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About Me

Born in Buckinghamshire, England, my family moved to Crawley New Town, West Sussex in 1952. I still live in the area, in an area of Crawley known as Ifield. I am married, with two (grown-up) children, three grandsons and a granddaughter.

Crawley was one of many New Towns built to house the increasing population here in the South-East of England. Crawley town was built around the three original small villages of Crawley, Three Bridges and Ifield. The building of the new town started in 1950, and is still continuing today! It has vastly outgrown its original planned size and population and is becoming part of the urban sprawl that regrettably seems to be the fate of this part of England.

Leaving school at 15, I trained as a radio engineer in a local radio/TV shop, later working for several of the local TV repair companies, and for a while with the Metropolitan Police as a radio technician.

I left the radio trade in the early 1970's and worked for the Royal Mail for 33 years before retiring at the end of 2007.

My main hobby has always been short-wave and utility radio. I am an active member of the European number station monitoring group ENIGMA 2000. Over the years I have owned many of the famous government surplus radios including the Marconi CR300 (I still have this!), PCR3, R1155 and the WD 19-Set and 62-Set transceivers. Although these old radios have a special magic of their own, I consider myself fortunate that after all those years of self-built and modified ex-government sets, I am now able to afford a modern radio with digital tuning, that doesn't require a solid iron stand to carry the weight!, and a stability that doesn't require constant re-tuning to follow a station up the band.

My other interests are subterranea of all descriptions, reading - mainly non-fiction, and computing. My interest in computing followed on from my interests in radio, as the two often go hand in hand. It didn't come easily to me, as it does to the children of today, but I am pleased to be able to cope reasonably with most aspects of this particular branch of witchcraft.

I hope you enjoy the information gathered on these pages. If you wish to add to it, comment on it or just say hello!, I will be pleased to hear from You.