AmateurRadio.com

Just a quicky from me to thank you all for your recent  best wishes you sent, some that reached me via email. The same problems still exist, but I am still around, and the Blog maybe quiet while I tackle the stranglehold, but I will be writing some more in the weeks or months to come or even later today, it will not become a dead ended Blog.



All the best to you all!


73 Steve

Over the last few years I have started to lose magazines I subscribe to that are delivered by Royal Mail.



This month it was Radcom's turn, the April edition didn't show it's face. At least a week had gone by after despatch to the membership. One has to be on the ball, it would be easy for the month to pass and the next month to roll in and the copy might not be missed if I was busy. I seem to remember it was about this time last year that Radcom had gone missing, the year before that it was QST, do I have someone snaffling my post?

Anyway a quick call to the RSGB office and there was one sent out in a plain brown envelope very quick! But I had missed the window of opportunity for persusing members ads, which you have to be quick if one is on the lookout for a bargain. 

For sometime I have known that  G3RJV had not been too well, I have not made much noise about it on here, as I think he would of wanted it that way.


I understand George Passed away in the early hours of this morning, "my birthday" how am I ever going to live that one down every March 11th.




For sure George is never going to be forgotten by the GQRP club which he started back in 1974 and continues to flourish by an ever growing active membership, along with Sprat the magazine which he edited until his last 12 months. All the QRP books he written and co wrote, along with his monthly pages with Practical Wireless "Carrying on the Practical Way", encouraging those from a start, to where they actually understood the basics of radio, developing from a simple diode to using a couple of transistors, that made something that really worked and was useful. Of course my first contact with George Dobbs was when I built his 3 transistor radio from the Ladybird book back in the mid 70's.

How shall I remember him, well he will be up there with the greats of QRP, the Sudden is one radio that comes to mind, a design that showed all the basics of radio with minimum parts. Oh yes his encouragement, if he thought you had got it, he bent over to help, endorsing my Blog in it's early days The Reverend reviewed I guess he liked what I had written, even though I may be a bit slow at times. The references to G3RJV's work will never be forgotten and won't, and must be brought to the forefront for new audiences to see and understand, helping them to learn the basics from the start.

To Georges Wife and family, I send out my sincere condolences, he will be missed!

Just a quick note before I move on to more important things:

There is a lot of sad things going on in my life at the moment, that is one big major reason I am not fulfilling the full potential of this blog with what I set out from the begining to do.

This will stagger on in this  sameway for sometime in the future, most of my Amateur Radio antics has been on hold for the last 18 months or so, I  see no light at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks to you all that visit,  I know you are looking in.

While it takes me on average about a month to think up and produce One blog that doesn't bore the pants off someone.

The maestro of the Ham Video VK3YE , writer of a growing Amateur radio book collection along with his superb website to support his hobby vk3ye.com Has done it again, and now come up with a new challenge a new daily Blog called The Daily Antenna

The idea is to produce One blog per day on antennas, accessories and related topics.

I don't know how Peter finds the energy to fit it all in, but I certainly will be dropping in and reading from time to time and wish him well with his new venture

I will also drop the link into My Blog list on the right handside, because I know it will be a very valuable source of material.

2018 was one of the coldest Winters we have had for many years in the UK, followed by one of the hottest Summers, that brought out our shorts, burnt up our lawns, and farmers were talking up the price of food because the drought had caused the yield to fail, so they said anyway? But the crisis wasn't just down to the weather, the high street was under attack from changing times! Expensive rents, high business rates, the new living wage hike and shoppers that were migrating in droves to the Internet, that were being blamed for causing the end of famous names to quit the towns and cities and made to go bust. Getting caught up in all this mess was MAPLIN the last electronic major retailer of electronic components, gizzmos, electronic toys and computer components, on the high street. Stores were mainly confined to big retail parks, after they had embarked on a rapid expansion program in the late 1990's.     I had caught a smell of Maplin's demise for quite a number of years before the rumour had ever hit the fan. Everytime I had gone into a store, I kept asking myself how were they surviving, as very few customers could be seen in the stores when I had made a visit? Maybe they did well at weekends, Christmas and holiday time, but every visit I had made hardly a soul was seen? I have to admit, Maplin never filled me with much enthusiasm either, they were expensive! I never really bought much from them, but they were handy, if I was in the area and just short of one component to finish a project one had been itching to get going quick!   This one was the well presented store I visited at Walsall, West Midlands in early February. But already there was a sign something was not quite right, shelves were begining to look empty and not being refilled, the rumour was already in the air.   By the end of February the game was up, Maplin was surrendering, the receivers were called in to try and save jobs and stores. How did they get it all so wrong? Whatever Maplin was doing, was already being done, by the likes of RS and CPC for next day component delivery, or if you were the small constructor willing to wait a couple of weeks an abundance supply can be had from Ebay and Chinese sellers and the likes of Banggood. Store closurer came quite rapid, nothing could be done to save over 200 stores and all the jobs that went with them, the shutters were finally brought down on the whole operation by the end of July 2018 all was closed, or was it? Out of the ashes the name survives and has been bought by Dragons Den Tycoon Pete Jones, already the Website is getting ready to run again  and the name is alive once more here: Maplin!  What will 2019 bring? A Happy New Year to you all.