No meeting was held due to maintenance work being carried out on the floor.    Our programme will continue next week as listed.

Geoff told of how he was working for BAe in the UK when the Shah of Iran left and Ayatollah Khomeini came to power. BAe had about a hundred employees with families living there. Geoff had made a QSO with an employee working for BAe in Tehran, and the company wanted him to keep in contact so as to get news in and out. Eventually, telephones and telex lines were down and it appeared Geoff was the company’s only contact. They even bought him a better aerial!  He was paid to stay at home and do daily contacts to arrange evacuations.

The evening’s narrative then went over to Vic Ludlow, G3JLZ who had travelled to the meeting to give his side of events from the Tehran perspective.  The TV news they had seen in Tehran hadn’t given a hint as to what was actually going on in the country, but Geoff  was able to let Vic know what was being reported on television in the UK . At one point  the employees were rounded up and taken under armed guard for interrogation. Vic said he just played the simpleton, which he said was easy for him. Eventually, they were all bussed to an embassy building in the north, then finally arrangments were made for a VC10 to pick them up and they were on their way home. To Vic’s surprise, he was paid ‘Danger’ money which his wife insisted he use to buy a new transceiver!

Of the fifteen or so rigs on display, Larry, G4OXY explained that only two were purchased as new. The rest were acquired as not working or being sold very cheaply due to faults.  His interest was in finding a ‘brick’ and bringing it back to life. Most of his radios are from the 1980s, but his earliest is from 1978.  Some radios were rare and considered expensive at the time.

Larry detailed the specifications and faults found in each radio and how he went about fixing them

He explained he didn’t set out to collect vintage radios, he just liked to get them working again. Once working they were set aside to make room for the next repair project. Through the years, Larry has enjoyed the use of his repaired radios on the air.

It was with great sadness that we heard of the death of one of our members. Gary Luhman, G0ETA died of a heart attack on the 2nd of January, 2017. He was only 56.

This evening was our first meeting after the holidays and the turn out was pretty good, considering the frosty weather. The meeting was a ‘Welcome Back’ and general chit chat.

We discussed the pending Hall floor refurbishment and how that conflicted with the date of the Annual Construction Contest. The new date for the Construction Contest is the 9th of Feb. So far, the date for the winners’ talks has not been set.