My Father was a Radio ham before WW2, joined the Royal Signals when war broke out, when I was just a kid, found some of the code books he used, then they disappeared.
The long wave transmitter 5XX started broadcasting in 1924 from Chelmsford, moving the following year to Daventry. It then moved again to its final home at Droitwich in 1934, where it remains to this day currently broadcasting Radio 4 LW. Droitwich was chosen as not only is it fairly central in the UK, but ground conductivity is very good due to underground salt lakes. I have the distinction of actually working on the original 2LO transmitter. As a young engineer I had to clean it while it was in storage at Brookmans Park. Of course all of the domestic transmitters are operated by Arqiva these days.
Strictly speaking the Droitwich transmitter is actually in a village 4.8KM north of Droitwich called Wychbold. as an Apprentice I worked briefly with one of the riggers who erected the mast. Not only where they good Radio transmitters but also for sound waves . The residents of Droitwich would complain of 'ghostly' voices and salty language at the time which was traced to the men working on the masts ! That transmitter was/is a great source of employment in the Droitwich for techies dealing with the radio interference on electrical devices.( kettles, cookers , phones etc )
When I obtained my vanity call here in the US, in 1997, as W2CH, someone soon after saw it on my license plate, and he said he knew the call holder before me, who had passed away in 1995. Also, I found on the Old Timer Call listing, that someone had the call before that, probably the first one.
A great piece history Lewis..there is something comforting about those old callsigns reissued to others and that the work that went into radio experiments under there origanal owners use ... brings all of us together at this time in history x
Dear Ringway, absoloutely love this episode. Please can you tell me the source of the call signs from 1:13 to 1:20 . I suffer from insomnia and a way to pass the time would be to look up these addresses on Google Earth. I typed in Tingey (2LW) and was directed to a copy of "The Wireless World " January 7th 1922. It has some great adverts and even a letter of complaint about a radio station broadcasting without using its call sign. And why did L Johnson of "Park View", Hinde House Lane need three call signs? As ever a facinating and informative video. Thank you Phil Sharp
Thanks Lewis for another interesting RUclips video. I hold all the licences at Amberley Museum these days, and the principal one we use is GB2CPM (Chalk Pits Museum). However this also means that I am extremely honoured and privileged to hold G2NM which was changed into a club callsign at some point in the past. We only put G2NM on the air one day per year - International Marconi Day. This falls on Saturday 22 April 2023 next year if anybody reading this wants to try getting the callsign in their log. 73 from Ed M0MNG.
I think we, Australia, adopted your English system of callsigns...our letters stood also for the area or the business, e.g Sydney radio had 2UW (United Workers), 2UE (United Engineers), 2CH (Church Hill), and 2SM was St. Marys, and 2BH Broken Hill. They are only a very small percentage of the radio stations in the state of New South Wales, which Sydney is the capital city. Not sure about 2BH, but the others became commercial radio stations. Their frequencies altered a little over the years, because of the federal government, which controls broadcasting licences of all types, including amateur radio, and wanted to change the spectrum a little.
Good grief, this one is following me around. 2LO first started transmitting from the office I used to work. It was eventually an computer control office that I used to be a supervisor in Marconi House which at the time I lived and worked down there was Citibank House in the Strand and on one of its anniversaries in the 80's they reproduced the set up. There is a vid on YT done by Damon Albarn but when I was there it was the Marconi group that came to set it up.
Interestingly (at least to me) there are still AM radio stations here in the US that have three-letter calls. Since the FCC issued the last three letter calls in the 1920s, any existing AM station with a three-letter call is one of the oldest commercial stations on Earth.
Great pics of Brookmans Park we lived next to the station as a kid there is a footpath that runs right through the station past the bases of the original dipoles
watching this has me wondering something, when i passed my full amateur license i opted as was my choice @ the time for a vanity callsign, i opted for G2KS, but now watching your film about the 1 number 2 letter callsigns then being prefixed by the letter G, is there on your list any evidence of 2KS and if it was issued, i was told by Spectrum Licensing when i rang them to organise my G2KS, that this callsign had never been previously issued before, but watching this video has me wondering ??, can you shed any light onto this ??, as usual a informative video :) :)
Absolutely fascinating, extremely interesting and informative.. Anybody who, like me, enjoyed this video, should read a book published in 1924 titled “The story of broadcasting” by AR Burrows.. It contains an amazingly detailed insight into the start of broadcasting in the UK with emphasis on the valuable part that the early radio amateurs played. The book is very expensive on the second hand market, or auction sites, but the whole book in pdf form is free to read on the internet. Thank you again for this video..John.. G4EIJ
4:41 I'm curious if anyone knows what the picture on the Newcastle card is meant to signify? My guess is maybe it represents the galena/pyrite crystals used in cat's whisker detectors of the time. Or is it something else entirely?
Hi..I, obviously, don’t know for sure, but I concur with your guess.. When I was 10 years old in 1954, I was given a white crystal set from a local store in Bristol.. The ‘crystal’ part of the ‘cat’s whisker’ assembly looked exactly like that picture..
@@johnrees44..G4EIJ Thanks John! I thought that was probably it, given the images on the other cards but wasn't sure if I was missing something else obvious :)
Thank you for an interesting video. However, the spelling should be 'Ariel', not 'Aerial'. Ariel was a winged spirit, a bit like Mercury and the title of the BBC Staff Magazine. An aerial is a thing that Council planning departments and Housing Associations don't like, to say nothing of some neighbours!
My Father was a Radio ham before WW2, joined the Royal Signals when war broke out, when I was just a kid, found some of the code books he used, then they disappeared.
Thànk you for sharing
The long wave transmitter 5XX started broadcasting in 1924 from Chelmsford, moving the following year to Daventry. It then moved again to its final home at Droitwich in 1934, where it remains to this day currently broadcasting Radio 4 LW. Droitwich was chosen as not only is it fairly central in the UK, but ground conductivity is very good due to underground salt lakes.
I have the distinction of actually working on the original 2LO transmitter. As a young engineer I had to clean it while it was in storage at Brookmans Park. Of course all of the domestic transmitters are operated by Arqiva these days.
I wondered what the Droitwich call sign was.
Strictly speaking the Droitwich transmitter is actually in a village 4.8KM north of Droitwich called Wychbold. as an Apprentice I worked briefly with one of the riggers who erected the mast. Not only where they good Radio transmitters but also for sound waves . The residents of Droitwich would complain of 'ghostly' voices and salty language at the time which was traced to the men working on the masts ! That transmitter was/is a great source of employment in the Droitwich for techies dealing with the radio interference on electrical devices.( kettles, cookers , phones etc )
@@rogerwarren2459 Yes it is in Wychbold, but referred to as Droitwich by all. I did 3 tours there as a young engineer in the early 80’s.
I was so blessed to have visited Bush House in 1995
Given a tour
Great history
When I obtained my vanity call here in the
US, in 1997, as W2CH, someone soon after
saw it on my license plate, and he said he
knew the call holder before me, who had
passed away in 1995. Also, I found on the
Old Timer Call listing, that someone had
the call before that, probably the first one.
A great piece history Lewis..there is something comforting about those old callsigns reissued to others and that the work that went into radio experiments under there origanal owners use ... brings all of us together at this time in history x
Absolutely cracking First Class bite sized documentary - highly professional presentation. Thank-you so much for producing and sharing
And as a complete aside the Brookmans Park Transmitting Station appears in the 1960's "Avengers" episode "Super Secret Cypher Snatch".
Dear Ringway,
absoloutely love this episode. Please can you tell me the source of the call signs from 1:13 to 1:20 . I suffer from insomnia and a way to pass the time would be to look up these addresses on Google Earth. I typed in Tingey (2LW) and was directed to a copy of "The Wireless World " January 7th 1922. It has some great adverts and even a letter of complaint about a radio station broadcasting without using its call sign.
And why did L Johnson of "Park View", Hinde House Lane need three call signs?
As ever a facinating and informative video. Thank you
Phil Sharp
So interesting Lewis, thank you. The photos of the old wireless equipment made me remember the unmistakable smell of Bakerlite!
Tremendous way to finish the video. Gives a proper feeling.
Thanks Lewis for another interesting RUclips video. I hold all the licences at Amberley Museum these days, and the principal one we use is GB2CPM (Chalk Pits Museum). However this also means that I am extremely honoured and privileged to hold G2NM which was changed into a club callsign at some point in the past. We only put G2NM on the air one day per year - International Marconi Day. This falls on Saturday 22 April 2023 next year if anybody reading this wants to try getting the callsign in their log. 73 from Ed M0MNG.
Absolutely fascinating!
This is why we love watching Ringway Manchester... Cheers Lewis 🍻👍
“When peace broke out in 1918…”
Hey that’s my style of humour. Give it back please.
I think we, Australia, adopted your English system of callsigns...our letters stood also for the area or the business, e.g Sydney radio had 2UW (United Workers), 2UE (United Engineers), 2CH (Church Hill), and 2SM was St. Marys, and 2BH Broken Hill. They are only a very small percentage of the radio stations in the state of New South Wales, which Sydney is the capital city. Not sure about 2BH, but the others became commercial radio stations. Their frequencies altered a little over the years, because of the federal government, which controls broadcasting licences of all types, including amateur radio, and wanted to change the spectrum a little.
Good grief, this one is following me around. 2LO first started transmitting from the office I used to work. It was eventually an computer control office that I used to be a supervisor in Marconi House which at the time I lived and worked down there was Citibank House in the Strand and on one of its anniversaries in the 80's they reproduced the set up. There is a vid on YT done by Damon Albarn but when I was there it was the Marconi group that came to set it up.
I worked for the post office engineering department at brookmans Park we did some work on the aerials there in the sixties
Interestingly (at least to me) there are still AM radio stations here in the US that have three-letter calls. Since the FCC issued the last three letter calls in the 1920s, any existing AM station with a three-letter call is one of the oldest commercial stations on Earth.
The oldest Australian surviving "B" class (commercial) station is 2UE, which went on air on Australia Day 1925 - still on air in Sydney today
I used to work at Marconi systems in Writtle in Chelmsford about 20 years ago
Great pics of Brookmans Park we lived next to the station as a kid there is a footpath that runs right through the station past the bases of the original dipoles
Interesting history, thanks. Cheers from across the pond.
watching this has me wondering something, when i passed my full amateur license i opted as was my choice @ the time for a vanity callsign, i opted for G2KS, but now watching your film about the 1 number 2 letter callsigns then being prefixed by the letter G, is there on your list any evidence of 2KS and if it was issued, i was told by Spectrum Licensing when i rang them to organise my G2KS, that this callsign had never been previously issued before, but watching this video has me wondering ??, can you shed any light onto this ??, as usual a informative video :) :)
Thanks for vid. Is it true that Daventry relies on a valve which, when it packs up is irreplaceable?
And Melbourne had 3LO for its main ABC station - presumably to copy 2LO.
Superb video!
Really interesting bit of history
M7TUD
Thanks Lewis
Great vt as always Lewis, regards MØDHA
Fab information Lewis. Many thanks. G4OWW. …..
Dont mean to be deliberately dense, but why's 6FL self evident for Sheffield?
Absolutely fascinating, extremely interesting and informative.. Anybody who, like me, enjoyed this video, should read a book published in 1924 titled “The story of broadcasting” by AR Burrows.. It contains an amazingly detailed insight into the start of broadcasting in the UK with emphasis on the valuable part that the early radio amateurs played. The book is very expensive on the second hand market, or auction sites, but the whole book in pdf form is free to read on the internet. Thank you again for this video..John.. G4EIJ
4:41 I'm curious if anyone knows what the picture on the Newcastle card is meant to signify? My guess is maybe it represents the galena/pyrite crystals used in cat's whisker detectors of the time. Or is it something else entirely?
Hi..I, obviously, don’t know for sure, but I concur with your guess.. When I was 10 years old in 1954, I was given a white crystal set from a local store in Bristol.. The ‘crystal’ part of the ‘cat’s whisker’ assembly looked exactly like that picture..
@@johnrees44..G4EIJ Thanks John! I thought that was probably it, given the images on the other cards but wasn't sure if I was missing something else obvious :)
Thank you for an interesting video. However, the spelling should be 'Ariel', not 'Aerial'. Ariel was a winged spirit, a bit like Mercury and the title of the BBC Staff Magazine. An aerial is a thing that Council planning departments and Housing Associations don't like, to say nothing of some neighbours!
Not sure what you’re on about Pete
@@RingwayManchester The BBC's staff amateur club that was mentioned.
Can anybody tell me what the callsign GLK London relates to?
I don’t know what any of this means. Show us how we get DAB in our cars
7:11
What is this antenna?
It's an old design
Called a cage aerial
One lead in to 4 separate wires
Then all connected at far end
I love your video so much
👌👍Tnx!
Those transmitter halls are works of art in a time where form and function were both a consideration.
👍
And G0WET?
It's assigned to me
😆🤣😂
I use GB3XX on a fairly regular basis and never relised its history thats really interesting, 73s de M7BTZ