• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Radio

oldMohawk said:
Youngmohawk - In the good old days of the 'Cold War' the Russians continually transmitted a tapping sound for 'over the horizon radar' and if you enter 'the woodpecker transmission on shortwave' into Google there is a wiki article about it. Also the East Germans used to have a female voice reading groups of five numbers for hours - sounded like 'funf funf sieben acht neun', they were instructions to their spys in the West. I also used to listen to the 'Kremlin Chimes' from Moscow preceding their view of the news.
oldmohawk:)
Click to expand...
Thanks for that, senior one (it's worth talking to you just to be called 'young' again!). Fascinating stuff, I'll be looking into that. I don't recall the tapping, but now have some vague recollection of the numbers. Perhaps they had the inspiration from our "messages to our friends overseas" during the war. I do remember Radio Moscow. Thanks again for the info.
 
I used to listen to AFN and VOA. I recently listened to 2metres VHF and was very surprised to here a local guy on a 'handheld' chatting to someone in Canada who was also on a 'handheld'. Eventually I realised the chat was going through a local repeater +internet+Canadian repeater.
 
Bill Parker said:
When I have a few moments I will get this "Eddystone" up and working, it really is quiet a piece of kit and it weights a ton! I will scan the ether later in the week and report back if I pick anything up with my high tec 20ft bit of copper wire!!

https://www.vintage-audio.com.ua/en/cat/519/2962.html


Going back to RTH let us not forget Dame Celia Molestrangler and ageing juvenile Binky Hukkerback :)
Click to expand...

Wow, Bill, that looks like fun! As for those two, alias Charles and Fiona, who could forget them? I'm so terribly, achingly, lip-bitingly, dog-in-the-mangerly sure and yet...... somehow, uncertain. I know. I know you know. I know you know I know. I know.


PRICELESS!
 
There is quite a fair amount talk about old radio in the 50's here.
https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=15455&page=3&highlight=goon+show
In post #38 from Alf there is link to Youtube of an hilarious clip from the Goon Show. The link is not 'live' on the forum probably for copyright reasons, but if you copy the link subject and put it in the browser address bar it goes to the right part of Youtube.
I used to cycle home at lunchtimes from Witton to Great Barr, listen to the Goon Show while eating, then cycle back to work.
The name Eddystone brings back memories, should be warm when it's valves light up. I built a G2DAF receiver once - took me about 2 years and was a nightmare to set up. My current radio is a Yupiteru MVT7100.
 
Just been looking around the net for a picture of my Dads pride and joy of the 1960s. It was a huge radio, 5 speakers, LW,Mw,VHF and all the Short Wave Bands. It sat on the sideboard. I am sure it was a Polish made copy of a SABA , West Germany. The reason I say a copy is because Saba was as good as you got and it had a luxury price to match. There is quite a market out there for these old , high quality radios.. I find modern sound centres are very heavy on the base which can make speech very " muddy" to my ears but thats the fault of working in a factory for 30 yrs. No sign of the picture yet.
 
I managed to get the Eddystone up and running, I will post a pic of it at some point, and I picked up quite a lot of radio stations mainly what sounded like english speaking commercial stuff but I did get a French station at about 11,598 M/Hz or M/Cs, the Eddystone does not deal with new fangled "Hertz" its marked in "Cycles" anyway a Hz and A cycle are exactly the same so it matters not one iota!!

Apparently according to my internet search there are still plenty of Short wave Transmissions but they are seem to be Commercial or Pirate stations. I was hoping to get something more interesting but I believe that type of Broadcast has moved to other frequencies. By "interesting " I was thinking more like ship to shore, emergency services etc. ie not Commercial radio.

I suspect most of the interesting stuff is on either the VHF frequencies or even higher. The beauty of short wave is, apparently, its ability to follow the curvature of the earth so Transmissions from far afield could be picked up and that was why in the past, this frequency was used by Amateur Licenced Broadcasters and Shiping etc.

I am using about 20ft of wire as an Aerial BTW.
 
A lot of the frequencies as you say have gone to VHF/UHF Bill but you may find this book of interest, by the way its cheaper on Amazon. I had one years ago and cannot find it now but it a very comprehensive book.
 
I had a listen around 14.193Mh (used to be called 20 metres) and heard some 'ham radio' guys calling CQ Contest, so some are still active. It was tricky to tune them with my programable Scanner. They were all on Single Sideband and maybe the Eddystone can't tune upper and lower side bands. My first 'wireless' many years ago was a crystal set tuned with a 'cats whisker'....:)
 
kkk.jpeg
I remember a number of these because until we had a t.v. the radio was on quite a lot.
 
I have a scanner,but since the pmr went over to tetra.i dont use it.now they make a shack in a box.i can listen to all the marine,hf uhf ssb/am/fm/vhf at the flick of a switch. radio 4extra/bbc7 is always on.i like that station. Not to keen on the archers extra though.
 
Hello Pete, I used to have a scanner covering a large number of channels and frequencies. I used it on twelve volt in my Hackney Carriage so I could listen to the airband when the weather was rough. If nothing was due at Birmingham Airport and I heard a diversion from another area was due in it helped me to earn money. I did get several trips to London and one to Newcastle on Tyne as well as countless more local ones.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
hi.stitcher.very handy.i could have done with one in my patrol van.the two way was 88 mhz am rx, we would retune a bbc radio down as far as it would go to hear if they was calling us .if we was not in the van.but it was fm,so you just about understood it.and then made a dash for the mic if only i knew then what i know now. take care
 
Dogger Fisher German Bite then after the Archers (an everyday story for countryfolk) I went to bed. There was a piece of music by Alvar Liddel, a sombre march and dad sang to it, Alvar Liddle, went to have a ......... Anona Wynne, What's my Line maybe, animal mineral or vegetable, Clement Freud, 2 way Family Favourites Jean Metcalfe. Juke Box Jury. Hit or a Miss Ping! or Buzz! The Navy Lark, the Goons, Round the Horne - Meg and Tone, Ken Dodd.Billy Cotton's Bnd show, Wakey wakey! Mrs Dales Diary.
 
I haven't read all the posts on this thread, so my apologies if I'm repeating anything.
I loved the "Jack Jackson Show" on a Saturday, it was fast and furious and full of humour. Sunday of coarse was for "Billy Cotton's Bandshow" WAKEY WAAAAAAAAAAAAAKEY.with of coarse Alan Breeze (Breezie). Ted Ray with Ray's a laugh, you always did get a laugh. Life with the Lyon's with Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyon, a comical radio soap. All these programms were full of humour, where did it all go to. The "Politcal correct brigade" have a lot to answer for, they have robbed us of some good British humour.
 
Bikeral72 said:
I haven't read all the posts on this thread, so my apologies if I'm repeating anything.
I loved the "Jack Jackson Show" on a Saturday, it was fast and furious and full of humour. Sunday of coarse was for "Billy Cotton's Bandshow" WAKEY WAAAAAAAAAAAAAKEY.with of coarse Alan Breeze (Breezie). Ted Ray with Ray's a laugh, you always did get a laugh. Life with the Lyon's with Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyon, a comical radio soap. All these programms were full of humour, where did it all go to. The "Politcal correct brigade" have a lot to answer for, they have robbed us of some good British humour.
Click to expand...


I have not visited this excellent thread for some time and I noticed the mention of Jack Jackson and his show, was this the one transmitted on Saturdays around lunchtime and was rather cleverly made up of short out-takes from various radio programmes then nicely edited together to provide a humerous link between each record?
If it is I seem to remember reading somewhere that Jack Jackson had moved to, I think, the Carribean and he edited all the tapes himself, which in those days would have been quite time consuming then they were flown over to the BBC and the BBC transcription dept( the record putter onnerers) just played the record from London and Jack,s voice etc from the tapes.

Whilst "gandering" through here I noticed someone mentioned that dire programme called "Sing Something Simple" with I seem to remember The Cliff Adam Singers? Well I have a theory about the BBC, well I have several but this one is printable, so here goes...........you probably know about this Chinese "Ying and Yang" business, I think its something to do with balancing things out so if you do something thats a bit to the left then you have to then do something more to the right, metaphorically speaking that is! If I am wrong then please dont bother explaining as to be honest I dont really care and if you tell me something I dont want to know then I might go and forget something I do need to remember........I have very limited RAM you know!

So back to my theory, the BBC have a policy of lets just call it "Broadcast Balance" if they have transmitted something good then they then have to balance it by transmitting something dire and that why we had "Sing Something Simple! Exactly the same thing happens with the much mentioned RTH, the BBC knew we would be falling of out chairs laughing at the likes of Rambling Sid Rumpo, Dame Celia Molestrangler (nee Clissold) and Binky Hukkerback. so they had to balance things out with a song by the "Fraser Hays Four" who were a close harmony group not quite as dire as the Cliff Adams Singers but they came a close second.

Incidently if there are any fans of either the Cliff Adams Singers or the Fraser Hays Four,or indeed both, then I would like to apologise, if ,however, there are non then I mean every word!!
 
Yes Jack Jackson's show was on Saturday lunch time. I didn't know at the time or even now, until you just told me, that it was put together in that way, who cares how they did it, it was still a great show. My Dad liked "Sing something simple" but he was a bit old fashioned even then. Born in 1896 everything was new then, even radio programmes.
 
Does anyone remember 'I Break the Record' where if you dont like a certain one you could have it broken. I could send quite a few in from today's music.
 
carolina said:
Does anyone remember 'I Break the Record' where if you dont like a certain one you could have it broken. I could send quite a few in from today's music.
Click to expand...

Yes I agree, that's most of them, although my Dad would have said the same about the records I played in the sixties, and they were just great and still are today.
Can you imagine any of today's so called "Pop Stars" records being played in 20,30,40, years time. I can't, my imagination won't stretch that far. I'm starting to sound like my Dad, god bless him.
 
No apologies necessary Bill. Just had a listen on Youtube to some Cliff Adams Singers music. I have very happy memories of listening to "Sing Something Simple" on Sundays way back in the late l950's as do many people it seems. We can't all like the same music thank goodness.
 
jennyann said:
No apologies necessary Bill. Just had a listen on Youtube to some Cliff Adams Singers music. I have very happy memories of listening to "Sing Something Simple" on Sundays way back in the late l950's as do many people it seems. We can't all like the same music thank goodness.
Click to expand...

Thanks Jenny,

staying with the Cliff Adams theme, here is a link to a piece of music Cliff wrote for a rather well known cigarette advert which i think will be well remembered by people here who are of a certain age................................................

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEVw7CwLG-o
 
Scanning through this thread I recall remembering most of the radio stations mentioned; even if I didn't listen to them all. Was Dick Barton mentioned? or 208 metres medium wave, Radio Luxembourg? i listened to Luxembourg in English, Dutch and German. I also listened to their French service on Long Wave and Paris Inter (now France 1 I think). I was an avid short wave listener, before gaining my Amateur Radio Licence.

Did anyone else enter the competitions run by the Eastern European stations and China? I got a few prizes: books, vinyl records and so on.

Of course when sifting through the drivel on late evening television it can be rewarding to scroll down to the radio channels. lol It is possible to do other jobs whilst listening to a radio whereas it is not so easily achieved while viewing television.
 
Radiorails said:
Scanning through this thread I recall remembering most of the radio stations mentioned; even if I didn't listen to them all. Was Dick Barton mentioned? or 208 metres medium wave, Radio Luxembourg? i listened to Luxembourg in English, Dutch and German. I also listened to their French service on Long Wave and Paris Inter (now France 1 I think). I was an avid short wave listener, before gaining my Amateur Radio Licence.

Did anyone else enter the competitions run by the Eastern European stations and China? I got a few prizes: books, vinyl records and so on.

Of course when sifting through the drivel on late evening television it can be rewarding to scroll down to the radio channels. lol It is possible to do other jobs whilst listening to a radio whereas it is not so easily achieved while viewing television.
Click to expand...

Radio (always fading out) Luxembourg ?
How's this for topical ? When we were both 18 my mate & I, stationed in Germany, joined Jimmy Savile's Teen & Twenty Disc Club, when he was on Luxembourg.
We never met him, (phew !).
'Ows about that then guys 'n gals !
 
Just in case anyone is not aware , all those old radio programmes can be heard every week on DAB R4xtra .

Dick Barton Special Agent.
Journey into Space .
Paul Temple .
Goon Show.
Navy Lark.
Dad's Army.
Round the Horne . Etc.
 
Hi Carolina,

I remember a programme on Luxembourg called Smash Hits where the DJ
(was it Jack Jackson?) was supposed to break the records after playing them.

Kind regards

Dave
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top