1965!

[GONZO]

Yeah, I know what you mean. Normal folk tend to make themselves scarce when there's a gathering of GPO/BT types. Very sensable in my opinion

[Peter Miller]

My house was bought in 1963. The telephone lines only came as far as the village and we needed one. They put in over a quarter of a mile to telephone poles and cable. Cost us £10!

[GONZO]

Ah, but that was back in the day when it was a service industry not a commercial money making enterprise. Now days you would probably have to pay the full cost(thousands of £££'s).

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Phil Green]

Posted by Martin Harris on 14/08/2015 10:26:51:

I'd be interested to know if the DEAC still functions - some of them lasted an awful long time!

I've quite a collection of DEACs Martin, they all still hold a charge, we use them for the retro RC demo talks

[ron evans]

Around '65 i got my first radio, an RCS single channel. fitted in a model with an ME Heron 1cc diesel I practiced that first flight on the ground for ages. In reality it all went wrong. The tank was too big and although I thought I had control the model got higher and smaller until it disappeared a dot in the sky downwind over Cwm Ebbw Vale, never to be seen again.

I needed a Tx with sticks, but on a limited budget I had to settle for a Fleet GG. Bought from Roland Scott secondhand. It had a lovely blue finish, but more importantly two sticks. Fitted in a Veron Impala it didn't look very elegant with everything flapping around, but when I threw it off the slope at Abbertysswg it worked a treat and survived the learning process .

I've had a few radios since, and one sticks in the memory. Bought before I got married in 1971 the Skyleader SLX cost about £170, and a spare servo was £17. That was about 6 or 7 weeks wages for me then and thankfully it was reliable with just one servo failure in many hours flying.

Running the numbers through a UK inflation calculator, £170 in 1971 would  be worth over £1700 today! You had to be dedicated in them days. Modern radio is cheap and reliable, we've never had it soooo good.

Ron.

Edited By ron evans on 14/08/2015 12:51:44

[Phil Green]

Posted by ron evans on 14/08/2015 12:39:04:
I needed a Tx with sticks, but on a limited budget I had to settle for a Fleet GG.

Here ya go. A few of us are flying GG again, see the 2015 Ponty video!

This one is Shauns and has a Rand, but generally Fleets came with a Controllaire 'Ghost' actuator.

Edited By Phil Green on 14/08/2015 13:22:28

[mal brewer]

Posted by ron evans on 14/08/2015 12:39:04:

This one is Shauns and has a Rand, but generally Fleets came with a Controllaire 'Ghost' actuator.

Edited By Phil Green on 14/08/2015 12:59:38

I had a Fleet radio with a Rand LR3 actuator,but it came as a one-piece combined actuator and r/x,but the r/x was uncased,with a separate deac. I part-exchanged it for a second-hand OS ten-channel reed outfit,with Climax Digimite servos,at Roland Scott's original shop in Bolton. That would have been in the late '60's...........Mal

[ron evans]

Phil, that pic of the Fleet brought a tear to my eye. My set had the Rand LR3 and a DEAC with a centre tap (I think)

I remember one flight with an OS 10 powered Schoolmaster. I took off with the aerial down, it soon went out of range and the throttle closed, the model landing without damage! Must have been a sort of early failsafe.

I guess Ponty video is Pontefract rather than Pontypool

Where would I find 2015 Ponty video?

Edited By ron evans on 14/08/2015 14:00:10

Edited By ron evans on 14/08/2015 14:12:57

[Cuban8]

Posted by John Privett on 14/08/2015 10:05:22:

Posted by Martin Harris on 14/08/2015 01:00:10:

I make that at least 3 ex-GPO/PO/BT employees (Phil G, Gonzo and me) on this thread so far...is there a pattern emerging?

You can make that "at least 4".

I joined BT North Central Area (London) in 1986 1985 after 6 years in the civil service. I worked in software development for various parts of the company until I left in 2009.

Edited By John Privett on 14/08/2015 10:36:45

Never worked for the GPO or BT, but after the monopoly was broken up , I worked for National Telephone Systems and Alcatel on PABXs, mainly R&D up to 1992.

I'm pleasantly surprised at the interest in old style radio and there's plenty of info on the web and on YouTube about modern conversions. Certainly piqued my interest because the old stuff was way beyond my budget and ability as a kid.

[Phil Green]

Posted by ron evans on 14/08/2015 13:57:59:

Where would I find 2015 Ponty video?

Its the most recent video on my Youtube channel, PHILG2864

C8 - there are quite a few conversions in the Youtube videos linked above, and on the "2.4g conversions" page of www.singlechannel.co.uk plus there are even more examples on the forum.
There are two members in particular who are "prolific converters"  thats Ron (Ronstv) and Frank (tiptipflyer), between them they have resurrected dozens of these old sets

Cheers
Phil

 

Edited By Phil Green on 06/07/2020 22:34:02

[ron evans]

Thanks for the link Phil, looks a lot of fun.

[GONZO]

Funny we should be on about 1965. Radio 2 'Pick of the Pops' presented by Tony Blackburn between 13:00 and 15:00 on Saturday, the first year up is 1965.

Whilst we're giving GPO/BT working history the following is a very brief account of mine. It would be interesting if anyone else encountered or had knowledge of some of which I mention(straying off topic here).

Started with GPO at a place in North London called Studd Street. Headquaters branch P&S 4.3 London Test Section (there was a Birmingham Test Section also) which delt with calibration and repair of all electrical/electronic test equipment in the GPO along with batch sampling of equipment manufactured for the GPO at contractors works. Along with spells at contractors works as part of a team of inspectors I worked on repair and calibration of, in the mid to late 60's, frequency counters, datel testers, pcm testers and oscilloscopes(crt). Then, in addition, in the late 60's to early 70's I was one of 3 to travell around the country repairing a large two cabinet device called an 'Auto Call Sender AT60853'. This was used to generate the calls used in the 50,000 call acceptance testing of new telephone exchanges like TXE2, TXE4 & 4A, crossbar and I even went to the last Strowger exchange installation. Mid 70's transfered to BT Research in Suffolk and worked mainly on sub sea telephone cable networks along with local area access networks. Took the money and ran September 96 when I was 49, been retired ever since. Best thing I ever did.

Edited By GONZO on 14/08/2015 17:11:51

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Phil Green]

I had one and returned it immediately, it had no range and it was just plastic tat!
To add insult to injury our clubmates called it the bog-seat Gem because of the stick recesses...
anyway, Roly-poly swapped it for a lovely KO Digiace and we never had a moments bother with that set, it still works perfectly 43 years on and I might one day get around to converting it and flying it again. EDIT: Done! KO DigiAce Conversion

 

The pic is the Gem-4 from the museum collection, that one is Shauns.

Strangely, my single-channel Gem (the one in the avatar) is superbly made with a sturdy metal case and Bulgin switchgear...

 

Edited By Phil Green on 06/07/2020 22:37:06

[Stevem3akm]

The original Gem radio equipment was designed and marketed by Don Slater if my memory is correct. The original Gem propo gear was in a black metal case with, I think Orbit sticks. He was also the designer of raven reer gear as well. The Gem 2-4 propo was one of the early expandable sets that was available at the time. The early sets were sent out with Simprop non if servos which were in a white case. My first sets radio was Gem 2 and a simprop 2+1, I was into boats at the time. My first job from school at 16 was at Mainstream productions in Stockport who were the manufacturers and distributors of the above. Regards Steve

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[GONZO]

Thats because we had lots of practice with all the tea breaks

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Hey, speak for yourself, Gonzo - in over 42 years I never once stopped work for a cup of tea...

...can't stand the stuff!

[Phil Green]

Posted by Stevem3akm on 15/08/2015 01:22:43:

My first sets radio was Gem 2 and a simprop 2+1, I was into boats at the time. My first job from school at 16 was at Mainstream productions in Stockport who were the manufacturers and distributors of the above. Regards Steve

Thats good info about Don Slater for the museum Steve thank you. I also have a Gem-2 Marine, again very sturdy and reliable:

Its great to know you worked for Mainstream, I might need to pick your brains at some stage!

Cheers
Phil

 

 

Edited By Phil Green on 15/08/2015 14:11:08

[Brian Cooper]

Ahhhh, those far gone days of 1965. . . . I was 11 years old and had been flying R/C for a whole year by then. . It was just Single Channel (RCS) radio with an Elmic Commander escapement in those days as my pocket money did not stretch to anything more sophisticated.

As for radio interference, we had a hospital a couple of miles away and it seemed their paging system worked on 27Mhz, so every time a doctor was paged, models would go haywire for a few seconds, especially those on Super Regen. . Going Super Het (crystal controlled "spot" frequencies with coloured ribbons on our aerials) helped but glitches were still common until 35 Mhz came along.

B.C.

[Cuban8]

What a fascinating thread this has become. On Sunday I had another root around the magazine collection in our club bunker and found an RCM& E dated July 1969, so only 4 years after 1965 and the difference in very noticeable.

Radio has now gone almost exclusively digital proportional with the old reed sets & pulse proportional being relegated to the bargain basement corner of the adverts. The RCS Digi 4 with servos, charger etc is now only £150 and boasts no transistors in the RX but all IC circuitry. Even the adverts are looking much more like what we see today, although the 'spot the model competition' (similar to spot the ball) with 50 crosses for fifty bob looks very dated.

A worrying report on flight safety highlights a case of the crowd at a contest being subjected to a "high speed beat up from 80 mph models being flown three to ten feet above peoples' heads". The editorial goes on to describe one model involved being "flown inverted and had been seen earlier having radio trouble!". The article is headed by a photo of a car with its windscreen smashed in and the guilty model posed alongside.

Not the sort of things we hear so much about these days, thank goodness.

[Bob Cotsford]

'65 or so I was still soldering together magazine published valve sets, twiddling beehive tuners and occasionally getting some semblance of control.

Like Brian, my first (successful) radio experience was with RCS single channel but not until something like 1967, my first Elmic escapement disappearing in a Matador last seen heading downwind from Sutton Park. Single channel cascaded motor servos followed and some time around '73 I got myself a second-hand Horizon 8 channel set with switched crystals, that was from Apple Hobbies(?) on the Hagley Road in Quinton.

[Phil Green]

A few have mentioned Horizon gear, I was recently given a box of tatty Horizons which in turn I gave away to the retro enthusiasts, spruced up and refitted they look good as new (better than new?):

Here's the 'before' shot, as received:

and a few 'after' shots, first is Glyns HS4E:

Ron's HS2E:

Ron's HS4E:

All these sets are now back on the flying field where they belong!

Here's Alex's HS2E cleaned up a bit but not yet refitted:

 

There are a few more in the pipeline, still being restored... at least two more HS2L refits still to come!

Cheers
Phil

 

Edited By Phil Green on 18/08/2015 12:54:57