Amateur Radio - G3MEH Past

I first became interested in electronics at about 12 years old and soon discovered amateur radio by listening in to the short wave bands. I went on to pass the qualifying exam for holding an amateur radio licence, the Radio Amateurs Examination, at the age of 16. At that time it was also necessary to pass a morse competency test which I did, thanks to tuition from members of the Kingston and District Amateur Radio Society , and was allocated the personal callsign G3MEH. I was also grateful for encouragement from my school friend Keith who passed the morse test before I did so got his licence, G3MCD, before me.

At that time I was living with my parents in Sutton, Surrey. The following pictures show my amateur radio station (shack) there c. 1959.

What's health and safety??

The workbench (foreground) and operating position

Me operating top band (1.8MHz) AM.

The home built receiver I'm operating was kindly donated by Dick Plumb, G3IRP, which was much appreciated as I was a student at the time.

I then moved with my parents to Old Coulsdon and for much of my time there operated my amateur station from a shed part way down the garden, well away from the house.

The Shack at Old Coulsdon

My home made 3 element beams for 70MHz and JayBeam 8 over 8 slot fed antenna for 432MHz, c. 1970