Broadcast - 15 June 2025
Last Wednesday Club Room Technical night was a special presentation by Eric Paul and Trevor VK7TB on the challenges of radio restoration. The session commenced on time at 7:30 pm with an excellent inclusion to start off with, a potted history of the Marconi R1155 receivers that were being restored. Not just where these particular units came from but the reason why seventy thousand or so were even manufactured and never technically made it past the prototype refining stage. The R1155 in various forms were manufactured in England between 1939 and 1945. These dates should ring a “bell” for you as being the period around World War II. Marconi didn’t have the luxury of time to perfect the design and construction to a point where it would have been streamlined suitable for a normal production line requiring assembly, adjustment and calibration. The production underwent continuous refinement with versions for ground based usage as well as light-weight aluminium versions for aircraft use, with the added ability to “Direction Find”. In fact the aircraft version had a small cardboard box that accompanied it which contained a complement of swap over spare valves. I can’t imagine trying to fault find in a non-pressurised and potentially freezing environment of a bomber in active duty! They relied on the change of valves to bring the receiver back to life again. Remember the receiver was also used for direction finding. If they couldn’t direction find a radio station or beacon originating back in England they were basically flying blind. This wasn’t Hollywood, this was for real, with real people, many aged only nineteen!
As expected after the formal presentation Eric and Trevor happily opened things up for the normal question and answer session. However the breadth of the restoration topic and the depth in which it was covered by Eric and Trevor generated an incredible amount of interest and number of questions. These questions were all answered in depth to the satisfaction of the gathering. In fact the “Q and A” lasted well over an hour in its own right. The entire evening extended to well after 10:30, until the cold finally took its toll. There will be a brief overview of the actual restoration process in next week’s broadcast. Thank you Eric and Trevor for an epic presentation.
Mid-year Club get-together and meal - The venue has been booked, locking in the date and time. It is to be held on the 9th of July, which is a Wednesday night, with the venue being the Iron Horse Bar and Grill located at 468 Westbury Rd, Prospect Vale, Launceston. Those who wish to attend please register the number of places required by e-mailing the Secretary or filling in the registration sheet at the club rooms. Menu is a-la-carte. We will be arriving at 6pm for a 6:30 meal. A link to the Iron Horse location and menu information is available in the text version of this broadcast. Iron Horse Menu
Just for information, the main access to the restaurant is via a wheel chair and walking friendly gentle ramp.
As always pictures will be available on the NTARC Web site under “Blogs” for this broadcast. NTARC Blogs
UPCOMING EVENTS
On Air Test and Technical Net session - Every Wednesday, Test-Net and CW course on 3.580 MHz from 7 pm, then a Technical Net on 3.567 MHz from 7.30 pm till 8.30 pm. Your host for the evening is Nic VK7WW.
Club Room Technical night session - The next session will be Wednesday the 25th June, from the usual time of 6.30 pm at the Club Room Archer Street, Rocherlea.
Coffee Morning - held every Friday in the NTARC Club rooms. Time is from 10 am to noon and we look forward to seeing you all there. So why not pop in check the QSL cards and join us for a cuppa, there is endless tea and coffee along with biscuits available for a donation.
Finally - A reminder to all members that if you have any items of news you would like added to our weekly roundup, no matter how trivial, then please email them to the Secretary at the following address news@ntarc.net all items to be received no later than 5 pm on the Friday prior to the Broadcast.
That’s all folks,
73, Stefan VK7ZSB, Secretary NTARC Inc.
