There’s not much to report in the radio side of the museum scene but Dave ZS6AAW visited a number of places on a recent visit to the UK . Unfortunately most of the visits to these places of interest were “rapid” and I wasn’t able to find anyone who could tell me if there were any hams associated with the various museums. So as time is few, please excuse me if I ramble on a bit about aircraft, factories and castles. Then they do give you ideas of where and how special event stations could be set up. There should be comparable places in South Africa something like those set up for the International Light House Event held not so long ago.
VISIT TO THE NORTH.
On trip to the north of Scotland, at the towns of Findhorn and Lossiemouth which are two RAF Air Bases , Nimrod recce planes are stationed at the former whilst Tornado fighters are at the latter. The fascinating thing about the Nimrods is that their wings seem to have been taken straight of the Comet airliner of the late 1950,s! No mistaking the two squarish/oval air intake “holes” on each wing close to the fuselage. These aircraft came flying over from time to time and it is quite fascinating to see 3 or 4 Nimrods doing “circuits and bumps” usually in SA we only see one large aircraft at a time! Being operational airbases I couldn’t arrange a visit at all so the nearest thing in the radio line to be seen were 3 large masts which were obviously the local long wave DF station or Non-Directional Beacon (NDB).
THE CASTLE ON DUMBARTON ROCK.
The reason why I mentioned the visit is that it is just another example of aviation history and places of interest which could pass unnoticed if one was #unobservant#
These occasions seem to occur at times in the most unlikely of places. On climbing to the top of the rock (about 200 metres high) one reaches a viewing platform which has notices giving the history of various places of interest below. The most interesting was the building which housed the factory where about 280 Sunderland flying boats built during WW2. It is now a ware house for the local whisky distillery. The last time this Rock was used “in anger” was also during WW2 when an anti-aircraft battery was stationed there but there is no trace of these installations. During the same war in May 1941 the Rock was struck by high-explosive bombs the first enemy attack on the castle in nearly 300 years.
AIRFIELD AT EAST FORTUNE.
If a friend had not mentioned its existence I would not have been able to visit this WW2 airfield right in the middle of the farming area. One of many airfields which dotted the English and Scottish country sides during WW2 and seem to be tucked away amongst the wheat and barley fields. This Museum is also the home of an Comet airliner and a Vulcan bomber. There were only two display hangars which were crambed with aircraft. There was a display of radio equipment but it was not in working condition.
One thing, apart from the many aircraft that were on display, was a piece of aircraft fuel pump and a R1155 receiver with a notice on top saying “Please Touch” obviously put there for those people, young or old who were just eager to put their hands on something! Quite a good idea I thought!
Then, this seems to be the general idea about most of the museums in the UK that there has to be something which can be “played with” or touched. In a lot of the cases it a sturdy model which illustrates a principle or two. Perhaps we can learn something from this and put it into practice.
MW, LW, AND VLW?
Yes! You have read correctly! Medium wave, long wave and very long wave. These terms haven’t been used in Ham circles for some time so what better place to mention them but here in the Museum Column.
Medium wave, 550 – 1600 kHz, is used in SA as well as the UK for broadcast purposes. I have counted about 12 stations this morning, mostly English but there were 4 French and 1 Chinese, which must be local in the London area. On the very long wave band, 150 – 250 kHz, there were 7 stations. I was unable to monitor the 250 – 450 kHz due to the lack of a suitable receiver but I strongly suspect that it should be the same as SA that is, the Aero Non-Directional Beacons (NDB’s).
The Sept. 2000 issue of Practical Wireless has an article Michael Mucklow G4FIA on building a converter so that the Amateur 73 kHz band can be received. Do any of the SA readers of Radio-ZS know of such a band for us ZS hams?