How It All Started

Discovering Ham radio at a museum

I can remember the exact moment when I decided I wanted to be an Amateur Radio Operator.

It was the Autumn term at school. I was at a boarding school in Norfolk. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had been on a day trip to The Sea of Tranquillity on the Moon, and the Science Museum in London had an exhibition about the occasion. The school put on a trip to London to go visit the exhibit. This was quite the adventure for October 1969. Norfolk to London by coach. Long before motorways or even half decent roads in Norfolk.

Crack of dawn start! We stopped in Norwich to pick up a few more boys and a teacher, then we headed south. London, Exhibition Road and the Science Museum awaited.

The Apollo 11 lecture and exhibit was interesting, I was fascinated by space flight. Once the lecture was over we were free to explore the museum on our own, as long as we were in pairs. I paired up with my friend Sam. Sam is not his name, but his initials are S.A.M. hence the nick name.

A quick aside: My middle name is Ronald, hence Ron. My first name, that I detest with a vengeance, is David. My initials are therefore D.R. At school they called me Doc.

So Sam and Doc wandered the museum and eventually I found the Communication Exhibition. GB2SM Ham Radio station, plus other cool stuff like teleprinters, photographs of big satellite dishes, and lots of radio equipment. I have no idea of the name or call sign of the person who spoke to us. The Communication Exhibition relied on volunteers, as did the museum in general. (More on this in another post)

Unknown name & call sign nice Ham man chatted to us about Ham Radio, He made a couple of QSOs on 40 metres SSB to demonstrate GB2SM. Then he gave me a leaflet about the RSGB and sent us on our way. We went to look at the aircraft, as that was Sam's thing.

I was hooked. I wanted a Ham Radio radio station.

The next day, back at school, in the science class, we discussed the Apollo lecture. Our teacher, A Mr. Timothy Doe, asked if we had seen anything else that interested us at the Museum. I described the visit to GB2SM.

About this time the school set up a Short Wave Listening station. We had a Marconi R1155 receiver. This version was in a steel case, so it had been land or water based. The aircraft variants were aluminium. I spent a lot of time listening to ham radio, and other weird stuff, like the number stations.

I started reading the technical manuals. As my knowledge grew I was asking Mr. Doe questions. Questions he couldn't answer. I think he was probably doing as much Ham Radio studying as me just to keep up with my constant questions. I was 14 years old. I should also point out that I was, and still am, on the Autistic spectrum.

Mr Doe gave me a past R.A.E. paper and told me to take it as a mock exam. I remember writing essays about linear amplifiers, drawing circuit diagrams, dipole antennas, propagation. Mr. Doe marked my mock exam. He told me to work on the licence conditions. A few weeks later he told me he had booked me in to take the actual exam at the local Technical College in Norwich. I learnt the whole of the licence off by heart. I can still recall most of it.

On the evening of the exam I was taken to the Technical College by Mr. Doe in his car. I had assumed that he would drop me off and fetch me later. I was surprised to discover that we were both taking the R.A.E. It was a three hour written exam. I was in my school uniform and I was, by some margin, the youngest candidate. I still have that exam paper. Superhet receiver. Local oscillator. Linear amplifier. Propagation. A block diagram of a transmitter. Some licence questions.

The next day Mr. Doe and I conferred on how we had done. I was pessimistic, he was upbeat.

I left that school at the end of the term, and I lost contact with Mr. Doe. I have no idea if he passed. My City & Guilds Certificate is framed and is on my shack wall.

Another aside. Mr. Doe tried, unsuccessfully, to be a Member of Parliament. He stood for the Conservatives in Norwich North multiple times. I don't know if would have been a good M.P. but he was an excellent teacher. His teaching skills set me up for a career in electronics and ultimately in I.T.

Passing the technical exam was the first obstacle to getting a licence. The next obstacle was Morse Code.