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I was fanatical about wild life and especially pond life which meant I spent quite a lot of my childhood standing around in water in Wellington boots, an interest which still remains with me
today (though in the interest of my aging joints I don't stand around in it any more) though we do have a pond and a colony of slow-worms which live in a sand box in our garden. I was also crazy about cacti and
spent my half a crown (two shillings and sixpence) pocket money on one nearly every week. Why I was interested in so many things I do not know and mum was less than appreciative of prickly plants, pond beetles
flying round my bedroom, or the grass snake on the landing or the mice I used to breed and sell or …. Well you get the picture!.
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I
seemed to be a glutton for hobbies in my pre-teenage years (only your pre-teenage years! – says Julie ) and also started taking an interest in electronics and radio, again I have no idea why as no-one else in the family was interested. I used to twiddle around on the family radio and a 1 valve medium wave receiver kit which had been a Christmas present, getting the 'Home service' and 'Light programme' as radio's 4 and 2 were called in those days and I would try to strangle myself on the lead from the headphones, by falling asleep with them on every night. At some time while I was twiddling around on what is called the short-wave bands I heard what sounded like ordinary people talking to each other…. I had discovered amateur radio… I was in awe, this was the days when most people didn't even have a telephone and these people had their own 'transmitters' at home and could talk around the world…. I was hooked….. I would connect two tins with a bit of taunt string and Colin and I would talk via the tins, I knew little brothers were useful for something… I went on to discover that if you connected a short aerial to a morse key and buzzer it would transmit a signal and it could be received by connecting a diode across a pair of headphones and adding a wire aerial. I then shanghaied my brother and friends and built 'stations' in several different rooms and we would send messages to each other. Colin and my friends soon tired of it and I was left talking to myself…. Marconi managed the Atlantic, well I did nearly as well and managed 20 feet. Whether I knew it or not this interest was going to shape my future career in communications and later computers……..
Did I ever transmit further than 20 feet ? Well yes just a tad further….
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