In the days of the 1970's as an apprentice TV and Radio Technician at Telefusion (about 1974) I worked in a small unit in Cobden Mill mending radios and cassette recorders and other small items. The miners were on strike and we had a three day week. Trouble was that you could mend transistor radios without mains power, so we bought a load of batteries and carried on working with our coats on! It was great fun really!
Around that time I worked with some more apprentices, Ian Harrison, Bhad Govan and Jim Hulton. Ian was quite keen on amateur radio and one evening we went to see a well known amateur radio voice on 80m who's callsign was G3MCR (more about this later)
One day I was repairing a cheap transistor radio that covered all the Short Wave bands including 160m and after replacing a component and re-aligning the radio using a Heathkit Signal Generator, I decided to have a listen on 160m. Guess what...there was Alf, G3HRV in Walkden about two miles up the road. After listening to his QSO with a room full of apprentices I thought it might be good idea to try and contact him using the Heathkit Signal Generator!!
A bit of a long shot, but by keying the aerial (a TV aerial that went all the way up the side of Cobden Mill) I thought it would be worth a try. I called Alf in CW and....he came back....i've never seen a room full of apprentices so astounded! We completed a QSO in CW with about a milliwatt of signal!
This was one of my most original contacts ever, and yes...I put it in the logbook!
Alf was a great guy, I went to see him a few times when I worked in Walkden. I would often listen to him talking on 160m with Ralph, G3WWZ.
1 comment:
Yes, Alf was a good friend of mine too. We made contact on Top Band most evenings up to his death.
There is a Photograph of him with his Equipment on my Website: http://www.g3ngd.talktalk.net
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