenager. Still have it today. Never got an R1155 but love my Atalanta and valve Eddystones. My greatest feat at Lowestoft college was buying a Marconi CR300 from David Holmes and lugging it by bus to the railway station from near the lighthouse and dragging it off and across Ipswich station. I must have been mad. My bedroom table nearly went through the floor with that thing and the power supply sat on it. Truly happy days.


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

You could get Itching Powder, See-back-o-scopes, stick on boils and many other goodies from the Beano classifieds.

John T


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## R651400 (Jun 18, 2005)

As a youngster I hung out at our Italian owned local cafe with adjoining billiard hall. One day I spotted a R1155 (£12.19.6d on Lisle St) under one of the billiard tables and when I asked how much the cafe owner in his inimitable Italian/Jock accent replied, "I no wanna ra ony money. Justa taka it awa!" 
Delighted I loaded it up on my message bike took it home built a psu (coal-fired soldering iron) and ran it from a war surplus telescopic tank aerial.
Later at sea I bought a German WW2 Wehrmacht field set "transceiver" from a Middlesbrough surplus store. 
The set covered the 160 and 80M amateur bands weighed a ton with postage to Scotland costing about as much again. Comparing the excellent construction of this and the innards of the R1155 I sometimes wonder how we won the war..
On a sad note my generous Italian cafe owner's father was one of the many Scottish-Italian internees lost in the 1940 Arandora Star sinking.

nb..Practical Wireless is still alive and available on-line. http://www.pwpublishing.ltd.uk/practical-wireless-latest-issue/


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## chadburn (Jun 2, 2008)

I found the best place to go in Yorkshire for Surplus radio equipment in the early 1950's was 'Johns Radio' at Leeds. A great place for a rummage!
As an afterthought if I remember correctly the shop,in Middlesbrough was called Viners.


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## Duncan112 (Dec 28, 2006)

There is still a traditional electronics shop in Bolton - called "Modern Radio" they have a web and ebay presence too - good for a rummage as Chad puts it http://modernradio.co.uk/


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## Naytikos (Oct 20, 2008)

In the late fifties my brother and I used to spend a couple of weeks every Summer with an aunt & uncle in Derby and I discovered the delights of "R. F. Potts" in Babington Lane. They had WWII surplus stuff spilling out of the door and down the pavement: I still have the RAF morse key and two microphones bought there. The shop is still going strong and worth a visit. (Perhaps I should mention that the rather apposite name is/was that of the founder of the business).

Having seen all of the advertisements which 'Practical Wireless' used to carry when the magazine was based in London, I eventually made a pilgrimage to the Edgeware Road. Now it is all middle-Eastern restaurants and smoking-houses, but in the sixties every other shop sold electronic or communication relevant goods. "Smiths", halfway up on the left was THE place to go for chassis, cabinets, general hardware. Opposite was a place selling every conceivable type of morse-key. Up past the flyover, opposite Paddington Green police station was the great "Henry's", a large shop selling components. The last time I looked, they were still there, but specialising in video surveillance equipment.
For components one now has to go a couple of miles further up the road to "Crickelwood Electronics". If they don't have it, they can get it; even obscure high power microwave FETs.

At that time Wireless World was almost a trade magazine, aimed at professionals in the telecommunication industry. It carried similar advertisements to PW but also had job listings. I once followed up such an ad. for the position of Radio Officer/Postmaster in Tristan DaCunha.


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## holland25 (Nov 21, 2007)

PW had adverts as well its from that I got a job on the weather ships.


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## G4UMW (May 30, 2007)

Potts is still going strong in Babington Lane. As a young radio enthusiast growing up in Derby, it was "the" place to go. Happy memories!


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## chadburn (Jun 2, 2008)

Any of the radio enthusiasts like to have a guess as to what these are the internals of? It was an old favourite and there are still some around.


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## Mad Landsman (Dec 1, 2005)

chadburn said:


> Any of the radio enthusiasts like to have a guess as to what these are the internals of? It was an old favourite and there are still some around.


Looks suspiciously like a Wireless set No19.


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## sven-olof (Jul 12, 2008)

Had one


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## chadburn (Jun 2, 2008)

Mad Landsman said:


> Looks suspiciously like a Wireless set No19.


You have it, most of the Hams and those interested in radios Post War looked out for these sets. Johns Radio had these brand new in their cardboard boxes in the early 1950's


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## sven-olof (Jul 12, 2008)

I runned my piece with a 12 V car battery who lasted for 15 minutes. Then I bicyckled the battery to the petrolstation and had it charged and over again... I remembered the alternator as very noisy.


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## chadburn (Jun 2, 2008)

How did you get hold of your set Sven?


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## sven-olof (Jul 12, 2008)

During the surplus era 60ths those sets vere spread out from postorder catalouges quite cheap and I bought my set from a lad. I didn t hold it so long becuase the battery routins vere quite heavy and sold it further and perhaps swapped with something.
Those sets are still present and there are a lot of clubs around caring for WS-19.


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## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

I got this R1155 on a car boot sale for £15 several years ago and restored it. This involved adding a 6V6 output stage, making an aluminium cover for the Jones plug and making an external power supply. All good fun!(Thumb)
Bob


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## Naytikos (Oct 20, 2008)

Nice neat job, Shipbuilder.
I like the label over the volume control: reminds me of a newly joined master on one ship who had the crew paint arrows at the top and bottom of every ladder, with the words 'Up' and 'Down' as appropriate.


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## chadburn (Jun 2, 2008)

sven-olof said:


> During the surplus era 60ths those sets vere spread out from postorder catalouges quite cheap and I bought my set from a lad. I didn t hold it so long becuase the battery routins vere quite heavy and sold it further and perhaps swapped with something.
> Those sets are still present and there are a lot of clubs around caring for WS-19.


Thanks Sven, I just wondered bearing in mind your location(Thumb)


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## chadburn (Jun 2, 2008)

Shipbuilder said:


> I got this R1155 on a car boot sale for £15 several years ago and restored it. This involved adding a 6V6 output stage, making an aluminium cover for the Jones plug and making an external power supply. All good fun!(Thumb)
> Bob


Nice job Bob, I wonder if it was ever fitted to an aircraft or a marine craft for that matter.


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## c.m.Duncan (Mar 24, 2007)

*Clydesdale catalogue*

Lots of goodies in here --- Publication from my museum collection.


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## R651400 (Jun 18, 2005)

chadburn said:


> ....I wonder if it was ever fitted to an aircraft or a marine craft for that matter.


 The R1155 was not a particularly hi-tech receiver for its time. 
Choice of 560 kc/s IF and floating earth requiring a bit more than the bog standard home-brew psu were a couple of downsides I remember.
The R115N (Navy) with IF marine trawler and amateur top band band fitted to Coastal Command air and sea stations was definitely the most sought after.


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## J. Davies (Dec 29, 2010)

Bob

I congratulate you on the refurbishment. I have an RA 17 lying under my workbench here in desperate need of a complete overhaul. Lord knows when I will get round to it....., I take my hat off to you.

Back to the original subject; I have communicated with Louis VK5EEE on CW a few times from here, on 40m, but never a good QSO due to QRM and especially QRN, which is a bastard in the tropics.

John / 9V1VV

(and many strange ship's call signs as well)


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## Worldspan (Jan 2, 2012)

*1155 -*

I once went out for a trip aboard an RAF air-sea rescue launch from Newhaven and they had an 1154/1155: for QSO with Coastal Command, I suppose. Guess they also had some kind of marine equipment, too.
W


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## Worldspan (Jan 2, 2012)

*Lisle Street*

Thanks for the advert for Smiths in Lisle Street … what a heady mixture of temptations along that road! WW2 surplus in the shop windows and invitations on the doorbells – no stickers in phone boxes in those days. Ken Colyer’s jazz club was at the end of the street. I bought a CR300 in Lisle Street and heaved it to a bus stop and thence to Victoria Station … it weighed a ton. 

I was always a bit disappointed by the lack of enthusiasm of the guys serving in those shops; I expected them to be interested in, and to know all about, the various bits of kit on sale. 

Does anyone remember the units (perhaps from Gee sets) that worked as converters? You placed them between the aerial and a comms receiver and it enabled you to listen around 30 mc/s and above. Some were switchable and others had a Muirhead drive for tuning. 

Was there a favourable sunspot cycle in 1958? I remember hearing South African accents around 30 mc/s: they were mobiles (not amateurs) and I supposed they were on farms. You could also hear American police cars.

W


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## tunatownshipwreck (Nov 9, 2005)

Worldspan said:


> Was there a favourable sunspot cycle in 1958? I remember hearing South African accents around 30 mc/s: they were mobiles (not amateurs) and I supposed they were on farms. You could also hear American police cars.
> 
> W


Yes there was, the biggest ever since the advent of radio. The peak was actually in 1957, also called the International Geophysical Year by international treaty, lots of studying the sun's effect on Earth. The next largest peaks were those of 1979 and 1989, it's been miserably weak since then.


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

JCS used to boom into Sydney harbour on 22 MHz in 1980....


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