Memories

[hughnique]

I can remember as a kid, getting under the bed covers when I was supposed to be going to sleep and getting the crystal set out. Radio Luxembourg was the choice, with all that coming and going of the signal, on minute you could hear, the next you were straining your ears.
What didn't seem to fade was an ad which is still vivid in my mind for a pools winning formula, known as the Infra Draw method, run by some bloke called Horace Batchelor, I know, or assume you had to send payment to an address in Keynsham, Bristol. He was very particular about the address and would spell it out all the time K E Y N S H A M,. anyone else remember this, or what sticks in your mind from that era

[ajm]

I must admit to remembering that.

[rabbit]

I remember it too. The top 20 countdown on a Sunday night under the bed clothes and twisting the trannie to get the reception back. ( Those were the days when a trannie was a radio!)

[L Austin France]

Cigar box, crystal, variable condenser, headphones & aerial wire around the bedroom.
Nah! don't recollect any of that old geezer's stuff

[Blaze]

Definitely remember Horace Batchelor ! Radio Luxembourg ... and I bought a diver's watch through Radio London.
I remember getting dressed under the bed clothes too 'cos it was so cold

[RobertArthur]

After the crystal receiver my next project was a transistor radio, germanium semiconductors. For the high frequency stage an OC44 + OC45 + ferrite antenna rod (coils) and for the audio stage an OC71 and OC72 + llttle transformer to drive a high impedance Philips speaker (150 Ω). Germanium next generation: the AC and AD series. With silicium transistors already employed in professonal measurement equipment, Hewlett Packard, Tektronix and many others. Then the so called 'solid state' amplifiers for the consumer market. Sansui, Kenwood, Sony and all those British HiFi amps (Quad 33 / 303 set) and speakers. Lots of real switches, not any complicated menu setting in sight. Young and old busy.

[Wilbro]

Yes I remember it well. When £75,000 was an absolute fortune. As well as the Crystal set under the bedclothes I rigged up microphones and headsets between my bedroom and a mate's 2 doors away passing wires over the intervening house unbeknown to the occupants.
My mother overheard me talking under the bedclothes one night and thought I was ill.
All thanks to stuff my father brought back from his WW2 experiences in the Royal Signals.

[Hotrodder]

I always wondered about the term "cats whisker". My earliest experience was with a little crystal set that used very few parts and I was always impressed because it worked without a battery. A far cry from today's "smart" phones that people say they barely last a day without a recharge.

[Wilbro]

Yes you only needed three items to build a basic crystal set but don't ask me now what they were as the memory has dissolved in the mists of time despite the fact I used to make them and sell them at school

[beejay]

I can remember as a kid, getting under the bed covers when I was supposed to be going to sleep and getting the crystal set out. Radio Luxembourg was the choice, with all that coming and going of the signal, on minute you could hear, the next you were straining your ears.
What didn't seem to fade was an ad which is still vivid in my mind for a pools winning formula, known as the Infra Draw method, run by some bloke called Horace Batchelor, I know, or assume you had to send payment to an address in Keynsham, Bristol. He was very particular about the address and would spell it out all the time K E Y N S H A M,. anyone else remember this, or what sticks in your mind from that era

Weird! On another forum, a million miles away from this one, someone asked for the name of the person who used to operate a pools (football) system on radio from somewhere near Bristol.

Edit: I remembered the Keynsham bit but not the name.