Hello from Glowinganode

[glowinganode]

Hi all,
some of you may already know me from the various vintage radio forums.
Varied interests but chiefly industrial switch / control gear, electrical traction, generation and plant.
I work as a field service engineer for a generator manufacturer based in Yorkshire, though my patch is London and the home counties.
Often get to see some old and interesting installations, which I'll be glad to share.
Cheers all,
Rob.
p.s. Hi Kev Wood, you may remember me from FDRS days early 90's.

[Kevin Wood]

Hi Rob,

Welcome to EK.

You've got me thinking now. Might need a few more clues, though. I'm still an F&DRS member. Had our Christmas dinner last night and am doing a crash course for a group of scouts for their foundation licence on Saturday. Must remember the coffee for that one.

Plenty of faces from the 90's still there, just even older now.

73 for now

Kevin

[glowinganode]

Hi Kev,
I was known as Bob (G7HIU) in those days, passed my RAE around the same time as Iain Ballantyne.
Dug out an old photo from a construction contest around 1990, when we were meeting in North Camp briefly before moving to the current QTH.

004(1).jpg (72.28 KiB) Viewed 83819 times

I saw Mike Hearsey recently and was glad to hear most of the old skins are still around.
Cheers,
Rob.

[Lucien Nunes]

Hi Rob,
Welcome from me too.
What's inside the box and did it win the cup?
Lucien

[glowinganode]

Hi Lucien, there were two awards, one for best item, the second "in the spirit of".
I seem to recall these were sponsored by John Pink and John Hardy respectively.
It would have been the latter with which I was awarded for the items on display; (L-R) HT regulated power supply, Valve Volt Meter, Oscilloscope built from surplus RADAR indicator unit.
Thanks for the interest,
Rob.

[Kevin Wood]

Hi Rob,

Ahh. I'm with you now. Great to bump into you again. I recognise you and the trophies, of course, but not the premises. I might have missed out on that as I would have been away at university then. The construction trophy has been gathering dust for a while. Nobody seems to build anything these days.

John Hardy is well and was with us today. 5 passes in the foundation exam, another 5 in intermediate. One candidate did both exams one after the other and achieved 100% in the intermediate exam. 100% of candidates who arrived at the venue passed. Guess we can't help those who didn't.

Exam venue was 2nd Frimley scout hut. Can't recall if you are a veteran of that place there but it brought back a few memories for me. Hadn't been there since I was a cub back in the late 70's. Hasn't changed a lot, just a lot of new housing around it and a few more much welcomed BTUs of heating inside.

I don't tend to get on the air that often these days. I normally get my fix in a few 24h contests each year. Was part of the winning team at VHF/UHF NFD this year with the Windmill contest group, although I spent most of the contest fixing a various broken linears, so can't take much credit for it. 3kV DC in a damp tent focuses the mind a little. I wonder if you remember the F&DRS entries we made from Caesar's camp?

Cheers,

Kevin

[glowinganode]

Hi Kev, some great memories there.
Yes I think you were away at Uni at the time.
Good to hear John Hardy's well, I did see him at Kempton park a few weeks ago though didn't get chance to say hello.
2nd Frimley Scouts, that's St Peter's isn't it? I was 1st Frimley (Longmeadow).
Yes I have fond memories of Caesar's Camp, nearly electrocuting myself on Mike 23cm linear, nearly setting fire to Tim's brandnew motorhome, coming face to face with a load of squaddies on exercise where they shouldn't have been and Alex and Bob (Bagwell)'s curry feasts.
Happy days.
Do you hear from Justin at all?
Must get down the club sometime, though a bit of a trek as I'm living in Aylesbury now.
Cheers,
Rob.

[Kevin Wood]

Hi Rob,

Yes, fond memories indeed. Haven't seen Tim for a long time. IIRC he emigrated down under?

Alex was last bumped into working at Maplin in Farnborough a year or so ago. Hasn't been there recently so guessing it was a stop gap.
Bob Bagwell is still a regular at F&DRS and also chairman of Wey Valley club.
Haven't heard from Justin for 7 or 8 years but was still working for Goldman Sachs last I knew.

Of course you'd be welcome at F&DRS. There's a programme on the web site so you can see what's going on when.

http://www.farnboroughradio.org.uk/

If your travels take you over this way it would be good to meet up. Failing that, if you fancy a rendezvous a little to the north east of here I'm sure Lucian can find us a job to do.

Cheers,

Kevin

[glowinganode]

I'm sure he can, looking forward to getting my hands dirty.
Whitworth spanners at the ready.
Cheers,
Rob.