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G3XBM the PYE PF1 nostalgia
27 December 2018 | by Well G3XBM is always reminiscing about his time at PYE, I wish I could do the same for Thorn Automation days, but as most of the work was restricted very little of their products have made it into the Amateur world. .
Rogers recent ramble here made me reach for the desk drawer. Out I pulled a PF1 receiver still complete with case.
I cut my teeth on a PF1 with my first taste of 70cm receive back in the early 1980's. What I seem to remember I picked up quite a few of these at a radio rally for about £5 each! But the crystal was about the same price again, which was required to replace the original to get them working on one lonely channel, or tuned up on a single repeater frequency, in my case being Stafford GB3ZI (433.275MHz). What I seem to remember tune up was quite a fiddle, they used to break into oscillation, as the pull was quite a bit out of the zone of where they had originally been working in the commercial world.
This one has seen better days, but most of it is still quite complete apart from the metal shield over the front end. The battery was rechargeable 9V long time expired, but soldering in a 3F23 or PP3 would make it burst into life. So as you can see I have been around quite a while to remember the older PYE generation, but not quite as long as G3XBM. :-)
Steve, G1KQH, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from England. Contact him at g1kqh@arrl.net.Rogers recent ramble here made me reach for the desk drawer. Out I pulled a PF1 receiver still complete with case.
I cut my teeth on a PF1 with my first taste of 70cm receive back in the early 1980's. What I seem to remember I picked up quite a few of these at a radio rally for about £5 each! But the crystal was about the same price again, which was required to replace the original to get them working on one lonely channel, or tuned up on a single repeater frequency, in my case being Stafford GB3ZI (433.275MHz). What I seem to remember tune up was quite a fiddle, they used to break into oscillation, as the pull was quite a bit out of the zone of where they had originally been working in the commercial world.
This one has seen better days, but most of it is still quite complete apart from the metal shield over the front end. The battery was rechargeable 9V long time expired, but soldering in a 3F23 or PP3 would make it burst into life. So as you can see I have been around quite a while to remember the older PYE generation, but not quite as long as G3XBM. :-)
3 Responses to “G3XBM the PYE PF1 nostalgia”
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Ah….the pf1 and Cathodeon Crytals filters. I used to work at Cathodeon during the 70s & 80s in Engineering, and remember the pf1 pieceparts very well.
Hi so yes the pF1 was used by police forces till it was found to cause eye damage with cataracts.
When they were released onto the surplus market they still had the crystals for the Home Office channels in place. Many amateurs had a pair on their local 70cm repeater and “spare receiver” which happened to be to be on the local police Channel and was “awaiting conversion to the amateur bands” I was told on a number of occasions.