This was the second visit to the club by Elaine Richards, Managing Editor of RadCom, The first was fifteen years ago. She began by looking back at the two years of Lockdown and problems caused by the pandemic. She explained it was the first of March when the Technical Editor, Giles Read, G1MFG was taken ill and in the hospital. Then, only three weeks later, he became a silent key. Aside from the shock of loosing such an important member of staff, the event cast a cloud over Elaine’s planned retirement. Elaine explained that she was the only person available to answer questions about Amateur Radio, so please be patient when phoning in. She detailed her interest in the history of Amateur Radio and plans to update a database of all Amateur Radio members through the years, during her spare time after retirement.
Elaine told of the few men who were interested enough to start the London Wireless club after Rene Klein had a letter published in the English Mechanic in June 1913. A meeting of interested parties took place on the 5th of July and the London Wireless Club, with a membership of four, was born. By late November of the same year the membership was 150 members. Nearly half of the paid up members held transmitting licences.
Part of the challenge of archiving is linking different elements of a story together, There are QSL cards dating from 1923 that when examined show that many radio amateurs around the world who chose their own call letters held the same call sign! With international contacts on the rise, it made identification of the country of origin very difficult. Fortunately, the new IARU settled the country callsign problem by assigning each country the call letters we use today.
Her presentation looked at some of the humorous items in the archive. For instance, with rationing during the second World War, the ARRL (the American equivalent of the RSGB) sent some packages of Tea, but sadly they didn’t make it. They were not stopped by U-boats but the British Government who decided that any parcel containing more than two pounds of tea should be confiscated by the Ministry of food. Undeterred the ARRL promptly made smaller packages containing 1 ½ lbs of tea, 6 large chocolate bars and a small bag of candy – thus keeping both the weight of tea inside the rules but also the overall weight of the parcel that wouldn’t exceed 5lbs. True Friendship!
There were some questions at the end of the talk followed by a presentation of a bouquet of flowers. In addition, the chairman presented a call sign plaque made from vintage timber by David, G8UOD.
