Although it was very cold (-5c) and icy, members turned up for the Mince Pie night signalling the last meeting of the year.  Have a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Meetings will re-start on 5th of January 2023 when we will have the usual Welcome Back and also a practical demonstration of RTTY to get members up to speed for the RTTY contest on the 7th Jan.

Our talk this evening was provided by the PYE trust members Roger and Mike who took us through the years from 1896 when Mr. W.G. PYE started a business making scientific instruments in his garden shed which grew through the years to be one of Cambridge’s largest private sector employer.  At it’s peak in 1966 the company consisted of more than sixty UK companies with more than 20 companies overseas, it had over 30,000 employees worldwide and the headquarters always remained in Cambridge.

Although mostly known for their radios, PYE also made components, valves, early mobile phones, televisions, portable communications units for the military during WW2 and later even outside broadcast equipment for the BBC and ITV.

However, in 1966 the PYE ’empire’ began to have business problems which led to a takeover by Philips who later found there was too much duplicationin the arraignment and gradually various PYE divisions were closed. Over the next thirty years, PYE slowly disappeared from the market.

A small group of ex-PYE employees wanted to keep the name and ethos alive by forming the PYE History Project to create a charitable trust to secure artefacts, documents, and photos for the future and create a permanent exhibition to commemorate Pye’s history and keep the memories of former employees.

You can view the entire story at:  www.pye-story.org                                or  www.pyemuseum.org

The Imperial wireless chain was conceived as an effort to maintain contact with the British Empire which in 1906 included eighteen countries plus lesser known territories, islands and outposts. Between them, they extended to every continent: Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, Middle East, North and South America, An area that contained more than a quarter of the world’s population.

Marconi, who had the plan to setup, maintain and manage the network, won the contract in 1913 but found the government wanted it for ‘Government use’ only and it would be under the Post office control. WW1 intervened and the project was put on hold. After the war the government agreed £170,000 to implement the first two stations, Leafield, Oxfordshire and Cairo, Egypt which were completed in 1920 and activated on 24 April 1922. These stations were to transmit on Long Wave using Spark transmissions.  However, a later government committee stipulated that transmitter range should be 2000 miles and should connect Canada, Australia, South and East Africa, Egypt, India, Singapore and Hong Kong. By this date, Marconi wanted to use Short Wave transmissions but the Norman committee insisted on Long Wave, but later agreed to Short Wave as well.

As a guide to the size of these Long Wave aerials, the masts, usually five, were 285 ft high, the length of the array was approximately half mile each side, the distance between masts was 650 ft. and the cross arms were 90 ft. each.  There were four UK based receiver sites and Five UK based Transmitter sites each transmitting 25 KW using telegraphy at 200 words per minute.

The Dorchester station closed in 1978 and Bodmin station transmitting to Canada and South America closed in 2002. By this time they had been using Short Wave transmissions, shortly to be overtaken by satellite and under sea cable networks.