Items of news from the first launch
of this site to around a year ago. News Archive
On this page are items of news dating from the first launch of this site in March 2010, up to around a year ago, most recent first.   These now include items relating to Gilbert Davey's death in April 2011.


Welcome and introduction,
contact details, disclaimer,
rights notice, BVWS link,
site map.
The man who introduced radio
construction to several generations
of boys, many of whom became radio
or communications professionals.
The history of the famous
one-valve circuit, 1948-78.
The Studio 'E' 1-valver and
the Focus Transistor radio:
downloads for these famous
designs, and lots more!
This portable receiver clearly became 
very popular, as it was published seven 
times from 1962 to 1981.
A growing resource for those who
built Davey designs years ago, or who
simply wish to know more about them.
Davey sets built by contributors -
including designs that could have been
lost but for some prolonged detective work.
Two home-made coils to use in place of the all-too-scarce
commercial types, suppliers for other components, and
other sources of useful information.
Latest news, links to other sites of 
interest, and news archive.
(This page)
News Archive.
Hover your mouse over the
navigation buttons above for
brief page contents.
Pages marked  >  give access to
one or more subsidiary pages -
see also Site Map at bottom
of WELCOME page.
My 'conjectural' rebuild of the Studio 'E' set
    A reminder of the "conjectural" rebuild of the Studio ‘E’ one-valver, that featured on this site until I rebuilt it
    a second time in accordance with the BBC leaflet.



30 November 2021:
Another Davey short-waver
Back in June, Ged Whitney emailed me with details of his recently built short-waver, conjuring up memories of a Davey set he built years ago:
Hi there,   I got your site from the latest copy of SPRAT magazine.   Excellent and fascinating site!
Well, you ask for sets designed by Davey that folk have built, so attached is a picture of a "repro" version I knocked up a few years ago, when I found a copy of the book Fun with short waves at a rally.   It took me back to my first one-valve effort built with my father in about 1969 . . . I got the book at that time from the local library, and scrounged the parts from local TV shops, the surplus shops of Manchester back then, or those "unofficial" dumps you used to find alongside the canal or a farmer's field . . .
Of course, having followed ham radio, and also a professional career in electrical engineering (see what happens when you get the bug), I just decided to try and reproduce my version.   The chassis is bigger than Davey's measurements, but so was the one I built as a lad - I think I might have got the dimensions wrong at the time.   With a decent bit of wire, it works fairly well.   The power supply is a mains device, with a switch for HT of either 50V or 100V, and DC for the heaters at 6.3V.   The set works well with either HT setting.
If I get the urge to build another one of these (probably better!) I'll forward you the details . . .

Ged's set is based upon one of those detailed in Chapter 3 of Fun with Short Waves, 1st edition, 1960.   (Similar designs appeared in Chapter 4 of both the second and third editions - 1968 and 1979.)
Thanks to Ged for his message, photo and kind words.   It looks like a very nicely-built set.   Ged's short-waver now appears, with a few more details, on the YOUR DAVEY SETS page.

30 November 2021:
AM broadcast decline
The autumn brought news of further cuts to AM broadcasting as the BBC and others migrate to digital.   It seems unlikely that FM broadcasting will come under threat in the short term (a recent Government report on broadcasting suggests 2030 at the earliest), due to its usefulness for car drivers, local and community services and other political considerations.   Even AM seems likely to persist in areas with difficult reception such as the Scottish Highlands.   But with medium wave increasingly deserted, what can those with Davey sets or restored commercially made sets do to keep them operational with a reasonable choice of stations?   On the CONSTRUCTION RESOURCES page, I have summarised the options available, including two new developments recently publicised on the UK Vintage Radio Restoration and Discussion Forum.   Please see that page for direct links to the threads involved.

20 June 2021:
SPRAT magazine features
Lewis's Focus receiver
Lewis Thomas, whose Focus transistor set was added to the YOUR DAVEY SETS page a few months ago, wrote to me again:
Hello Les,   Thank you for the web site update notification and including my Focus set.   I think you did a really good job with this article and I am very pleased to have it included on your web site.
I have seen a draft copy of the article that should be included in the QRP Club SPRAT magazine soon, however, I guess because of the space available it is not as detailed as your version.

Thanks for your message, Lewis – glad you like the write-up!   Lewis's article was duly published in SPRAT magazine in June 2021.   Unfortunately, it seems that you have to be a QRP Club member in order to see the article.   See http://www.gqrp.com/ and my news item dated 14 February 2021.   Lewis is still considering building Davey's Ether Ranger shortwave receiver as his next "therapy project".

24 May 2021:
Output transformers for Davey's
transistor reflex receiver
Hi Les,   I found your website from a link from another website.   Great website and great info, I will definitely bookmark it.
I may also try to build the Davey transistor reflex radio.   Yours looks beautiful and the cabinet you made looks professionally done.
If I may ask, I have one question: Where could I find a 30:1 speaker matching transformer?   Would you recommend using a Bogen T725 multi-tap speaker matching transformer?
Frank - KF2YD Princeton, New Jersey.

I thanked Frank for his message and kind words.
I could not really comment much on the Bogen transformer - it seems to be quite big and possibly over-specified for this job.   My transformers were all less than a 1-inch cube.   As I mention in my write-up, I had four transformers to try, whose specs were either sketchy or completely unknown.   I tested each of them by feeding the secondary with a small AC voltage (4.5 volts from memory) and measuring the voltage at the primary.   The secondaries were of course low resistance so I used a series resistance of 9 ohms and noted the actual voltages developed across the windings themselves.   Some of the transformers had tapped windings, so tests were made using both the whole winding and each half.   The transformer I chose had a calculated turns ratio of about 36:1 when half of the tapped secondary was used.
The other three transformers had calculated turns ratios as low as 2.5:1, but they all worked fine, and none caused excessive current draw.
Frank replied:
Hi Les,   I did some transformer calculations and to get a 36:1 ratio using an 8-ohm speaker the primary impedance would be close to 10,000 ohms.   I found a LT700 transformer and it has an approximate ratio of 20:1 and 1.2K to 3.2 ohm which I will try.
I also plan on experimenting with a few of the ingenious radio designs that Sir Douglas Hall designed.
Appreciate your help, Les.
73, Frank.

I look forward to hearing how Frank gets on, both with the Davey reflex set and with the Sir Douglas Hall designs.

27 February 2021:
Safety then and now
Jozef Bubez wrote with a safety concern, and some memories of a time when safety seemed less of a concern than now.   He also sent some pictures and notes about some experiments he is doing on home-made inter-valve transformers.
Hi Les!   Although I recall little usage of Gilbert Davey's books, it was all good stuff, and I was certainly aware of them back in my teens in the 1960s in which decade my interest in home-made radios began.
Cautions about dealing with mains and high voltages cannot be overemphasised. While we might pass off some of today's safety ideas as belonging to the "Nanny state", you only make the "big mistake" once!
The circuit
[shown at No 12 (That Tingling Feeling) on the YOUR DAVEY SETS page] contains one such potential "nasty" - the connection between one side of the mains and earth.   Obviously, if we connect the live pole to earth something will blow!   But to my recollection - even in the old days - connecting neutral and earth together was frowned upon.   If my understanding is correct, neutral and earth are bonded together at the sub-station but should not be joined anywhere else.   At the very least, I think the direct connection would need to go.   If an earth were needed, grounding should be made by a capacitor not greater than .01μF rated at full mains voltage.   On top of this, we need to build the set in such a way that no supposed 'earthy' parts of the set can be touched, very much on the lines of the old ac/dc radios.   Far better to have an isolated HT winding.   These days, in the absence of the correct transformer, I would consider a reversed mains transformer fed by the transformer supplying LT.
All of my '60s efforts used British-based 2-volt valves.   Running from dry batteries was expensive in turns of pocket-money, the first step in the right direction being the acquisition of a 2V ex-Government unspillable accumulator.   Charging was from a local garage initially, but when the price went from 6d (2 1/2p) to 2/6d (12 1/2p), other means had to be sought.   My chemistry teacher who supplied the acid suggested that the physics teacher would be willing to oblige with charging, and so it was for some months - bung the battery in my school-case, leave in the physics lab at 9am and retrieve at 4pm - until I sorted a charger using a re-purposed selenium rectifier from an old TV and a transformer from a dud 'Pilot' radio.
Those fun days are now almost a lifetime away, but some interest persists.   About a year ago I decided to look into the possibility of a home-made inter-valve transformer.   22,250 turns of 48swg later, we have a viable prototype with a nominal 2.5:1 step-up and a frequency response from 200Hz to over 10kHz assuming a hypothetical 20k impedance valve.   The low frequency response is very dependent on signal level and at higher levels improves to 90Hz.   Contrary to what all the old books tell us, DC in the windings seems to have relatively little effect.

Jozef sent these pictures of his prototype inter-valve transformer, including a card mockup showing how he builds up the laminations using simple rectangular elements.

Jozef Bubez's prototype transformer


While the prototype uses a wooden cotton reel, a purpose built cardboard and paper former looks quite feasible and would have almost four times the winding space compared to the cotton reel.
All the laminations are 'I' types, 1/4" wide and 42mm long, so the whole effort is very much in the 'midget' scale of things.   The material is from an old tape wound transformer of unknown origin. Having a foot-operated chassis corner-cutter makes lamination cutting a nice easy job!
I may get around to an output transformer on similar lines, and even a small balanced- armature speaker which of course needs no transformer.
Best regards, Jozef Bubez.

Thank you for your most interesting message, Jozef.
You are quite right about this safety issue of course.   You will notice that at several places throughout my site (including the YOUR DAVEY SETS page) there are warnings about safety, especially as regards power supplies, and that readers must assess their own competence when dealing with these outdated designs, which would not be acceptable today.
The Midget AC Mains Two-Valve receiver is one of several Davey designs which did not have isolated power supplies.   This design was first published in the Boy’s Own Paper in 1954, and was then clearly considered acceptable enough to appear in the first four editions of Fun with Radio from 1957 to 1965.   Each time there was a warning not to earth the set, and to ensure that the chassis and control knob grub screws were protected.
I have added to the cautionary note at the end of the text accompanying the circuit.
I like your story about obtaining acid and getting your accumulator charged at school.   I doubt whether that would be acceptable to Mr Health & Safety these days either!
Best of luck with the transformer development. Interstage transformers must be scarce items these days, and restorers of period sets from the 1920s and 1930s might be a potential market for a transformer that looks the part, especially as the originals with their fine windings can be written off by damp if they have been stored poorly.
Jozef replied:
Regarding the 2V accumulator, the chemistry teacher would likely be doing a ten year 'stretch' these days, and as for the 13-year-old carrying a 'suspect' device, he might expect to be shot dead seven times in six seconds!
Many thanks for your remarks on the inter-valve transformer.   Looking around there are people who have managed to re-wind these things.   Corrosion, brittle formers and the limited life of shellac all have their part to play.   Maybe there could be a market for replacement 'innards', but for now I expect this to remain for home use only.
Best regards and thanks, Jozef.

15 February 2021:
"All your Own"
Hello Les,   What a great site for evoking memories - your site is now book-marked!
I can remember Huw Weldon demonstrating a one valve radio on BBC - I wonder if it was a programme called ‘All Your Own”?   Time passed and I was given a 1 valve kit - a VP23 (ARP12) - for Christmas 1958.   I built it into a Lings Turkish Delight wooden box and switched it on on 31 December 1958 and heard Baltic Trawler skippers who had celebrated New Year an hour ahead of us.   (I was allowed up very later that night!)
Our school Art teacher then got us into building a 1T4 TRF later into 1959 when he started a radio club.
Best wishes, Bruce (McCartney) GM4BDJ

Thank you for your kind message, Bruce.   Yes, Huw Weldon’s programme was “All Your Own”.   If I remember rightly, it featured children demonstrating things they themselves had made.   And what an impressive Art teacher you had whose interests spilled over into Radio!

14 February 2021:
A bouquet from Davey's
(near) namesake
Hi Les,   I just received your latest update heads-up and I have to say . . . all you have on there makes such interesting reading.   I really enjoy all the topics and articles you have on here, and of course, it is still growing.   Keep up the good work!
Regards, Walter Davey (no relation, I’m sure).

Thank you very much for your message, Walter - good to hear from you again (See News Archive, 20 March 2013), and I hope you're staying safe in these strange times.   It's good to know that the site is appreciated! I'm sure there's more to find . . .

14 February 2021:
Gilbert Davey and F J Camm
After my last update, my correspondent Graeme Zimmer kindly drew my attention to several references to Gilbert Davey on the World Radio History site (either I missed them during my own trawl there or they have been added since).   These mostly entailed adding entries to the Source pages, but the most interesting item is a letter that Davey wrote to Practical Wireless in 1990.
In anticipation of PW's 1,000th edition (July 1990), veteran readers were invited to write in with memories of the magazine's early days.   In his response, Gilbert Davey referred to its former Editor F J Camm's lack of generosity with by-lines when his (Davey's) articles were published in the 1930s, although he had received an attribution for an article published in 1954, in the last years of Camm's Editorship, by which time he was better known.
The letter reveals that Davey was still experimenting into the 1990s.   With his letter, he had enclosed a copy of his PW March 1935 article for an all-mains short-wave three-valve set, the prototype of which was still in working order, as also was the set built by a family friend that first sparked Davey's interest in radio, albeit with many alterations.   An image of Davey's letter as printed has been added to the GILBERT DAVEY page with kind permission of the Editor, Practical Wireless.

14 February 2021:
Another Lockdown project
I hope that all my visitors and correspondents are staying safe during the continued pandemic.   For the time being, it has put an end to any research for the site other than what can be done online.   As noted elsewhere, during the first UK lockdown I built the Transistor Reflex set.   During the latest lockdown, I put together a mains-operated battery eliminator to a modern published design, as an alternative to the rechargeable battery pack that has powered my one-valvers up to now.   Brief details of my unit, and a link to the published design, have been added to the CONSTRUCTION RESOURCES page.

14 February 2021:
Memories of an
"incognito" BBC Focus set,
and a rebuild
Hello Les,   I have only recently discovered your web site dedicated to Gilbert Davey and his radios, a very comprehensive source of information, interesting and well put together.   Thank you for your effort and putting this web site together.
When I was 8 years old I was given the 1965 Boy's Own Annual; it included the BOP Ether Ranger radio by Gilbert Davey.   I always thought I would like to build one, but never did.   I built my first radio by copying a friend's set - we had no circuit diagram nor any information as to who had built it.
I recently came across a copy of the Annual in a second-hand bookshop, and was taken back in time when I read about the Ether Ranger.   I was interested to find out more about Gilbert Davey, and that is when I found your web site.   When I read the Focus leaflet I recognised the circuit as that of the radio that I had built some 50 years before.   I checked with my friend Martin who had the original, and he agreed that it must be the same radio - unfortunately Martin no longer has his radio to compare.   I have recently built a copy of my original Focus, using many of the original parts - my construction skills have improved a bit over 50 years!
I remember that the
[original] radio worked surprisingly well but the selectivity was not so good, and this one is very similar.   The original radio was powered by a 9V battery, and so is the latest version.   However, there is a lot of white noise (probably the old OC71 transistors), this was reduced by using 3V (2x AA cells) with little loss in audio volume.
Thank you and best regards, Lewis Thomas G4YTN.

My thanks to Lewis for his kind words and his story.   His pictures of a very nice looking Focus rebuild have been added to the YOUR DAVEY SETS page.   Lewis tells me that he is a member of the G-QRP Club - see http://www.gqrp.com/ - which is open to anyone with an interest in low power (QRP) communications.   The Club was started by the late Rev George Dobbs (famous for his Ladybird book Making a Transistor Radio and his articles in Practical Wireless).

1 October 2020:
"A bit like
dendrochronolgy"
My correspondent Doug Brown has long championed the theory that the list of locations scribbled by Davey on the back of one of the BBC Studio ‘E’ scripts (see The Studio ‘E’ Scripts) related to addresses of radio component suppliers.   He was among several who suggested possible candidates after I published the scripts.
Doug has since gone one better.   It was the order of the list that interested him.   Fairly recently he came across the World Radio History web site, and inspected complete copies of Practical Wireless for the period of the Studio ‘E’ series.   A bit like dendrochronology (as he describes it), he compared the order of appearance (by page number) with the list on the script, and the November 1957 edition of PW produced a close match.   The October and December editions had different "fingerprints" of advert sequence.
My thanks to Doug Brown and the others for their work on this - especially to Doug for his terrier-like persistence!   As to what use the list was to Davey for the broadcasts, we can only guess.   My view remains that the BBC would not have permitted him to give explicit details of dealers; they were then, as now, careful about advertising.   Perhaps the most Davey could have done was to name localities of suppliers or, as a heavy hint to viewers who were having difficulty with their local shops, he might have been able to suggest on the programme that they look through “any well-known radio magazine” (as the published leaflet says), with the briefest possible reveal of his copy of PW!

30 August 2020
A lively little set
Having built the BBC Focus two-transistor radio, with its unselective crystal detector front end, I was keen to try out a Davey transistor reflex design.   Would a receiver of this sort offer the same degree of sensitivity and selectivity as a leaky-grid-with- reaction valve receiver?   My chance to find out came during the first 2020 Covid-19 lockdown.

This is both a regenerative and a reflex receiver.   The RF signal from the ferrite antenna is amplified by the first transistor, OC44 or equivalent, then part of this amplified signal is fed inductively back into the tuning coil (regeneration).   Having been rectified by a diode detector, the audio signal is fed once again (reflex) to the same transistor for amplification.   Further amplification is provided by a subsequent stage or stages.

Building this set was fun, but it was not all plain sailing, and I am indebited to a knowledgeable friend, Andy, for his help (perforce by phone and email).   About the size of a house-brick, it's a lively little set, well worth the effort and with room for experiment.   I describe the history of the design, and the construction of my version, on a new page: THE TRANSISTOR REFLEX SETS.

1 August 2020
Covid-19 forces postponement
of a very special meeting
I hope that all my visitors and correspondents have stayed safe and well during the pandemic.   For me, it has been an opprtunity to complete the reflex receiver above, but it also forced the postponement of a meeting that will give me a great deal of pleasure when it can take place.   Early in 2020, Gilbert Davey's daughter Claire, who lives abroad, told me she planned to visit the UK, and some detailed plans were made for a meeting with her, members of her family, and Hugh Castellan, who has made outstanding contributions to this site.   Unfortunately the Covid-19 pandemic intervened, but we are resolved to re-arrange this meeting when it is safe and feasible to do so.

1 August 2020
A career story that
Gilbert Davey would have
been delighted to hear
In late July, David Hills sent this message:
Hi Les,   I have just come across your site on Gilbert Davey after googling for the DAF91 single-valve radio I built as a kid back in the late 1960s.   The book that pulled me into Radio was on the shelves of the Library of my home town of Thornaby on Tees in Teesside, and I have been racking my brains for the last couple of years trying to remember the name of the author of the book I got the circuit from.   I could remember it was Fun With Radio, but foggy memory told me it was by an author named “Davies”, so I had been going round in circles with no success, until I searched on the DAF91 which threw up your wonderful website.   I also built a two valve amplifier which I believe came from Fun With Electronics and I’m sure as I browse the resources now available through your site that belief will no doubt be confirmed.
As per the preamble on your welcome page, I am now one of those ageing baby-boomers who have the time to indulge in old fogeydom, and with your site I can now indulge even further.   I will be sure to share with you anything of interest in respect of Gilbert Davey that I may come across.
Many thanks for providing this wonderful resource, as I attribute my ongoing interest in Radio and Electronics to the writing of this wonderful man that inspired me over 55 years ago at the tender age of 8 years, and to learn more about him and his writing is something that I will now thoroughly enjoy.
Best Regards, David Hills.

I replied to David thanking him for his kind words, and asked him whether he had had a career in electronics.   Here is his reply:
My interest in Radio and Electronics that was sparked by Gilbert Davey aimed squarely at a career in something to do with the topic and I set my sights on joining the General Post Office as an apprentice on the Telecoms side.   My preferred option at the end of the apprenticeship was to work in the Transmission Area as opposed to Telephone Exchanges, which eventually led to me working on Radio and Microwave systems deployments and maintenance, so not in the design area but working with real hardware which even today is still my preference.   From the GPO (BT), I moved into the sales and marketing of Cellular systems with Motorola, which grounded me very well in RF Planning as I had a natural aptitude for an understanding of how RF propagated etc.   From there I moved to Lucent Technologies as their Director of Product Management for GSM Wireless Systems, which proved very interesting as I was asked to transfer the technology to the USA for them.   This gave me a two-year expat assignment selling and building GSM Systems in North America.   From there I moved to the GSM Association as their Executive Director for Technology, which led me to work with the major standards bodies for wireless around the world. [GSM: Global System for Mobile Communications - protocol for 2G mobile networks]
In 2004 I decided I’d had enough of Corporate life, and we moved to Australia for 9 years where I contracted in various Telecoms organisations with much less stress and a far better work/life balance.   We returned to the UK in 2013 for my son's secondary education, which has proven very successful, and he will be off to Cardiff University in September.   He has not inherited my love of radio and electronics, but loves using computers and games consoles, which is a bit of a consolation prize for me!
So Gilbert Davey definitely set me on a very interesting life to say the least!   I am also a licensed Radio Ham (G6PYF) and still love building things and making them work.   The Operator side of the hobby was and still is secondary in my interest.
I’ve already started looking for parts to build the one-valve set, and I will certainly keep you informed if I ever get to finish it!
Best Regards, David.

Thanks for your additional notes on your career, David.   It's a story that Gilbert Davey would have been delighted to hear!   Latest on David's one-valver is that he has purchased the variable and fixed capacitors, and a DAF91 plus valveholder.   His next steps are to build the base and panels, put the rig together, and then build a suitable power supply.   I look forward to receiving further news!

14 January 2020
More news from Down Under
Following my last site update, my corresspondent Austin Hellier, who has sent me details of several Davey sets he has built, wrote:
Hi Les,   I know that my rough attempts at Davey's crystal sets probably didn't impress anyone, but I still had a lot of fun making them, and they worked.   I absolutely drool over your readers' pristine reproductions, and wish that I had the original parts, more tools and a proper workspace to do a better job.
I've built a few one-valve Armstrong style receivers, using those 1T4 and 3V4 valves and I've always gotten good local reception on them, picking up 10 out of a possible 12 stations.   My last effort used an old Raytheon 6418 mini tube, sent by a netfriend in America!   The difference between Armstrong and Davey was primarily the feedback control, with Armstrong designs using a pot, and Davey using a small value variable capacitor.
There are two Narrowcasters at the top of the AM Band that are elusive on simple sets: 1656 Voice of China, and 1701 Radio Brisvaani, a Hindi speaking ethnic broadcaster which sported a 400-watt transmitter some distance from me.   To pick either of them up on any home-made receiver is an accomplishment.
Nevertheless, it's always good to hear from you and peruse more new readers' sets, news, any history about Davey and his books etc.   I'd just like to thank you personally for all your hard work in producing the website as it brings back many happy memories of the fun we all had reading Davey's books and doing our best to make his sets.
Austin Hellier

Thanks for your message and your kind words, Austin.   The fact that your sets work is the important thing!   And I would guess that you have more radio theory under your belt than I have.   I was grateful to have your pictures and stories, and look forward to hearing about any other Davey-inspired projects you do.   Your remark about the difference between Davey and Armstrong regeneration will prompt me to swot up on how Armstrong did it.
I hadn't come across the term "narrowcaster" before, and I had to look it up!   In the UK we have an increasing number of radio and tv services for ethnic minorities, and we also have local radio.   I suppose we could also use the term "narrowcast" for any niche programme that is transmitted on a mainstream network, such as "Gardeners' Question Time" (BBC Radio 4), or even "Gilbert Davey's Radio Sets"!

12 January 2020
This site is ten years old!
Well, it doesn't seem like ten years since this site was launched in March 2010!   That's mainly because working on the site has been rewarded many times over by the great pleasure of receiving contributions by site visitors from near and far.   Here are reminders of some milestones over these ten years.

November 2010: First of many contributions to the site by Hugh Castellan, including his re-creations of some "lost" Davey designs.

April 2011: Death of Gilbert Davey, aged 97.   I had not been in touch with Mr Davey, but after his death I was put in touch with Tom Dougall, a former colleague of his who had drawn upon information from my site for a tribute in a newsletter for former Pearl Assurance employees (Davey had been a full-time insurance official with Pearl).   In turn, Mr Dougall's memories allowed me to put together a fuller obituary that was published in the July 2011 edition of Practical Wireless (pp8-9).

May 2011: The BBC Studio ‘E’ one-valver.   Inspired by this thread on the UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum, one of the first aims of my site was to locate and, if possible, publish the leaflet that accompanied Davey's 1957 TV series on this famous one-valver (one of his propotypes pictured).   The BBC had not kept a copy, but after 14 months Doug Brown visited the site, and sent me scans of his leaflet.   With his permission and that of the BBC, I was able to make it available once again.   See The Studio ‘E’ Leaflet.

Shortly afterwards, I heard from John Winter, a friend of Gilbert Davey's family, who kindly sent me scans of four Studio ‘E’ scripts which Davey had preserved through several house moves.   Selected extracts from the scripts were placed on the site.   Later, John Winter kindly sent me the scripts themselves.   See The Studio ‘E’ Scripts.

March 2012: Gilbert Davey's daughter Claire contacted me, and we have been in touch ever since.   Claire has contributed several key items to the site, and has been most supportive.

March 2012: The BBC Focus transistor receiver.   Davey's second BBC receiver featured on the Focus prograame (the re-named Studio ‘E’) in March - April 1959.   As did the earlier BBC set, it inspired many young people to take up technical careers.   The BBC had kept this leaflet, and gave me permission to re-publish.   See The Focus Transistor Set.

October 2012: By this time, my source pages for Davey's post-war writing were virtually complete.

November 2013: Full details of two "lost" Boy's Own Paper designs, reconstructed by Hugh Castellan after patient research and brain-cudgelling, were re-published here by permission of Lutterworth Press, together with Hugh's circuit diagrams and my notes.   See YOUR DAVEY SETS.

March 2015: Some of Davey's pre-war writing rediscovered.   Among his Army records was a list believed to have been typed by him as part of the formalities for enlistment in the Royal Signals during World War 2.   This led me to over thirty articles for Practical Wireless and other journals.   Selected articles were re-published on the site with permission from Practical Wireless.   See Pre-War Writing.   Earlier writing remains to be found.

December 2018: British Vintage Wireless and Television Museum posted a link to my site on their own web site.   The Museum's web site is at: https://bvwm.org.uk/index.htm

July 2019: A National Interference Crisis?   I discovered a series of Letters to the Editor of Wireless World (December 1957 - April 1958), that began with a correspondent's concerns that young users of the Studio ‘E’ receiver (see above) would cause an interference nuisance if they allowed it to oscillate.   Permission to re-publish the series of letters was kindly given by the Editor of Electronics World (successor to Wireless World).   See Studio ‘E’ under fire!.

Gilbert Davey's designs are still inspiring enthusiasts in Britain, Australia and elsewhere, very many of whom have sent me stories of how Davey's writing led them to take up careers in radio or electronics. Thanks to all who have contributed their stories, memories and information over these ten years - it continues to give me the greatest pleasure to receive them.   Using the resources of the British Library and other archives has brought many pleasures too, as has dealing with rights-holding organisations and individuals when seeking permission to publish their material here.

On 19 January, I posted the above summary on the UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Forum and received some kind words in reply.   The post has received over 1,000 views to date.   I cannot tell whether this is reflected in visits to this site, as I do not have a visit counter.

7 January 2020
Your privacy
Thank you to everyone who replied to my last two update emails indicating their wish to continue receiving them.   In all, around two thirds of my dozens of contacts replied, many of whom were kind enough to add words of encouragement or news of Davey-inspired projects in the pipeline.   I look forward to hearing more about these.
The contacts from whom I have not heard have been deleted from my list.   If you find new content on re-visiting the site, and wonder why you didn't receive an email, this is the reason.   Please contact me, and I will gladly add you to the circulation list again.   All new contacts are now asked to indicate their preferences.

7 January 2020
That tingling feeling:
The Midget AC Mains 2-valver
John Shepherd wrote to me just before my last update, but as that update was time-sensitive, I held his material over so as to prepare it for the site without haste.   We cannot show an actual set here, but this is a a memory of one . . .
John remembers building a small mains-powered radio from Boy's Own Paper some time in the early 1950s.   Although he no longer has the set or pictures of it, he has sent me scans of a circuit diagram and components list which he had copied out by hand, from which it was easy for me to identify the design for him.
It is the Midget AC Mains 2-valve radio, published in the July 1954 Boy's Own Paper.   This 2-stage receiver (detector-with-reaction and audio amplifier) employed the famous EF50 high frequency valve that had played an important part in radar installations and high-frequency communications during World War 2.   It also used a non-isolated power supply for HT, which was safe provided the proper precautions were taken as set out in the article.
John writes: I now realise how potentially dangerous it was.   There was no earth wire, or mains transformer to isolate the chassis.   Instead, one side of the 240 volt mains was connected directly to the metalwork.   Sometimes I felt a tingling sensation when touching exposed metal parts.   That was the cue to reverse the two-pin plug in the socket to prevent the chassis from being live.   I am fortunate to be here to write about it. Although John no longer has the set itself, his images (with his schoolboy handwriting and the discoloration of age) are well worth sharing.   They, together with his story, have been added to the YOUR DAVEY SETS page.

16 July 2019
The BOP Crystal Super, and
TV through your fillings!
Just after my last update, Cliff Foxcroft emailed with his memories of trying to get a Davey receiver going:
Hi Les,   I got interested in radio when I received as a present a kit of components on plastic mounts that you wired together to create any one of about half a dozen circuits.   These later became popular through shops like Tandy and Maplin, but I think what I had was one of the first.   It looked a bit plasticky but it did work.
I used to read Boy's Own Paper in the early to mid 1960s and I remember building a transistor radio to one of Davey's BOP designs.   I think it may have been the "Crystal Super" from November 1963.   I would have been about 13 at the time.   I gathered the components from two shops.   One was Home Radio in Mitcham and the other was a shop in West Croydon whose name escapes me.
I wasn't very knowledgeable about electronics, but I figured if I followed his instructions all would be well.   I certainly remember getting one or two OC72 transistors and I do recall the Lady Jayne hairgrip heatsink idea.
  [See the GILBERT DAVEY page.]   My dad at the time worked for the Mullard Radio Valve Company in Hackbridge, and I think he got me the diode.   Looking back, it sounds more like a souped up crystal set rather than a proper transistor radio, but I am pretty sure that was the one.
When it was completed I switched on, but all I could get was BBC Television sound.   I checked all the connections etc, but I was baffled.   In the end I wrote to Gilbert Davey, not really expecting a reply.   However he responded quickly with a handwritten note to explain that I must have reversed a connection or something similar.   He went on to recount the story of a person who lived very near to the Crystal Palace TV mast and who apparently was able to hear the transmitted sound via the fillings in his teeth.   Not sure I believed that, but it was a nice touch.   Unfortunately I never did get the radio to work, nor did I keep his letter.
I gave up building stuff when I had enough money to buy "the real thing", but a friend of mine was really into DIY electronics.   He went to work for Post Office Telephones and later built a colour TV from a kit!
Regards, Cliff Foxcroft.

Thanks for your recollections, Cliff.   Gilbert Davey seems to have been very conscientious in trying to reply helpfully to readers' queries, so it's a shame his reply failed to help you.   One does hear tales of people being able to hear broadcast sound via their fillings (or the kitchen stove) when very close to a transmitter.   If you lived somewhere near Mitcham or Croydon, you were fairly close to the Crystal Palace mast yourself.
You're right that the "Crystal Super" is just a crystal receiver with an amplification stage.   Whilst it was adequate for listening conditions when the design was published, its lack of selectivity often disappoints those who build this sort of receiver now.

4 July 2019
A "Davey" kit radio?
Paul Kelley's radio, front view, with
enlarged inset of Davey badge.
Paul Kelley's radio, rear view.
Paul Kelley's schematic for his radio.
Paul Kelley W4KLY, of Atlanta, Georgia, USA, sent pictures of a one-valve radio that he purchased at a "Hamvention" in Dayton, Ohio.   He writes:
A small aluminum label on the front panel identified it as a "Davey", which led me to your site.   This radio uses a single No 30 valve [directly-heated triode, UX 4-pin base].   The coil appears to be wound on a segment of 2 3/8 inch diameter PVC pipe.   The variable capacitor and tuning knob appear similar to many that I have seen on old Atwater-Kent radios.   The baseboard looks like mahogany.   The front panel is approximately 1/8 inch thick "Masonite" tempered wood fiberboard.
In addition to being involved in Ham Radio, I'm a professional woodworker, and the prep work done on both the base and the front panel looks so good that I think that they may have been mass produced, and wonder if this radio may have been sold as a kit.   The golden oak case is well done.   I would really appreciate your comments and any additional information you can provide.   The wiring appears to be very similar to that shown on your site for the single valve radio using an HL2K or similar valve except that my radio uses only one variable capacitor but has two 12-position rotary switches to vary the inductance.

I replied to Paul:   This set might, as you say, have been inspired by a Davey design, but I think it could equally have been put together by anyone who understands one-valve sets.   I am quite sure that the set has nothing more to do with Gilbert Davey himself than that.   I have no evidence that he ever went into manufacturing radios, or even that he lent his name to radios or kits produced by someone else.   Davey was a full-time insurance official, and practised his radio hobby and writing in his spare time.   He never visited the USA to my knowledge, although his books were imported for US hobbyists.
I agree that the set’s workmanship is of a high standard.   It could have been made from a kit, but there is nothing that a well-equipped hobbyist could not do, except perhaps making that “Davey” badge.
Although it is styled as a 1920s set, Paul and I agree that it does not have any great age, and was almost certainly put together from components of various ages.   The resistors, toggle switch and rotary switch control knobs look modern, as do the hex spacers supporting the valveholder.   This appears to be a through-hole type intended for chassis mounting (surface-mounted valveholders with side terminals would have been used typically on period baseboard-built sets).   The valve is oldish, of course, and the variable capacitor and its knob might have some age too – I see what Paul means about their similarity to Atwater Kent components.
According to Paul's diagram, one switch selects which tapping is connected to the aerial; the other selects the grid tapping.   My first guess before seeing Paul's diagram was that tuning was done wholly with the switches, with the variable capacitor as the reaction control, connected to its own section of the coil.   Now it seems there is no reaction in this set!     Davey designed several “home-brew” coils, but I don’t know of any design of his that used tapped coils with two rotary switches in this way, and I don't know of any one-valvers of his that lacked reaction.
In short, a very nice set.   Paul says he has not fired it up yet, so I look forward to hearing how it performs when he does.
The “Davey” badge must remain unexplained unless YOU know its origin - Paul and I would love to know!

4 July 2019
Studio ‘E’ under fire!
A newly-discovered series of Letters to the Editor of Wireless World has led to yet another page in the section dealing with the Studio ‘E’ one-valver.   Just after the series aired in 1957, a correspondent wrote to Wireless World expressing concern that the receiver, if allowed to oscillate, would cause unacceptable interference to other listeners' reception.   Davey was obliged to defend his design.   These letters throw new light upon the germination of the Studio ‘E’ broadcast series and the receiver's design, and upon the steps that Davey took to minimise nuisance interference.   The last letter sets out his general approach towards designing sets for young beginners to build.   They also include a delightful evocation of the “magic” of the radio hobby by a third party coming to Davey's defence.   The letters are reproduced here by kind permission of the Editor, Electronics World, successor publication to Wireless World, and of the British Library whose images appear on the page.   See the new page at Studio ‘E’ under fire!

4 July 2019
Davey's early writing
The above find came about as a result of a search for Davey material on the World Radio History (formerly American Radio History) site, which includes backnumbers of many early British radio magazines.   The holdings on that site are incomplete, both in terms of titles and editions for each title, but - unlike the British Library's much more complete holding which has yet to be digitised - they are searchable.   That search turned up the above Wireless World series of letters, and one or two other leads which I will be pursuing.   So there's much still to be done the old way for the time being!

4 July 2019
A reminder:
Your privacy
Privacy and Data Protection - As explained in recent email messages to existing correspondents, I have decided to follow UK best practice and ask them (UK and worldwide) to tell me whether or not they wish to continue to receive my update emails.   This may seem unnecessary to those of you who get in touch frequently, but after over nine years running the site it seems best to give people this opportunity and not to take anyone’s preferences for granted.
THANK YOU to all those who have already replied!   But may I gently remind those who have not yet replied that they will not receive future update emails unless they indicate by 25 July 2019 their wish to continue receiving them.
New correspondents will also be asked their preferences after they contact me.
For the vast majority of correspondents, all I have is an email address.   For a handful with whom I have had closer contact, I have a telephone number or address as well.   All data is stored on a password-protected computer, which is regularly updated with internet security protection, and which no-one uses except myself.   None of this information is used except in connection with the web site.   The web site itself has no facilities for collecting data from visitors, and does not use cookies.
Naturally, I hope that you will wish to continue to receive my update emails.   Replies will be dealt with as follows:
1: If you tell me you would like to receive further updates, you will receive them as before.
2: If you tell me you have decided not to receive further updates, your data will be deleted immediately.
3: If you have not responded either way by 25 July 2019, your data will be deleted, and you will not receive further email reminders after then.
4: Whatever you decide, you can change your mind at any time - just let me know.

5 December 2018
British Vintage Wireless
and Television Museum
I was very pleased to receive a message from Dave, at the British Vintage Wireless and Television Museum, to say that they had posted a link to this site on their own web site.   Run by the British Vintage Wireless Society, the Museum is an Aladdin's Cave of all things radio and television, with some rare items often to be seen working.   It is in West Dulwich, London (full address on the web site), in the house of the late Gerry Wells, who had a lifelong obsession with radio.   He began the Museum in the 1970s when he saw that old radios and TVs were being thrown away with little or no regard for their value or historical significance.
Opening is usually by appointment only.   Please phone in advance on 020 8670 3667 to arrange an appointment if you wish to visit.   When you arrive, enter via the green side gate, not the front door of the house.   The Museum's web site is at: https://bvwm.org.uk/index.htm

4 December 2018
"Thanks for including me . . ."
Austin Hellier, whose pictures of three Davey receivers were added to this site at the last update, wrote:
Hi Les, Thanks for including me in the YOUR DAVEY SETS page - it looks great.   I'm not sure that I'm worthy of a place, considering all of those other pristine sets.   The man was a heavy influence in my very early days as a child with the radio and electronics hobby, and I would never have had the college-based training or career opportunities if it hadn't been for Gilbert Davey's books.   Nowadays, it's almost as if the man lives on through his readers, as each new one comes along and contributes something to the thread by building one set or another.   Hats off to you Les for taking the time and trouble to create some memories for those of us who appreciate what Davey did for us in encouraging us to explore this wonderful field of science . . . Austin Hellier, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Thanks for your very kind words, Austin, and I’m glad you like the way your receivers are presented.   As you can see from my pages, you are just one of dozens who have contacted me with their stories of how Gilbert Davey got them started.   The total must be many thousands!

30 November 2018
A kit you might like to try
Within hours of my uploading the last update and sending my round-robin email, my correspondent Gerry in Portsmouth replied saying that he had had good results from a two-valve TRF AM radio kit he bought a couple of years ago from 6v6.   It receives medium or short wave.   He wrote:
It is a complete kit, with printed PCB and a good documented parts list and step by step instructions (tick them off as you go!).   It works quite well, and only needs about 10 feet of bell wire for an aerial.   Not strictly a Davey radio, but it is an excellent little kit, and does use the old TRF technology.   My kit had a "normal" air-spaced dual variable capacitor and small coils that looked like resistors.   The current version uses a Varactor for tuning, and looks as if the coils are on small plug-in PCBs.
Thanks for these details, Gerry.   It looks like a very easy way for a beginner to get started.   Here is a link to the website: https://www.6v6.co.uk/index.php?

30 November 2018:
Three more Davey receivers from Down Under
Austin Hellier, from Queensland, Australia, wrote to tell me how Gilbert Davey's Fun with Radio helped start his interest in radio. He says:
I first came across Davey's book Fun With Radio back in 1968 from the local library.   My dad had bought me an Arrow crystal radio made in Japan (the one with the sliding ferrite rod coil) but it had fallen down the back stairs one night and some wires had busted off the coil.   Given the choice of buying a new one or fixing the current one, I marched off to the library and brought home Davey's book!
I fixed that one up and, a year later (aged 9), built my first "home made" set.   I used a cork fishing reel for the coil former and an old dual gang tuner cap scrounged from a neighbour's discarded 5-valve set.   Diodes came from the back of old black-and-white TV sets, and my first earphone came from an old 400AT telephone.
It took a while to weed out the pops, clicks and 50-cycle hum, but perseverance finally paid off with pretty clear reception of all six Newcastle (New South Wales) AM stations.
I wanted to add an amplifier to it, but we couldn't get those OC series transistors where I lived, so I had to abandon that idea.   The cost of them back in the late 1960s would have been too high back then, but as time and events would have it, I've been able to fulfill one of my childhood dreams some 50 years later with at least some genuine parts.

Austin sent a picture of the set he built that fulfilled that dream.   It is the crystal detector plus one-transistor design from Chapter 3 of Davey's Fun with Transistors, 1st edition, 1964.   A picture and description appear on the YOUR DAVEY SETS page.

Austin also sent pictures of two sets inspired by Chapter 6 of Davey's last book, Fun with Silicon Chips in Modern Radio (published 1981), in which he describes receivers using the then widely available Ferranti ZN414 chip.   Pictures and descriptions of these two receivers also appear on the YOUR DAVEY SETS page.

My thanks to him for sending pictures of these receivers.

30 November 2018
Another Studio ‘E’ set
on the way?
Mick Baldwin wrote to say that he remembered watching the Studio ‘E’ series:
At the time my parents would not let me play with 90 volts so I never did make this radio!
I found your web site looking for designs for a tuning coil with reaction, saw the Studio ‘E’, and decided to construct this as I have lots of DL and DF valves to hand, as well as bases.   I had no coil, so wanted to recreate it as far as possible, and set about winding a copy of the Teletron coil winding for medium wave only.   The tuned winding is easy to calculate, as is the aerial coupling, but feedback is a little more tricky.   But from your design for a large coil that works as a Teletron coil I was able to wind a close lookalike to the original - I will send pics of construction stages.
As for wander sockets, I decided to use 4mm sockets.   Having taken them apart you are left with metal sockets to mount onto Tufnol plates cut and drilled to the correct size.   They look correct though.
I have some orignal tuning caps to use in this build.   Most of the hard-to-get parts have been made at home, i.e. coil, LT/HT battery sockets.   The only parts I cannot make are the caps - going to try polyvaricons
[polyester?] and see how this works - a sort of old modern build!
Several people have shown interest in this receiver.   I find most people today have no idea how valves work or how to use them!   I will keep in touch with pics.
Thanks for a wonderful web site.   Mick.

Thanks for your message and your kind words, Mick.   I very much look forward to seeing your pictures when you can send them – of your progress so far, or of the set when you complete it.   Good luck with it!

1 July 2018
John Pugh's Studio ‘E’ One-valver
Yet another Studio ‘E’ set - to my knowledge this brings the total to four built since the rediscovery of the BBC leaflet.   John Pugh has sent me pictures of his nicely made set.   He writes:
This is my attempt at recreating a long past memory.   Unfortunately, the coil is a Repanco DRR2 - I still cannot find the Teletron!   Other parts came from my junk box - sorry, I mean items in stock.   The Jackson caps are original, as is the valve, a DAF96.
The set is powered by an AA cell for LT, and a mains “Battery Eliminator” for HT of 64 volts.   It works fine, although there is a distinct lack of MW stations now.   Like your comment on your own set, reaction control is a little deficient at the LF end.   Please keep up your good work on your website.

Thanks to John for sending his pictures, which now appear on the YOUR DAVEY SETS page.   He may not have found the Teletron coil (keep looking!), but he has found some genuine wander sockets – very hard to find these days.   I wouldn’t mind betting that quite a few Studio ‘E’ sets were built with the Repanco coil and a wavechange switch – other coils were available in 1957, including the Repanco.   This coil has no aerial winding, but does have a long-wave winding.   John has shorted out the long-wave winding (blue to black) with a view to an experiment later.   Intriguing - I look forward to hearing about this.

9 May 2018
News from Down Under
Hello Les,   It is good to see you active again with the site.   As it turns out, we just had a meeting of the Crystal Set and TRF Constructors Group at my place recently.   The Group is a sub-group of the Historical Wireless Society of South East Queensland. http://www.hws.org.au/.   One of the sets that we played with was the Two Valve Set of mine that is featured on your site.   It aroused considerable interest, and a number of members left with all the construction details.   I was able to introduce about 10 members to Gilbert Davey and your site.   The meeting also fired up my desire to build more Davey sets.
As an aside, have you noticed the incredible prices that are being asked for Fun with . . . books on the web?   I have at least one and sometimes two different editions of each of Davey’s books.   I thank my lucky stars that I bought them when prices were sensible.   All the best, Dan Bedford, Brisbane, Australia.
PS: I notice that Graeme Zimmer (Zim) follows your activities and has enlightened you about the AM MW radio situation downunder.
[See below.]   Zim is a wiz with the ultra hi-tech computer radio wizardry!
Thanks for your message, Dan.   I’m enjoying looking at the Historical Wireless Society web site – some fantastic looking sets on there!   Well done for spreading the word about GWD and my site at your meeting!   I look forward to hearing about any new Davey sets you or your co-members decide to build.
Yes, the prices of Davey’s books have certainly gone way up – I often wonder if my site is the cause of it??!
You obviously know of Graeme Zimmer – have the two of you met?   He often gives very helpful and informative comments on the web site.
Yes, I know Graeme but only in this cyber world.   We communicate and share PDFs of old radio books from time to time.
Thanks to Dan for this news - stand by for some new Davey sets from Oz!

19 April 2018
A workmanlike one-valver
from Australia
In August 2017, Peter Munro from near Melbourne, Australia, sent me pictures of his very workmanlike Davey one-valver.   This now appears on the YOUR DAVEY SETS page.   Peter wrote:
In 1979, I wanted to build a one-valve radio, but I was advised to build a one-transistor radio.   About ten years ago I came across Fun With Electronics at a book sale, and built the one-valve radio a few years ago.   I recently pulled it out again to replace the regeneration capacitor I had stolen.   I don’t know why I used 90 volts HT.
Peter's set is based on the version published in Fun with Electronics, 2nd edition, 1972.   The home-made coil has aerial, grid (medium wave) and reaction windings.   I like the nice chunky brass terminals!
Peter powered the set initially using ten PP3s in a plywood box for HT, and a single 'C' cell for LT.   He was a bit disappointed with the set's performance, and thought at first that it may have been because he was using a transformer to drive low-impedance headphones.   Trials with a high impedance earphone were no better, with not many stations to be found on medium wave, but Peter intended to try some high-impedance headphones.
These one-valvers usually do very well with a reasonable length of aerial, and Peter's 90-volt supply should have allowed the set to be brought easily to the sensitive point of just failing to oscillate.   I wondered whether the posiition in Australia was the same as in the UK, with broadcasters deserting the medium wave band.   Following the May 2018 site update, my correspondent Graeme Zimmer (also in Australia) advised that there is still plenty to listen to on medium wave there.
Hi Les, Great to hear from you as always, and nice to read the updates on your site.   Just a note on your comments re Peter Munro's set: Unlike Europe, the AM band is still healthy in Australia.   Still hundreds of stations on every channel from 531 to 1701 Khz. Regards, Zim VK3GJZ.
Graeme attached a screenshot of the band at night from his software-defined radio, which shows a well-populated band.   Also, the time of day can make a great difference on medium-wave.
I told Peter about this, and he has now tried his high-impedance headphones.   Results were much better, even with HT reduced to 45 volts, with about five stations coming in.   He does, however, have trouble with breakthrough from a Chinese language station 2 kilometers from his home, radiating at 5 kilowatts.
Peter has been hunting for a one-transistor radio circuit to build (as originally advised!), and I gently suggested that simple transistor sets with crystal detector front ends are very unselective, so they can disappoint, compared with a simple one-valver with reaction.   Nevertheless, I will be most interested to hear if Peter does build a Davey transistor set.
My apologies to him for the delay in putting his set on to the site.   I have recently been able to draw back somewhat from the charity work that has limited my spare time, so I hope it won't be too long before the next update.

19 April 2017
Another electronics career
launched by a Davey book
"John" (no surname) wrote enquiring if I could help him identify a radio construction book his mother had borrowed from the local library for him in 1961 when he was a nine-year-old ill in bed.   He could not remember the title, but described pretty well the sequence of projects that identified it as almost certainly one of the early editions of Fun with Radio.   He concluded:
This book, by whoever wrote it, launched my interest in radio and electronic engineering - later to become my professional career spanning almost 50 years, and I would dearly love to read it again after all those years.
I wrote back giving him some details that might help him pin it down.   John replied:
Many thanks for taking the time in giving such a considerate and detailed reply to my email.   Based on what you have given, I will research further and get back to you.
Out of interest - we are probably a unique age of engineers that started our careers in the demise of the valve, and witnessed the very rapid growth in technology from the early "alloyed" semiconductor era!!
In 1969, I was fortunate enough to start work as a trainee engineer at Newmarket Transistors (NKT), where the last germanium alloy junction transistors were still being manufactured.   I was initialy employed as test engineer for the "PC line" which manufactured small 250mW + complementary Class B audio amplifier modules, using these germanium transistors.   I also worked in the new silicon diffusion labs, where we made (or tried to make!) BC108's and a few other popular silicon transistors.   NKT's real speciality was making thick flim "micro circuits" (a bit of a joke in today's perspective!).   In thick film I worked on some of the designs for TV circuits comms filters, Linear Audio amps and strain gauges for the development of the Rolls Royce R2-B11 jet engine.
NKT was a brilliant place to have served an apprentiship, because of the very wide diversity of technologies, all encompassed under one roof.   Much of the test equipment used in production was built in-house, and was being switched from valve to semiconductor technology.   When you are churning out literally thousands of transistors per week, this had to be done with in-house designed special equipment as there were no off-the-shelf solutions available.   NKT also had a team of highly skilled mechanical engineers and a full workshop where they designed and built wire bonding machines and other dedicated mass production equipment - some very clever people worked at NKT.   I worked with Ted Towers (T D Towers MBE) of the Semiconductor equivalents books and a good few others who were very talented, but we never hear of them!
I left NKT in 1973, having attended day realease and night school.   Then, independently financed by evening work and under the old "education grant system", I took an HND in electrical and electronic engineering at Cambridge Tech and then went on to finally sit the IEE entrance examinations to gain my degree in engineering.
After some five years as a computer maintenance and design engineer working alongside Cambridge University's Computer Labs, I have worked for myself since 1983 as a consultant design engineer, contracting to many very diverse types of companies from large internationals to small one man-ers!. 7NBSP; I now design and manufacture my own products.

What a great career John has had - Gilbert Davey would have been delighted to hear his story!   I wrote back asking John to let me know if he reached a conclusion about the book. He soon replied saying that he was fairly sure that the book must have been Fun with Radio, based on my confirmation of its sequence of circuit designs.   His only doubt was the title, as he doesn't recall the "Fun with . . .", but then it was a long time ago!   He also said that our interchange had sparked off another enquiry:
Re Robert Barnard Way [the prolific book illustrator who drew the diagrams for the first edition of Fun with Radio]: When I was young, we had family friends of the name of Way; the father was named Robert, so I am wondering if the Robert Way I knew is possibly the son of Robert Barnard Way (or perhaps of a brother).   I have contacted his granddaughter via the blog site you have given on your own website.   We lost contact with the Way family we knew a long time ago - it would be interesting if they are connected to the famous RBW!
I hope John finds a copy of Fun with Radio, and I will be very interested to hear whether he can prove the connection with Robert Barnard Way - see https://bearalley.blogspot.com/2008/10/r-barnard-way.html.

31 December 2016:
An "interim" update
1-valver with Davey coil, top view. Bottom view.
It's been a very long time since the last update, due to my having committed to a spell of work to keep afloat a local charity group.   I hope to reduce this commitment soon, so this is something of an "interim" update, pending the time when I can get back to more research for the site.

However, I have found time to build a new Davey set.   Some time ago, Hugh Castellan, several of whose Davey sets feature on this site, very kindly made for me a beautiful long- and medium-wave Davey-designed coil.   (Please see the CONSTRUCTION RESOURCES page for the download with instructions for making this coil.)   To do justice to this much-appreciated gift, I have built my own version of the Davey 1-valver as first published in Boy's Own Paper in June 1961.

This design proudly displays the coil and valve on top of the chassis, which has flanges deep enough to serve as front and rear panels.   So all wiring can be concealed under the chassis.   My chassis is of folded aluminium sheet for the top and sides, with front and rear panels of 3mm Tufnol.   The 3-position rotary switch combines wavechange with a central "off" position.

I have added an image of this set to the BEGINNER'S 1-VALVER page; you can compare my set with the title illustration also shown.

26 December 2016:
American Radio History site
The American Radio History site http://www.americanradiohistory.com/index.htm is a great resource for British radio enthusiasts as well as for Americans.   There are sections carrying scans of issues of several British radio publications including Amateur Wireless, Modern Wireless, Popular Wireless, Practical Wireless, Radio Constructor and Wireless World.   This page https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Bookshelf/Bookshelf_Hobbyist.htm leads to scans of books by several well-known British authors, including some of Davey's books, listed under "Gilbert Davy" (sic), and also to a scan of the BBC's own copy of the Focus transistor set leaflet (incomplete - the entire leaflet is available on this site with the permission of the BBC and other rights-holders).
Much of the material on the American Radio History site must still be in copyright (the BBC leaflet certainly is).   If the site owner (David) has obtained reproduction permission for those of his claimed five million pages still in copyright, this represents a considerable achievement.

21 June 2015:
Radio Moscoow on a crystal set,
a Davey short-waver,
and Morse over the Internet
"Gerry", from Portsmouth, writes:
Hi Les,   Came across your site about Gilbert Davey, when looking at pics of Morse Keys, as I was trying to find out some history of a couple of keys I have renovated recently.   My father got me interested in radio as a boy of about 8 or 9 when he bought me an IVALEK crystal set (white plastic body looking like a radio) and fitted a shelf above my head, so I could listen in bed before going to sleep - many a night I listened to Radio Moscow, and classical music . . . magic!
At the age of 15 I joined the Navy and became a radio operator, and left in 1972, at 27 years old.   I could have applied for my ham licence on leaving the Navy, but wasn`t that interested as I did not know where I was going to live, nor did I have any money to buy the equipment needed.   However, I have always had an interest in Morse and Morse keys, as my father gave me a Baumuster T1 key when I passed my final exams before going to sea.  , I loaned that to a "mate" who never returned it . . .
So I had only a minor interest in radio, until a friend got me interested in renovating old Bush TVs, whereupon my interest was re-kindled.   I found Fun with Radio in a local library, and copied out the Three Valve TRF circuit and components list, then spent the next few weeks making it.   I had never made a valve radio before, only crystal sets and adding transistor amplifiers.   Then I would have been about 35 years old.
I also made a power supply, and made my own slow motion drive pulley and system, to have a long linear tuning scale, similar to my Eddystone 750.   I calibrated the scale using the 2.5, 5.0 and 10.0 time signals, and also had my Eddystone 750 to give me the true frequencies where the ham bands started and finished, and also other stations of note.
I used to plug in Denco coils to do the band changing, and it covered the medium wave and all frequencies right up to 30MHz.   I had four sets of coils, and therefore four "tracks" on my tuning scale.
The radio worked very well on 66 feet of bell wire, strung out in the garden about 20 feet above ground.   Sometimes it out-performed the Eddystone 750, pulling in some signals which were just in the noise on the Eddy . . .
One refinement to the circuitry was suggested to me by a radio ham I went to for some advice, as I could not get it to oscillate properly.   He suggested using a 100k pot for the regeneration.
Unfortunately, I do not have the radio with me any more, having moved about 30 times in the past 35 years, and living on a narrowboat for a couple of years too.   But it was a pleasure to build and get working.   Your site brought back many memories.
I have a blogsite http://nemosphotography.blogspot.co.uk/ on which I tell tales about my morse key renovations.   TYhere you can see that I managed to find a Baumuster T1 key on ebay - so pleased!   Hope that this has been of interest.   Regards, Gerry (Portsmouth, UK).

Thank you very much for your message, Gerry - I'm glad you have enjoyed visiting my site.   Getting Radio Moscow on a crystal radio sounds quite a feat!   As you say, there was "magic" in listening in with headphones to whatever the set plucked out of the air, and no batteries!
Your 3-valve TRF set sounds impressive.   It's a pity you don't still have it, but maybe you could build it again . . . coils might take a while to find, though.   (I take it that this is the one from Chapter 8 of Fun with Short Wave Radio, 1968 edition.)   If you do build it again, let me know!
I thoroughly recommend a visit to Gerry's blog, (link above).   It's interesting to see on Gerry's videos how the hand is used on the key, and it's always a pleasure to follow a write-up of a satisfying job such as his Morse key restorations.
Update May 2018: CWCOM is a "chat" program using Morse over the internet.   For more information and download links, please visit Gerry's other blog at: https://morsepower.blogspot.co.uk/p/blog-page.html

26 April 2015:
90 volts across the filament!
Hi, I have enjoyed visiting your Gilbert Davey website and experiencing the nostalgia.   I used to get the Fun With Radio books from the Library back in 1968, and I built the one-valve radio.   A mistake put 90 volts on the heater of the valve and I never did get that receiver working.   However I went on to have more success with transistor circuits and it wasn’t until 1977 that I tried again with a one-valve set, this time with a successful result.
About five years age I developed an interest in low voltage valve circuits and built a "2-valve" shortwave set using an ECC88 (double triode) valve, and with just 12 volts HT - the receiver performs very well indeed.   It is a standard circuit that all valve enthusiasts will relate to, but I optimised the R & C values for low voltage.   It has the advantage of using a potentiometer for reaction, and works well with 5 metres of aerial wire.   The valve lights up with a brighter glow than with the 1.5 volt battery valves; it always produces a good feeling when you can see the fire in its belly!   Best wishes, Geoff Gardner, G4ZEN.

I am glad you have enjoyed visiting the site, Geoff! I'm also glad that you eventually had success with a one-valver after the initial disaster.   I’m with you in liking to see a nice bright heater (or filament) – but yes – 90 volts was too much!
Geoff sent a photo of his very well-made prototype, in which a home-made coil covers about 5 - 14Mhz.   Geoff said that he was in the process of rebuilding the set in the style of the well-known H.A.C (Heard All Continents) receiver, where he intends to use Denco plug-in coils.   He sent me the circuit diagram, which shows the reaction control (25kΩ pot) in series with the load resistor for the first anode.   I suggested to Geoff that he should publish his details on the UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum, where I was sure the design would elicit interest.   Geoff also sent a picture of a beautifully-made crystal set that he built some years ago, inspired by an exhibit to the Occupation Museum in Guernsey.

11 March 2015:
Comments received about
my Focus set
Hello Les, I just had a quick look at your Focus Transistor Radio.   Beautiful!   You have done a lovely job and I’m looking forward to checking out the whole site again.   Kind regards, Dan Bedford.
Thanks Dan - good to hear from you again.   Dan is still active as a constructor - I look forward to hearing about his next Davey project.
Dear Les, I just love the article about your Focus set.   I don’t remember this one, but it looks as though you have had great fun with this, and the case design is truly inspirational.   I nominate it for a Design Centre award (possibly just a few years too late!!).   It all just brings back so many memories of the excitement of building projects when the first transistors become readily available.   The mention of 50-foot aerials also reminds me of my first "masterpiece" – a one-transistor set all housed within a thimble – but unfortunately it still needed an aerial from the bedroom window down the full length of the back garden to get the Home Service.   Great days. Thank you again for the memories.   David Mercer.
Thanks for your kind words, and for the Design Award, David!
Graeme Zimmer, another of my Australian correspondents, wrote to comment about the Focus set's lack of selectivity:
I was wondering about the tap feeding the base.   Your circuit implies that the tap is closer to the top end of the coil.   Perhaps tipping the coil upside down would match the base's low impedance better.   I'm not sure however if the LW section can be rewired to suit.   Alternatively a few turns of wire around the coil might suffice as a coupling coil.   It always strikes me as odd how these circuits so often have a diode in series with a capacitor.   It's something which would be a no-no with today's diodes.   Of course the high level of leakage current around the germaniun diode makes this possible.
This set is almost identical to one I built as a youngster.   Of course living in Australia, I couldn't dream of buying the British coils, so had to improvise.   Anyway thanks again, Zim.

Thanks for the ideas about the coil etc, Zim!   Repanco's own diagrams for the DRR2 coil show the tapping as being near the "top", so I guess it must be (you can't tell from looking, but resistance tests would do it).   It would be possible to transpose its two end connections and thus, presumably, bring the tapping towards the end that's joined to the LW winding.
With your idea of the coupling coil, I take you to mean that this added coil would be led to the transistor base (other end grounded).   Arising from that idea, I suppose it might be worth trying the reaction winding (used as the aerial coil in Gilbert's Focus design) as this coupling coil.
Regarding the diode - yes - the one I used is years old, and was the best performer when I tried the front end as purely a crystal receiver.   I'm not sure whether this necessarily means that it's the best performer in the Focus circuit, though.   (Here's where my shaky grasp on theory gives up.)
I guess that being unable to buy coils was good for you - we were spoilt for choice over here!
My thanks to Graeme for these ideas, and for other expressions of appreciation from Alan Giles and John Pugh.

10 March 2015:
Gilbert Davey's pre-war
writing rediscovered;
downloads of selected articles
List of pre-war articles.
It's been a long time since the previous update to this site, but I have not been idle, and I hope you will agree that it has been worth the wait!

Among Davey's Army records, recently returned to his daughter, is a list believed to have been typed by him as part of the formalities for enlistment in the Royal Signals.   This has led me to over thirty articles for Practical Wireless and other journals, giving me a huge head-start in rediscovering his pre-war writing.   (Image courtesy Claire Davey; reproduced by kind permission.)

There is seemingly an error - either in date or journal title - in the last three entries on the list.   These three articles have not yet been traced.

Two articles that Davey did not list have so far been found.   I am sure that this list is not exhaustive and that there are more to be discovered.   Much thus remains to be done!

The vast majority of the articles consist of hints and tips for short-wave listening, including a 13-part series for Practical Wireless in 1935.   However there are several designs for complete sets for both short-wave and broadcast-band use.   The articles confirm that Davey was a keen short-wave listener and, by his early twenties, a seasoned experimenter.

Everything found so far is now listed on a new page: Pre-War Writing.   This page will be expanded as my research continues and new material becomes available.

And with the kind permission and help of PW Publishing Ltd, current publishers of Practical Wireless, a selection of Davey's pre-war articles is available for download from that page.   Enjoy!

10 March 2015:
My Focus Transistor Set
My Focus set.
When I decided to build a Focus receiver for this web site, I didn’t have a suitable case to house it, so I have made my own.   The intention was to build a case that a reasonably competent “Mr 1959” do-it-yourselfer might have built for his lad, in imitation of the stylish transistor sets of the day.   This project was almost as much about developing the idea for the case as about the radio itself.   Mostly I have used only materials and methods that would have been available then.   I cheated a bit here and there, but appropriate confessions are included on the new page.

As the set is simply a crystal receiver with transistor amplification, I was not expecting it to have selectivity comparable with the earlier one-valver-with-reaction Studio ‘E’ set, and this indeed proved to be the case.   I also had trouble with clipping in the amplifier, which I modified in accordance with another Davey design.

In spite of these difficulties, the set was fun to make, is perfectly usable, and has whetted my appetite to try a more advanced Davey transistor design.   Read more on the new page, My Focus Set.

12 December 2014
UK Vintage Radio
Repair and Restoration
Discussion Forum
On 3 December, "Bactoreality", a member of the UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum posted that he had acquired an ex-library copy of Fun with Short Wave Radio from which pages 1-12 had been removed.   Another Forum member, "Rupert", offered to send him scans of the missing pages.   A third Forum member, "David G4EBT" was prompted to post this kind testimonial:   Many forum members may know of an excellent website created by Les Franklin, devoted to Gilbert Davey’s life and his radio sets entitled ‘Remembering Gilbert Davey’s Radio Sets’ but for anyone who doesn’t, it’s well worth a browse.   This in turn reminded "Phil G4SPZ" that he still had the remains of his BOP Ether Ranger" (progressive design for short-wave receiver) in his shack.
I read this thread a few days later (I am also a Forum member (handle: "bileaflet_valve").   I posted to thank "David" for his kind comments, and to tell him that the next update should be of interest to short-wavers.   As there are three editions of Fun with Short Wave Radio, I posted distinguishing details to help "Backtoreality" identify the edition he had.   I invited "Phil" to send me pictures of his Ether Ranger for inclusion on this site, whatever state it was in!
The scans sent to "Backtoreality" proved to be from the correct (1979) edition, so he will be able to repair his copy.   "Phil" replied that his Ether Ranger was now little more than a kit of parts.   . . . but when it's eventually rebuilt I'll be delighted to send you a picture.   I've bookmarked your excellent website in readiness!
"David" kindly posted again:   I hadn't realised that you were a forum member Les, so I'm pleased that you saw my comments.   The website is a real "labour of love" and must have taken you many hours to set up and maintain, not to mention all the research, responding to emails from people who contact you from the site, and . . . copyright issues.
Thanks once again to "David", and I look forward to hearing from "Phil" in due course about his Ether Ranger.   Meanwhile, I take this opportunity to remind visitors of this excellent Forum, among the very best on the Internet, which constantly has something to inform, educate and entertain radio enthusiasts of all flavours.

28 November 2014
An impressive "to do" list
Following on from his Davey short-waver (see YOUR DAVEY SETS), my correspondent Dan Bedford in Queensland, Australia, tells me that having fully retired now, he is getting back into radio building.   He says:
Three crystal sets have materialized in the last month or two, and numerous sets are in the pipeline - see attached “to do” list.   I may have to go back to work for a rest!   Regards, Dan.
Dan's "to do" list includes five receivers from Radio for the Millions (Popular Science Publishing Company Inc), a crystal set from the Boy's Book of Crystal Sets (W J May, Bernards Radio Manuals), a 2-valve Reinartz receiver from the AWA Year Book 1926 (I think that's Amalgamated Wireless Australasia Ltd), and several more.   He certainly hasn't time to go back to work, and I look forward to hearing about these sets!

24 May 2014
A Stateside one-valver
Dave from Dallas, Texas, writes:
Hi Les, Your web site has provided me with hours of fascinating reading over the past few months - many thanks.   So much so, I am going to try and build the one-valver.   [This is the one from June 1961 BOP - see the Davey coil download on the CONSTRUCTION RESOURCES page.   Dave raised a query over the construction of the coil, which I think we sorted out, as he has tried it out in a crystal receiver.]   My wife remembers the Studio ‘E’ programmes; her father was a physicist at the National Hospital, and supervised the family kids making the radio!   She also remembers that he kept the accumulators for his transmitter under her bed!   Regards, Dave.
Thanks for your kind words, Dave, and good luck with the one-valver.   Please do let me know how you get on.   If your wife has more details about the Studio ‘E’ radio her father supervised, I’d be glad to hear more about it!

4 April 2014
Some errors corrected
Hugh Castellan pointed out errors in the transistor design as published in the April 1961 Boys Own Paper, and in the one-valver design in the June 1961 BOP.   I spotted another error in the one-valver.   This features in the download for the 2" long/medium wave coil (see CONSTRUCTION RESOURCES).   This has been revised, and a note has been added to the relevant entry in The Boy's Own Paper page.
Minor changes and corrections have been made to most pages for this update.

22 March 2014:
A splendid Shortwave Two-valver
from Down Under
My correspondent Dan Bedford, from Queensland, Australia, told me he intended to build a Davey one-valver (see November 2013 update).   Well, he's gone one better - he's built a two-valver instead!   It is based on Chapter 4 of Fun with Short Waves, 1st edition, 1960.   Dan writes:   It was this book, more than anything else, that set me off on a path of no return in radio and electronics.   It took me from the world of crystal sets into the wonderful world of valve radios.
Dan's set is intended to be as faithful as possible to Gilbert Davey's 1960 design.   He has used mostly British components, but didn't have the Osmor coils specified by Davey.   So he has used some slightly later Denco coils.   Dan also made replica high- and low-tension batteries for his set, carefully distressed to give them that 1960s look!
In December 2013, the set was entered in the Two Valve Device Competition held by the Historical Wireless Society of South East Queensland, his local club.   Dan was awarded joint First Prize with the only other entrant!
You will find pictures of Dan's set, a circuit diagram, and details of some teething problems that he had to solve, on the YOUR DAVEY SETS page.

22 March 2014:
BBC Focus transistor set -
leaflet download now complete.
Until recently I have had to withold one of the four pages of this leaflet for rights reasons.   The download has always carried the entire Davey design, but I had to exclude the last page, containing some advertisements of great period appeal, because the BBC was uncertain of its rights to a cartoon on that page.   Following a contact from a site visitor in January, this issue has now been resolved, and I am pleased to be able to include the entire leaflet in the download.   See The Focus Transistor Set   I'm sure you'll enjoy the fourth page!

22 March 2014:
Two more stories by
those who built the
Focus transistor set
Two correspondents have recently sent their stories about the BBC Focus two-transistor set.   One constructor's pride at first-time success was spoiled somewhat by a well-to-do schoolfellow showing off his powerful 6-transistor commercially-made set - but it spurred him on to build a sinilar set from a kit!   For the other, the Focus set was the first step on a lifetime career in radio - a story that Gilbert Davey would surely have been delighted to hear.   Both these stories have been added to the The Focus Transistor Set page.

22 March 2014:
A constructor recalls
how a friend taught him
to troubleshoot his
one-valver
Hi Les,   What a great web site.   Oh yes, I was a devotee of the legendary Gilbert Davey - what a man!   I actually have the Boys Own Companion No 4, and it currently languishes on my "Technical" book shelf in my Amateur Radio shack.   I built it [I presume you mean the one-valver in the Companion], but it didn't work first time.   A family friend, an electronics/Radar tech working on the SRN series of hovercraft visited, and with his mentoring (he didn't actually fix it) showed me a different approach to problem solving.   I got the beast up and running. Worthy of note is that the valve could also be a 6C4.   I also have Fun With Shortwave Radio, the edition whose cover shows a picture of the then London Science Museum's Demonstration GB2SM (complete with a Creed 7B teletype).   I came full-circle when years later I was invited, by Geoff Voller - G3JUL - to become a GB2SM volunteer demonstrator (I was G0JJQ back then).   I always wanted to meet Gilbert Davey, to get him to sign my stuff but alas that was not to be.   I can't tell you what happy memories your wonderful site has brought flooding back, just marvellous.   God Bless and keep up the good work.   Wayne Dillon.
Thanks for your message and your kind words, Wayne.   Glad you have enjoyed the site!   How wise your family friend was to get you into the way of fixing the set yourself rather than just fixing it for you!

22 March 2014
Other comments
since November update
The discussion about the meaning of the districts listed on the back of the 21 October 1957 Studio ‘E’ script - see The Studio ‘E’ Scripts sparked off some memories for my correspondent Hugh Castellan.   He says:
First in the list of towns given, I see Eastbourne.   When I was a schoolboy I went to Eastbourne College.   I had a friend called Frank Mitchell, who later became an Air Vice Marshal.   Although a boarder like me, he knew Eastbourne very well as he lived with his aunt there in the holidays.   We were talking about radio parts one day, and he said "Oh, you should go to Jacksons Radio in Terminus Place".   So as it was a Sunday we went and sneaked a look at it.   (I should explain that everything east of Terminus Road was out of bounds, and you had to get a chit from your Housemaster to go there.)   Jacksons Radio was a boys' delight - stuffed to the roof with radio gear such that you could hardly get in the door.   Mr Jackson was a middle-aged man at the time, and always seemed to be in the shop on his own when I went there.   He was probably ex-Forces like a lot of men at that time.   So that's where we all went in time of need.   The shop and the road are gone now, redeveloped.
I don’t think that emporium has been mentioned by my other correspondents, although I’m sure I’ve heard the name before.   It sounds like a great place!

Adrian Hindle-Briscall wrote to suggest Bentley Acoustic Corporation as a contender for London NW1 - it has duly been entered in the above list.   He went on to recall how he was given a one-valve kit as a boy in the early 60s.
I was only about seven, and we had to get a friend to construct it.   My parents had thought twice about the expensive high-voltage battery in addition to the kit which cost about 30 shillings (£1.50), but when we got it and found we needed high-impedance headphones as well this was an expense too much.   I don't know what happened to it, but it was never used.
I replied saying that it was a shame that the one-valver was never used, and that surely a pair of high-impedance headphones could be picked up quite cheaply back then.   Adrian replied:
Yes, I'm sure I got some high-impedance headphones from Lisle Street a few years later, though the low-imp ones were much easier/cheaper to pick up I think.   I did take it up as a hobby, but I have no memory of having that set at any time after I was given it - I think you blot out those disappointments!   I suspect it was also the 90v battery that was the sticking point, also expensive and probably not available at surplus prices.   I might have asked for those things as a later birthday or Christmas present, but perhaps I was keener on something else.   Most valves I had would have been audio ones as I got interested in old 78 records which became my big hobby interest.
I am glad Adrian got over this trauma and pursued the hobby in a slightly different form later.

1 November 2013:
Two new downloads for
long-lost Davey designs -
the Holiday Radio and the
Simple Three-valve Set
Two long-lost designs.
The site has carried brief details and photos of Hugh Castellan's Davey sets for some time.   For two of these early Boy's Own Paper designs, the full details are fairly easy to find.   But for the other two - the Holiday Radio and the Simple Three-valve Set - the position was very different.   Due to post-war paper shortages, the complete constructional details - in the form of duplicated sheets - were only sent to those who applied for them, and the designs were never re-published.

Hugh's reconstruction of these sets, which he first built as a boy, are based on a combination of memory, experience, research and initial help from Gilbert Davey himself some years ago.   These rebuilds amount to no less than a rescue from oblivion.

Hugh Castellan and I are pleased that we have been able to make the new downloads available during Davey's birth centenary year, and that they allow these long-lost designs to be enjoyed by enthusiasts once again.   By kind permission of Lutterworth Press, both downloads include the original BOP articles alongside Hugh's circuits and components lists.

For both downloads, see YOUR DAVEY SETS page.   Please read the copyright and usage notes on that page, and the copyright notice on the WELCOME page.

1 November 2013
A letter signed by
Gilbert Davey
Dear Les,   Your Gilbert Davey site has brought some wonderful childhood memories flooding back.   Brilliant, thank you.   You might just like this letter (attached) that I received from (or at least on behalf of) Gilbert Davey in 1957.
You can imagine the intense disappointment of an 11-year-old at being told that all the Studio ‘E’ one-valve leaflets had gone, but it was tempered by equal excitement at receiving a letter from the great man!   I did get Fun with Radio as a present and made a few of the sets with varying degrees of success.   I really wanted to make the Cycle Radio just to show off, but could never afford the bits.   We had a wonderful radio shop in Southall, Middlesex, called ‘Gurneys’, selling components.   I must have spent hours looking in the window at various bits and pieces and lusting over things like AVO multimeters, even though I probably had no idea what they did!   Fun with Radio inspired a lifetime’s love of bits of wire and soldering irons, although I never managed to keep up with electronics generally.   The book sadly disappeared a few years back, but the letter survived (just).   I’d be really quite chuffed to see it on the site!   All the best, and thanks again for a really interesting site.   David Mercer.

Thank you, David, for your message, for your kind words, and for the image of the letter from Gilbert Davey.   Well done for preserving the letter all these years!   I have added the letter to The Studio ‘E’ Leaflet page.   The supply of leaflets had clearly run out quite quickly after the series finished.   Another print run was evidently out of the question, and no photocopiers then!   It must have sweetened the pill of disappointment to receive a signed letter, though.   David also wrote:
Unfortunately, none of the Davey radios I built have survived, although I still have my white Bakelite “Ivalek” crystal set.   I remember getting into terrible trouble running about 100ft of aerial wire out of the bedroom window down to a neighbour’s tree at the bottom of the garden.   Even then it only got the Home Service!   I decided I could cram the same bits into a thimble from Mum’s sewing box, using a fixed capacitor, and that worked just as well.   Eat your heart out, Clive Sinclair! (Oh, still have one of his Micromatic sets, by the way).
If David ever decides to get a grip on the soldering iron again and build some Davey set afresh, I hope he'll let me know.

1 November 2013
BOP listings now complete
A note from Hugh Castellan has enabled me to fill the two remaining gaps (February and March 1964) in The Boy's Own Paper page that lists Davey's articles.   Hugh has checked his copies of two of the editions missing from the British Library's collection.   My thanks to him for this.

1 November 2013
The Studio ‘E’ sripts:
an intriguing theory
The back page of Davey's 21 October Studio ‘E’ script has a handwritten list of districts.   My guess was that these were perhaps musings in connection with some aspect of his insurance work.   Two correspondents (Alan Giles and Doug Brown) have suggested that the locations match up with component supply businesses advertising in the radio press at the time.   Doug Brown kindly took time at the British Library to research this for me.   (During this exercise, he discovered that the Library's copies of Practical Wireless are formerly from the Patent Office Library, and are bound together without their covers or advertising - sacrilege!!)   So he consulted copies of Wireless World, and came up with results that you can now see on The Studio ‘E’ Scripts page.   It's a compelling theory.   But I must admit to doubts: the BBC was then - and still is - very careful about advertising; perhaps the suppliers in these places had undertaken to stock the parts, and the hints were given to assist viewers having difficulty buying them.   Judge for yourself!
Doug Brown has also kindly pursued another niggling query.   Copies of Davey's books are often seen listed on booksellers’ web sites, ostensibly published by Sportshelf & Soccer Associates, New Rochelle, New York State, USA.   Doug's findings show that Sportshelf & Soccer Associates was an importer of many English-language books for the USA market - many years after publication in some cases - and distributed them with their own stamp on the title-page.

1 November 2013
Other comments
since March update
Hello Les,   I have just been scouring the web looking for an image of the book Fun with Short Waves by Gilbert Davey, and I came across your site.   How pleased I was to see what you have done.   It was the above book, which I seem to have pilfered from the school library in the early sixties, that set me off on a lifelong career in radio and electronics.   Prior to this I was heavily into crystal sets, and the book set me off on a new path of 1T4’s, Denco coils and Jackson capacitors!
I am about to go to the USA to deliver a presentation at the Antique Wireless Association’s Annual Convention, and I wanted to emphasise the fun aspect of radio by including an image of the two books that did it for me.   I have misplaced my copy of Fun with Short Waves - probably retribution for my past sin!   Do you by any chance have an image of the front cover?   Kind regards, Dan Bedford, Brisbane, Australia.

Glad you found my web site, Dan.   I’d like to say I never pilfered any books from the school library – but I can’t!   I wasn't able to help Dan with the image he wanted, but I wished him good luck with his presentation.   I drew his attention to the UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Forum, and asked him what direction his career had taken.
What a find!   Finding your site and your reference to the UK Vintage Radio site has opened up yet another exciting prospect. . . . My radio interest led to an apprenticeship as a radio and tv technician.   From there I ended up in a Nuclear Medicine Department, working on medical imaging equipment, then 15 years as the service department manager for a large pathology lab, servicing all the lab equipment.   After that I started Labtronics and for the next twenty years serviced all manner of lab gear in all types of labs.   I’m now retired and finally getting back to having, “Fun with Radio”!   Kind regards, Dan.
Dan found his copy of Fun with Short Waves, and wrote again when he had returned from giving his well-received presentation in Rochester, New York State.   He took with him a beautiful radio set made in tribute to the Amercan radio inventor and manufacturer Atwater Kent.   He gave a presentation on the building of it, and the set itself won First Prize in its class at the Convention!
Dan is putting together his own Vintage Wireless site, and asked my permission to put a link on it to this site - of course I said Yes!   I look forward to seeing his site when it goes live.
Dan also intends to recreate a one-valve set he built from Fun with Short Waves, so of course I also look forward to hearing how he gets on with this.

20 March 2013
A versatile Davey coil -
Boy's Own Paper article
available to download
A versatile Davey coil
By kind permission of Lutterworth Press, this site now carries a PDF download of the full original January 1961 Boy's Own Paper article with full details for making this coil.   It is available for your personal non-commercial use on the CONSTRUCTION RESOURCES page.   Please read the copyright and usage notes alongside the download on that page, and also the copyright notice on the WELCOME page.

This coil has aerial, medium-wave, long-wave and reaction windings.   Like most homebrew coils, this is a bulky item at around 4 inches high and 2 3/4 inches diameter.   But this genuine Davey design is a worthy substitute for the commercially-made coils (Teletron D/R, Repanco DRR2) he often specified, provided sufficient space can be found for it.   And if made as well as the example pictured in the download, it will enhance any set!   This one was kindly made for me by Hugh Castellan, whose own version of the Davey triode one-valver (see YOUR DAVEY SETS,) uses the same coil design.

20 March 2013
Other site additions
I have been able to fill in two further gaps in the DAVEY SOURCE PAGES >.   Purchase of a copy of the last edition of Boy's Own Paper (February 1967 - missing from the British Library) enabled me to check its contents and find that it contained nothing by Davey.   There remain just two gaps in the BOP listings.

A number of other minor changes and corrections have been made for this update.

20 March 2013
Other comments
since October update
Hello Les,   Thought I should let you know how much I enjoyed your articles about Gilbert Davey and his radio sets.   I well remember constructing the Focus set when I was twelve years old and avidly following the advice each week on television.   My soldering iron was the type which had to be heated in a gas flame and the solder was a large bar from which small droplets of solder had to be melted onto the components to be connected!   Needless to say, the finished product was not very elegant but it worked very well.   Sadly I no longer have the set which I think was sacrificed to build something bigger and better.
The cost of transistors seemed very high at the time; I was devastated when one of the legs broke off a transistor and I had to start saving more pocket money to buy a replacement!   In old money a red spot transistor cost me 7s6d, which represented several weeks' pocket money!   The risk of heat damage to germanium transistors whilst soldering was also considerable, and I remember using damp cloths, metal hair grips and pliers as thermal shunts.
I went on to make many of the Practical Wireless domestic and short wave receivers such as TRFs, super-regeneratives and finally superhets by authors such as F G Rayer who must have been a contemporary of Gilbert Davey.
Constructing the Focus was the start of a lifetime involvement in radio, both as a hobby and profession.   I have recently retired after 45 very interesting years as an electronics/radio engineer working on military radio systems and antennas.   I can't help thinking that this was largely due to Gilbert Davey's influence on an enthusiastic schoolboy!   Even now, my main hobby in retirement is radios and antennas, but unfortunately I don't get paid for doing it!
Many thanks for the effort you have put into this very interesting website, which has enabled me to reminisce about my early years playing with radios.   Best regards, Ray Collins.

Thanks for your memories, Ray, and for your kind words about the site.   Have you thought of doing a rebuild of the Focus set?   The coil is the biggest problem to find, but examples do come up on ebay from time to time.   The leaflet download is ready and waiting here on the site – let me know if you do get round to a rebuild!   I’m glad you’re still getting fun out of radio in your retirement.

In January, I was contacted by a gent who signed himself just "Walter", who very kindly sent me some details from his copy of the second edition of Fun with Radio, which I had not then been able to inspect.   This information drew attention to an error in my listings for later editions, and the Author's Note threw interesting light on why Gilbert Davey reprieved the Cycle Radio - a design he considered outdated - for the second edition, having decided to cut it.   I have recently been able to purchase my own copy of the second edition, and it is now covered fully on the Fun with Radio page.   I am nonetheless extremely grateful to Walter for his time and trouble, and also for his reminiscences.   I include a precis of our email exchange below.
Hi Les,   I just found your website by accident.   I have to tell you how interesting it is for me.   I have two of the Davey books - Fun with Radio - I didn't know there were so many editions, and I didn't know about the BBC connection . . . It's really a great site which I shall visit regularly.   Thanks, Walter.
I wrote back asking Walter which editions of Fun with Radio he had, and whether he had built, or planned to build, any of Gilbert Davey's designs.   When he responded that one of the editions he had was the second, which I had not then seen, I asked him if he could let me have a note of the Contents list. Not only did he do this, but he sent me scans of the Author’s Note (referred to above), and of Chapter 14 (Transistors and Transistor Designs)!   With these items, Walter wrote:
Les . . . Just looking at these circuits and articles, I am remembering how I was interested in radio back in 1959, when I started high school.   I made my first crystal set with a design from The Boy Electrician by Morgan and Sims.   I wound the coil around a square UHU glue tube box.   [I used] the TV aerial and the washing machine earth.   I experimented and experimented . . . and really had fun with radio - just as the master said!!   My first active set was with an 1T4, the Repanco design, with the then ubiquitous DRR2 coil.   I was totally unaware of GD's articles at the time - I suppose in those days a 10-year-old really was just 10 years old . . . My parents had Practical Wireless delivered to the house from May 1960 onward.   W.
In thanking Walter for his help and his recollections, I pressed him for his full name which he had not given me, so that I could properly acknowledge that help on this page.   He replied:
Les,   Just noticed that the Focus transistor circuit (a crystal receiver with two stages of LF gain) looks very similar to the Chapter 14 circuit in Fun with Radio edition 2.   I have often thought about relating the beginnings as I saw them . . . anyway, I'm pleased to have been of some help.   My name - yes, the "D" is for Davey - no relation [to Gilbert (Walter) Davey]!!   Best regs, Walter Davey.
As stated above, even though I have since obtained my own copy of the 2nd edition of Fun with Radio, I am deeply grateful to Walter for his kind help.   And if he should decide to build a Davey design and tell me about it, it will certainly deserve a place on this site as a doubly genuine Davey set!

Les,   Thanks so much for your wonderful site.   I built the Studio ‘E’ radio in 1957 when I was ten years old.   I didn't remember the name but for some strange reason the designation of the valve I used (DAF96) was in my mind recently, and some searching brought up your site.
From your nostalgia page it seems as if our experiences were remarkably similar.   Like you and your father, I soldered the joints with a plumber's soldering iron (I got mine from from Woolworths) heated in our coke central heating boiler.   My mother took me into Newcastle to buy the parts from the service counter of a radio shop.   This was definitely a problem and I would have been much better with a kit of the "right" parts.   My biggest problem was with the coil which had a completely different physical layout from the one specified, though it was electrically equivalent.   The coil was wound on a green polythene spool and the terminals were straight wire pins sticking through a ring moulded at the top (quite unlike the specified part which had nice flat solder tags on a paxolin disc, if I remember correctly).   With no previous experience in using an iron I made a real mess of the coil, which melted much more easily than the solder!   I had plenty of dry joints elsewhere as well and I had particular difficulty with the battery plug.   I used many similar plugs in later years without problems - of course, you just have to know how to do it!
Two other differences I remember among the parts I bought.   My terminals, unlike those specified, were four separate beautiful brass screw terminals consisting of 4BA bolts with lovely knurled circular nuts.   Also the three-ohs-five tuning condenser was an antique-looking air-spaced type with a ceramic and brass frame and brass fixed and moving blades.   I can't think why because the reaction condenser looked exactly like the "official" one.
Needless to say "set now works" did not happen for me.   My father took the mess into a local radio shop whose service engineer diagnosed and corrected all the problems and provided me with a list of what I'd done wrong.   What a great learning experience, and it set me on a path to electrical- and then computer- engineering from which I've now retired.   Thanks again for all your work in putting this stuff on line.   Kevin Patfield, Port Angeles, Washington.

Thanks for your message, Kevin, and for your kind words.   To build the set yourself at ten years old with no prior experience was a big undertaking!   Was it one and the same radio shop that both supplied the parts and then diagnosed the faults, or two different shops?   Although many viewers were successful, I often wonder what the failure rate was - today's TV "how to" projects seem much less demanding! I was lucky to have had my set built for me.
That's an excellent question!   No it wasn't the same shop - that would have been an interesting scam!   From what I can remember, I bought the components at the parts counter in the back of a large electrical store in Newcastle.   My father had the radio diagnosed in an electrical repair shop in South Shields, much closer to home.   I bet I could have got the parts there a lot better in the first place.
A couple of years later we did get quite a good electronic components shop in Sunderland called "The Red Radio Shop".   That's where I used to buy my parts for transistor radios.   I remember that an audio stage needed an OC71 driver and a matched pair of OC72s which cost over a pound each - quite a strain on my pocket money.   Around that time I learned to buy mail order from Henry's Radio, Lasky's and the other advertisers in the back pages of Wireless World and Practical Wireless. I remember well going to London when I was about 14 and spending a whole day gawking in the shop windows in Tottenham Court Road and Edgware Road: we had nothing like that.
I'm sure you're right to wonder how many viewers were successful in building their radios.   I'm sure that the essentials of soldering must have been covered very briefly during the programme, but there's nothing at all in the leaflet about techniques.   Of course, dry joints and shorts between pins on the valveholders were the only things we had to cope with then.   Later we had to learn to use heat shunts on transistor leads and then deal with CMOS ICs that would fail if you just looked at them funny!
What fun it was to build stuff in those days.   There's no way you could build anything today for anywhere close to the price of an assembled unit.   Kind regards, Kevin.

Thanks to Kevin, and to all who have contacted me since the last update.

27 October 2012
A Davey Studio ‘E’ prototype?
A Studio 'E' prototype?
This image, a little over 1 1/2 inches tall, appears as part of a photo-montage on the dust-jacket of Fun with Radio, 4th edition (1965).   I knew of this image from a low-resolution file sent by a correspondent, but from this I could not be certain which set it was - it could have been one of Davey's short-wave sets of similar construction.   A recent purchase of the 4th edition, complete with its dust-jacket, has allowed me to confirm that it is indeed a Studio ‘E’ set.

There is no reference to the image within the book, which contains the usual (inverted tray) version of the Beginner's One-Valver.   Its inclusion on the dust jacket, along with other images of radio sets, was clearly just intended as an indication of the subject-matter.

I have added the image, in enlarged and enhanced form, to the top of The Studio ‘E’ Leaflet page, so that it can be compared with the leaflet's drawings.   The resemblance to the drawings is so striking that it is tempting to think that this image is of either the prototype that served as the basis for the drawings, or possibly the set that Gilbert Davey built in the studio during the live broadcasts.

27 October 2012
Davey Source Pages:
lists for post-war writing
now substantially complete
Since the last site update (July), I have been working to fill in the remaining gaps in the DAVEY SOURCE PAGES.   Details of the projects in Fun with Electronics (two editions), Fun with Transistors (two editions), and Fun with Hi-Fi have now been added.   All the pages within this section have been enhanced visually for greater ease of use, and I hope to improve the cross-referencing in future.   As they are, I hope they will nonetheless be a useful resource to those wishing to trace a particular Davey design.   To the best of my knowledge, all that is now missing from the current pages are details from Fun with Radio (2nd and 3rd editions), and possible Davey articles in three editions of Boy's Own Paper (February and March 1964, and February 1967).

Apart from these omissions, which I will make good as opportunity arises, my lists for Gilbert Davey's post-war radio writing is now substantially complete.   We know from the newspaper article that appears on the GILBERT DAVEY page that he wrote freelance articles on radio before World War II.   It's my aim to find this body of work and add the details to the site, but as I don't yet know which publications he wrote for, this will be a matter of guesswork and searching.   This is a big task to be tackled as soon as possible.

27 October 2012
Other comments
since July update
Les, I have just found your website following a contact with another radio ham.   It appears we both started building radios from Gilbert's book circa 1959.   I lived in Peterborough at the time and had the book almost on permanent loan from the library.   I was most intrigued to see that Gilbert also lived in Peterborough in his latter years (I left in 1967).   I have a website at https://www.qsl.net/g3tso/ depicting some of the radios I have built over the years, and I can't help but feel that without Gilbert's book I might not have got started.   I learned the art of chassis-bashing when I built Gilbert's designs on a sheet of aluminium I found in my dad's garage.   I still have the original valves from 1959, but sadly nothing else left, and no pictures!   Keep up the good work with the site.
Best regards, Mike Grierson, G3TSO.

Thanks, Mike.   Your site is most interesting, and I see that your sets have earned a lot of praise for their build quality.   I love the period photos from way back!

Les,   I've just got around to looking at the enlarged Gilbert Davey site in detail.   This goes from strength to strength - really excellent.   Your Studio ‘E’ rebuild looks very neatly done, and your workshop puts my garden shed-cum-workshop to shame!   I would like to have a go at another Gilbert Davey design at some point but there are too many other calls on my time at the moment.
Best wishes, David Green.

Thanks to David for his kind words.   Since completing his own Studio ‘E’ set a year ago, he has now progressed to the ambitious task of restoring a Philips 371A radio.   In answer to my enquiry, he wrote back:
Hello Les,   The Philips is getting there.   All three wavebands get stations although I'm still getting a bit of interference, particularly on short wave.   However, I've nothing to judge it against, so not sure what is the norm etc.   Some of it might well be local, external interference.   Anyway, I felt I had probably gone as far as I could with it at the moment, so thought it was time to spruce up the case and put it back together with the intention of returning to it at a later date.   That done I think it looks absolutely superb and sounds really good where reception is half-decent, and I'm really pleased with it.   However, it has a fault with the volume control which wasn't apparent when the chassis was out (any slight knock and the volume drops or comes back) which I need to investigate, pending completion of a round of decorating, etc.
All the best, David.

This should be a simple fault to cure - but better get that decorating done first!

Les,   I like your latest Studio ‘E’ radio.   I have now found the Jackson Dilecon condensers, but I'm still searching for the Teletron coil.   It is only a matter of time!!!!
Regards, John Pugh.

Thanks, John, and best of luck with finding a Teletron D/R – if you do find one, please let me know how you get on.

Hi again Les,   Thanks for the update on your website. Will have a careful read.   I'm still chasing copies of Fun with Radio.   A couple of purchases did finally arrive, but both turned out to be "Thomas the Tank Engine" books!   Apparently there is a duplicate ISBN out there somewhere which confuses the cataloging system.   When I get time I'll research this further.   A couple more books have arrived since, but as I'm in Thailand for a few months I'll have to wait till I get back home to look at them.
Thanks again, Zim, VK3GJZ (Graeme Zimmer).

Yes, I've come across that ISBN problem too. Many ebay sellers, especially the commercial ones, seem to rely heavily on the ISBN number to come up with the title, without apparently inspecting the book or uploading a picture.   Perhaps you could start a "Thomas" web site . . . ?

11 July 2012
My new Studio ‘E’ rebuild
At last (May 2102) I have got around to rebuilding (for the second time) my Studio ‘E’ one-valver according to the BBC leaflet.   See My Rebuilt Studio ‘E’ Set for new pictures and details, and compare it with Hugh Castellan's set on the YOUR DAVEY SETS page.

11 July 2012
Revised page:
CONSTRUCTION RESOURCES
In step with the ongoing expansion of this site to cover Gilbert Davey's wider work, the page previously entitled "Your Studio ‘E’ Rebuild" has been re-written, and now appears as CONSTRUCTION RESOURCES.   Much of its content is likely to be useful for many other Davey designs, or indeed many radio projects in general.   The page will be added to over the course of time as useful information and sources are found.
 
11 July 2012
Use of copyright material from
this site by way of trade -
possible risk to permissions
In late April, I was contacted by a book-search company who had been asked to obtain a copy of one of the BBC copyright leaflets available for download from this site.   Much copyright material on the site is reproduced by permission of the rights holders on the understanding that it is for the benefit of enthusiasts, and that any commercial value of the material will not be exploited.

I had no objection to the company passing on a download (or a link to it), but expressed concern that if a commercial firm were to charge a customer a fee for either directing him to my web site or for providing files or printouts, that might be seen as commercial use of the copyright material - even though the end-user himself intended to use it for private purposes only.

Such use of the copyright material could put at risk the permissions I already have from rights holders, or might jeopardise my ability to obtain future permissions.   Furthermore, I claim copyright on the site as a whole, and likewise offer its contents for the non-commercial use and enjoyment of enthusiasts.   I was gratified, therefore, when the company informed me that they had decided not to charge its customer for finding and passing on the download.

I have revised the copyright notice on the Welcome page to reinforce this point.
 
11 July 2012
Other comments
since March update
Hello Les,   Thank you very much for the newsletter.   Nice to see that you're going strong and continuing to provide such an important service to the Internet world - and mankind in general . . . I saw the new site and it looks very good.   Nice to finally see a picture of Gilbert Davey.   Your site looks healthy on the whole, but you need to sort out your Wikipedia article on Gilbert Davey because the links pointing to your old site are going 404 - Page not Found - you've forgotten to update those . . .
TTFN, Peter Vis.

Good to hear from you again, Peter, and thanks for your comment on the updated site.   The Davey article on Wikipedia was initiated by someone else, who cited my site (under its old web address) as source material.   As can be seen from the discussion tab, I responded early on in order to safeguard my own interests.   I don't really want to become a Wiki editor big-time, but would prefer to concentrate my efforts on this site!   I have now corrected the broken links to lead to the new domain name.   The article as it stands does not really give a complete picture of Davey's work, so if I can find time I will add to it to correct this.

Next, a note from my stalwart correspondent, Hugh Castellan:
Dear Les,   Thank you for your new email about the revamped web site.   It makes very interesting reading.   Nice to see my latest effort there [Hugh's Studio ‘E’ set - see YOUR DAVEY SETS].   I have downloaded the transistor radio leaflet - so where do we find some OC71s etc?   I have the coil already.   Best wishes, Hugh.
I put Hugh on to a couple of likely suppliers, so we can expect to see a BBC Focus Transistor set from him before too long!

Hello Les,   May I add my commendation to the wealth of them you must have received for this web site.   It takes me back to 1963 when, as a young 12 year old schoolboy, I found Fun with Radio in the local library.   I borrowed it many times over the next couple of years.   It inspired me to become an electronics engineer for the rest of my career.   Now in retirement, I have gone back to restoring vintage radios, even joining the BVWS [British Vintage Wireless Society] and going to many swapmeets and auctions.   It fills me with joy in re-living the delights of the simple electronics [of that time].   Well done!   David Pye.
Many thanks for your kind comment, David, and best wishes for a fulfilling retirement!

Dear Les,   Thank you for your email - the updated site looks wonderful!   Congratulations.   I am currently in the UK for 4 weeks near Birmingham on the look-out for Repanco coils!   Any suggestions?   Thanks again – keep the updates coming.   Stephen Curtis, VK3CAX.
Thanks for your comment, Steve.   No suggestions for Repanco coils apart from keeping an eye on ebay.   I believe Repanco were based in Coventry, but have been out of business for some years.

17 March 2012
The Focus Transistor Set
With the kind permission of the BBC, I am now able to publish the leaflet that accompanied Gilbert Davey's second BBC-tv series (March-April 1959). The images were kindly supplied by the BBC's Written Archive Centre.   Leaflet downloads and notes are available at The Focus Transistor Set
 
17 March 2012
A message from
Gilbert Davey's daughter
In November, I received this message from Claire Davey, Gilbert Davey's daughter:
Hi Les,   First I want to thank you for the web site for my father.   I know he would be very impressed and pleased to see his work published.   I must admit there was information there that I did not know about.   I remember as a child helping him proof read the technical drawings for his books.   I also remember that after one of his BBC programmes we received six huge bags of mail from around the world, and to the best of my knowledge he responded to each one.
I have attached a scan of an old photo I found in my father’s records . . . taken October 1981.
Again thank you so much for all your work.
Claire.

The photo Claire sent was taken by a press photographer for an article marking the publication of her father's last book, Fun with Silicon Chips in Modern Radio.   I was able to trace the article at the British Library, and with their permission and that of the Assistant Editor, Peterborough Evening Telegraph, the article and photo now appear on the GILBERT DAVEY page.
In a later email, Claire wrote:
I have been following the changes you have made to the web site, and I think my father would be very pleased with the attention and the representation you give of his work.
It is very gratifying to have received this help and approval from Claire.   She has now sent me another picture of her father as a young man, and this too appears on the GILBERT DAVEY page.   I must apologise to Claire for the delay in adding her material to the site, due to the process of re-casting it into its new arrangement.

17 March 2012
New Domain Name
and Email Address
You probably reached this update via automatic forwarding from the address www.thestudioeonevalveradio.org.uk, used since the site's original launch in March 2010.   But with the ongoing expansion of the site to cover Gilbert Davey's general body of work in more detail, a more appropriate and convenient domain name has been chosen - www.daveysradios.org.uk.   Automatic web forwarding will be maintained for the time being, but I will be contacting the Webmasters of sites that carry links to the old web address, and asking them to update the links to show the new address.

I also have a new email address under the new domain name (click HERE to go to new contact details on the WELCOME page).   The old "studio e" email address still works, and will be kept on for the time being.

17 March 2012
Expanded Source Pages
The previous "Davey Source List" page has now been expanded into four separate pages plus an introductory page.   Three of these - The Boy's Own Paper, BOP Offshoot Publications, and Fun with Radio - are substantially complete, with brief practical details of all projects published.   A further page - Other "Fun with . . ." Books - is present in outline form with some expanded detail, and will be completed as soon as possible.   Research yet to be done in other areas may lead to more of these Source Pages in due course.

17 March 2012
A "pukka" Studio ‘E’ set
Hugh Castellan has now beaten me to it, and constructed his own Studio ‘E’ one-valver, as close to the design in the BBC leaflet as he can get it.   You can see his pictures and comments on the YOUR DAVEY SETS page.

17 March 2012
Other "lost" Davey designs
Drawing upon Hugh Castellan's excellent work, I am working towards publishing additional details for two of the early Boy's Own Paper designs originally published in abbreviated form due to post-war paper shortages, and never re-published.   Watch this space!

17 March 2012
Baker's Soldering Fluid
I was shocked!
Graeme Zimmer, who has helped on a number of points in recent months, emailed to pick me up on my assertion that Baker's Soldering Fluid was now unobtainable (see My Original Studio ‘E’ Set):
I was shocked!   What would we do without Baker's? :-)   Just for balance and accuracy, attached is a pic of a modern plastic bottle of Baker's Soldering Flux recently purchased here in Oz.   I remember Grandpa making "Killed Spirits" by dissolving zinc sheet in hydrochloric acid.
Regards, Zim, VK3GJZ

I'm happy to say after a spot of Googling that Baker's Fluid is still obtainable here - on the internet anyway!   The plastic containers they sell it in now don't have the charm of the original metal tin, but at least it won't eat its way out as it used to . . .   I had assumed it was now unobtainable, as for years I had not seen it on sale in the shops as it once commonly was.   Hardware shops here are mostly a travesty of the bursting-at-the-seams establishments we used to have.   Thanks to Graeme for prompting me to check on this, and I have amended my text accordingly.

17 March 2012
Another hoarder!
Hi Les,   Just found your superb site concerning the Studio ‘E’ radio.   I remember building that radio many years ago.   I was 12 years old at the time.   It started me out on a career in radio and electronics that is still keeping me fascinated.   I still have some of the parts that have been carefully kept in the 'junk' box (sorry better known as stuff in stock).   Original valve DAF96, 18s 0d plus Purchase Tax.   Now if only I can find the Jackson Bros. condensers and D/R medium wave . . .   Many thanks for stirring the old memory cell.
Regards, John Pugh, G0IKZ

Nice to know someone else is a hoarder too!   Hope you find that D/R coil and those variable capacitors somewhere among the "stock".   If you've lost the caps, you might find them on ebay, but I've never seen the coil for sale anywhere, and count myself lucky to have kept my original one.   (One did come up on ebay soon afterwards!)   If you do rebuild your set, please let me know!

17 March 2012
"Ham Radio" on Studio ‘E’
I recently received this message from David Pratt, who appeared as an 18-year-old on the Studio ‘E’ programme just three weeks after Gilbert Davey's one-valver construction series ended.
Hello Les - I have just been enjoying looking at your website and thought you might be interested to know that I appeared on BBC TV Studio ‘E’ as a young amateur radio enthusiast on Monday 9 December 1957.   The programme was presented by Vera McKecknie, assisted by Elizabeth Lanchbury who then stood in for Vera during her maternity leave.   I have a 20-minute recording of the audio of the programme.   Sadly, video recording was not available at that time, although I was shown one of the BBC's first Ampex 2-inch recorders while I was at Lime Grove.   They explained that video tape could not easily be edited as it required dunking it into a ferric solution so it could be spliced at the beginning of a frame pulse . . . Attached is a photo that was printed in the January 1958 issue of Short Wave magazine.   I hope you find it of interest.
Best regards, David G4DMP/G3KEP (also BVWS member).

The photo shows the temporary station set up in Studio 'E', for which the GPO had granted an appropriate temporary callsign GB3LG (Lime Grove).   David is seen working a contact in Pennsylvania on 10-metre telephony at 150 watts transmitting power, watched by Arthur Garratt (who often introduced technical subjects on BBC Children's TV) and Gerald Garrett of the Science Museum (no relation).

David kindly sent me the audio recording of the broadcast item, in which Arthur Garratt first describes the WT equipment aboard the liner Queen Elizabeth.   He and his namesake talk about amateur radio, describing the equipment in the studio, explaining some "radio-ese" terms, outlining how the hobby could lead to a career, and asserting that an amateur could get on the air in those days for less than £10!   The DX QSO is then worked, first by Gerald Garrett, then by David Pratt, and finally by announcer Elizabeth Lanchbury.

My thanks to David for this story, which underlines how the Studio ‘E’ programme was outstanding in its treatment of quite technical subjects.   If I can get copyright clearance, I will add the photo to the site.

24 October 2011
Gilbert Davey's Studio ‘E’ scripts
In late May, I heard from John Winter, a friend of Gilbert Davey's family, who kindly sent me scans of four Studio ‘E’ scripts which Gilbert Davey had preserved from 1957 until his death.   Selected images from the scripts were placed on a new page, The Studio ‘E’ Scripts.

24 October 2011
Was Davey a UK radio "ham"?
It is known that Davey operated a short wave transmitter in Berlin at the end of World War II, and was awarded membership of the American Radio Amateurs of Berlin (ARABS) by his US friends (Jack Cox's Foreword to Fun with Short Waves, 1960).   Davey states (ibid. p10), that he kept in touch with his home for several years while overseas.   This presumably refers to the same end-of-war period in Germany.   At its simplest this might have involved transmissions at agreed times to which his family could listen.   He surely would not have risked such transmissions during his reported earlier clandestine activities in occupied France.   But did he ever carry a UK licence?

My tribute to Davey that appeared in the July 2011 edition of Practical Wireless led, both before and after publication, to some efforts being made to establish this.   Before publication, Ian Brothwell G4EAN consulted old callbooks to which he has access.   Subsequently, both the Rev. George Dobbs (columnist) and Steve Jones (reader) made further efforts.   All these searches have drawn a blank.   So, unless someone out there knows differently, we must for the moment conclude that, after returning home from Germany, Davey maintained a keen interest in short-wave matters but was not a UK licensed operator.

24 October 2011
UK Vintage Radio Repair &
Restoration Discussion Forum
A thread about the BBC 1-valver on this forum was one of the things that inspired me to search for the BBC Studio ‘E’ leaflet and set up this site.   Following publication of the leaflet on this site, I registered with the Forum and announced that the long-lost leaflet is once more available.   Use this link to view the thread.

24 October 2011
Another Studio ‘E’ set
At the end of September, I heard from David Green, the beginner who has been building a Studio ‘E’ set to my "conjectural" design (published on this site before the leaflet came to light), with just a very few tips from me along the way.   After some frustrations and teething troubles, his first radio project sprang to life.   Pictures of David's set are now on the YOUR DAVEY SETS page.   Latest: David has now embarked on restoring a Philips 371A.

24 October 2011
Comments and recollections
received since June update
Dear Les,   I was very pleased to find your website as, although I do not remember the name of Gilbert Davey, I often wondered who designed the BOP Cycle Radio I built back in the early 1950's.   I was away at school in E Yorkshire and my mother sent me the BOP every month.   I was taught about radio by a very knowledgeable boy who encouraged me to have a go at the Cycle Radio.   We must have sent away for 'more info', as we had a theoretical diagram, full circuit description, and a practical layout diagram.   I remember getting the two HL2 valves as 'swaps' with other boys, but went to the local Radio Relay station to get a PM22A output valve.   I could not get a miniature loudspeaker, so I got the set working with earphones from a one-valver I already had.   It worked fine, but I hankered after complete portability and made a frame aerial version of it.   I never tried to use it on a bicycle!   I both kept up with the hobby and made a career out of it.   I went into the Royal Signals for National Service as an electronic technician, and on demob carried on with studies at the Regents Poly in London.   I ended up in a design lab working on military airborne radios/radioaltimeters etc.   Later on I went on the road for Texas Instruments, and eventually ran the Hitachi Europe semiconductor operation.   In retirement I still like to design my own radios, mostly using field effect transistors which are a bit like mini valves!   It's like a virus in the bloodstream, and sets like the 'Cycle Radio' started it off for me.   Late extra - I have just managed to locate the 1957 Fun with Radio on Amazon and look forward very much to reading it.   Thanks again for your letter to Practical Wireless, which brought this to my attention.
James Duckworth.

Thanks for your message, James - it's always good to hear how people got started.   If James builds the Cycle Radio, it will be interesting to compare his set with Hugh Castellan's set (pictures already on this site).

In July, I received the following messages from gents who both remember building the BBC Focus transistor radio in 1959:
Hi Les,   Just happened across your website . . . EXCELLENT!   I built the [Focus] 3 transistor radio in 1959 - remember being ill in bed and being allowed up to watch one relevant session!   I remember the leaflet - like a folded sheet of Radio Times - but alas it has long since disappeared.   I remember being sold surplus transistors that generated an immense amount of noise, later replaced with Mullard OC71, from memory at £1-10s-0d each, an immense amount at the time!   All was constructed inside a cedar cigar box from a friend’s father who supplied all my “cabinets” for years!
73, Stephen Curtis, VK3CAX, but currently doing some work in Cheltenham!

Hi Les, just found your site while looking for info on my first transistor radio that I thought was featured on Blue Peter around 1958-ish.   I remember writing in for a leaflet, and spending weeks of accrued pocket money on 2 transistors, red spots if I recall correctly.   Anyway after looking at your site I guess it was probably the 1959
[Focus] design - Hmmm . . .   This was just after my 14th birthday - and I used my pocket money and birthday money to buy the 2 red spots. I can still remember the look on my mother's face when she saw what I had spent ALL my money on!   Over the next year or so, I added an audio amp and speaker, and Dad built a box to house it all.   It had a wire with a croc clip, and we'd go out on Sunday afternoon in our old van, stop somewhere with a wire fence, and hook it on!   A couple of years later I applied to Southampton University for one of a handful of places in the new Electronics course.   They had many applicants, all with top grades - so the tie breaker was "Tell us what you have built."   I know that this project, and the subsequent mods, were key to me getting accepted.   That's how I got started down the career path that lasted 50 years, most at IBM, and ended with billion-transistor chips running a Ghz!   Without that I would probably have become the 3rd generation in the family Fish Shop.
Chris Parker.

Glad you both enjoyed the site.   That's quite a career path, Chris - red spots to gigahertz chips!   I will be seeking permission to publish the Focus transistor leaflet on the site in due course.

Hello Les,   I came across your web site today, and it brought back a lot of memories.   I was 9 years old in 1962 and got a copy of Fun with Radio from my local library, and it was this that set me off on my professional career.   I built a lot of radios in my youth and then went to University, and became an electronics engineer in the mid-1970s.   When you do it professionally, the "fun" goes out of it and so my hobby died.   A few years ago out of nostalgia, I asked a book shop if they could get hold of a copy of Fun With Radio.   Six months later they called me and said they had a copy - it's the 4th edition and it came all the way from New Zealand.   It has a written inscription: "Happy Birthday Donald, 11 yrs Sept 1966", and is stamped Marsden Book Co., Napier.   I am now 57 and unemployed, (due to age discrimination - they don't want old electronic engineers it seems) and discovering your web site brought a smile to my face.   Perhaps I'll knock up a three valve TRF "For Bedside or Camp" - just for Fun.   I like your battery box idea.
Regards, Phil Robinson.

Thanks, Phil - I will be very interested to hear if you do decide to build the "Bedside or Camp" set, or indeed any other Davey design!   I am planning to widen gradually the scope of the site to include sets other than the one-valvers.   And if "Donald" is out there somewhere, it would be great to hear from you!

23 June 2011:
Practical Wireless magazine
carries tribute to Gilbert Davey
The July edition of Practical Wireless (on sale since 9 June) carried my tribute to Gilbert Davey, an edited version of the sketch of him that appears on this site, but also drawing upon information supplied by Mr Tom Dougall, a former colleague at the Pearl Assurance Company.   Tom's own tribute to Gilbert Davey appears online at https://www.pearlstaffpensionscheme.co.uk/Members/Documents   Under "Pensions News", click the link "Pension News June 11.pdf".

23 June 2011:
The Studio ‘E’ leaflet
With the permission of the BBC and that of Doug Brown, I am now able to make available Doug's images of the Studio ‘E’ leaflet (copyright © BBC).   My sincere thanks go to both.   With their help, my principal aim in first setting up this site has been realised.

That I should hear on 5 May of Gilbert Davey's death, then a few days later (18th) receive news of a copy of the elusive leaflet, is pure coincidence, but curious and piquant nonetheless.   I am pleased that this previously "lost" aspect of his work is once more available for the enjoyment of the many people who remember the Studio ‘E’ series and either built a set or had one built for them.

Downloads are available on the The Studio ‘E’ Leaflet page.   Choose either a PDF file (for printing a full-size leaflet in page order), or individual JPEG page images.   Please read the copyright and usage notices on that page.

23 June 2011:
Messages received since the
news of Gilbert Davey's death
Hi Les,   Thank you very much for sending me the sad news of Gilbert Davey’s passing.   Congratulations upon your receipt of the long awaited copy of the Studio E leaflet.   I look forward to seeing Mr Davey’s obituary as I have wondered many times about the person who gave me the radio bug all those years ago.   Knowing that he was in reasonable health well into his older years, it would in retrospect have been marvellous to let him know what a great following he had.
Regards, David Muir.

I agree that it would, David.   I have to accept all the "might-have-beens" that go with my decision not to attempt contact.

Hi Les,   It’s always sad when death occurs and especially so when the person concerned is one whose work has given so much instruction and pleasure to so many over the years.   97 isn’t a bad innings, though, and if as you say he was in comparatively good health until shortly before he passed away we can’t really complain.   If only it were to be so for us all.   All good wishes with your researches and your excellent website.
Tony Thompson.

My thanks to Tony (author of Vintage Radios) for this kind message.

Dear Les,   Many thanks for notifying us of this.   I was both surprised and of course saddened.   Surprised because I had assumed Gilbert Davey belonged to that "golden age" of radio and that like many other leading practitioners of that time had long since passed away.   You must be really pleased the Studio ‘E’ leaflet has turned up.   Excellent news.   I shall be very interested to see how it differs from your (and now my) version.   No matter they may be "illegitimate children" of the original.   I think it is commendable that you tried to revive something that may otherwise have been lost and which obviously meant a lot to a number of young (and now rather older) enthusiasts at the time.   I've just bid for another pair of headphones, just hoping they won't be quite as rubbish as the last lot!
Best wishes, David Green.

David is in the process of building what promises to be a very nicely made Studio ‘E’ set - according to my (now superseded) conjectural rebuild.   Thanks David for being so philosophical!   I hope the latest headphones turn out to be goers, and I look forward to further news on your set.

23 May 2011:
Gilbert Davey, 1913 - 2011
All those who were inspired by Gilbert Davey's books and articles will have been saddened to learn that he died on 6 April, aged 97.   His funeral took place in Peterborough on 15 April.

I had not been in touch with Mr Davey, but was informed of his death in early May by a lady working for an agency that produces a newsletter for former Pearl Asuurance Company staff.   The June edition is to include a tribute written by a former Pearl colleague, Mr Tom Dougall.   On contacting him, he cast interesting light on Mr Davey's wartime role, and also told me a little of his work with the Pearl Company and his circumstances in latter years.   He apparently had reasonably good health until shortly before he died.

Drawing upon Mr Dougall's information, I wrote a short tribute to Mr Davey, and submitted it to the Editor of Practical Wireless.   I also updated the GILBERT DAVEY page on this site to reflect his death.

23 May 2011:
A Studio ‘E’ leaflet
turns up!
By a most curious coincidence, a Studio ‘E’ leaflet has just come to light, within weeks of Gilbert Davey's death.   Doug Brown's message says: Greetings Les.   I have just discovered your website, having Googled on a whim because I have a copy of the Studio ‘E’ leaflet "Making Your Own Radio Set"!
Well, Doug, you made my day - and I am most grateful for your Google on a whim!   Suffice it to say for now that the "theoretical" circuit is exactly the same as in Fun with Radio (1957 edition), but some resistor values differ.   Unsurprisingly, my conjectural rebuild, for all the careful reasoning that went into its layout, is quite different from that given on the leaflet!   One of my correspondents is considerably advanced in building a Studio ‘E’ set according to my conjectural rebuild.   If he completes it, it will join mine as an entirely viable but illegitimate offspring of the original!   Before distributing any images of the leaflet, I am in course of ascertaining the copyright position with the BBC.

1 March 2011:
Two more Davey sets from
Hugh Castellan
Two more Davey sets from my stalwart correspondent Hugh Castellan: his Simple Three-Valve Radio (BOP November 1949) and the Cycle Radio (BOP March 1952, and Fun with Radio, 1st edition, 1957).   Details of these sets, together with Hugh's two sets featured in an earlier update, appear on the YOUR DAVEY SETS page.   I am most grateful to Hugh for these splendid contributions to the site.
 
1 March 2011:
Comments and recollections

Hello Les,   I was looking at your website and thought I should contact you to let you know how much I liked it and how inspiring I found it.   I loved the writing; it is very easy to read and informative.   You should continue building your site; it will be a huge resource for thousands of people.   I work in IT and my hobby is electronics.   I was thinking of making a one-valve radio for just old time's sake and saw a circuit online that runs an ECC82 on 12 volts.   I've now got to find the parts on ebay . . .
Peter Vis.

I'm glad you have enjoyed looking at my site, Peter - best of luck with the ECC82 circuit.   As well as ebay, you could try Geoff Davies Radio (no web site, but you can send for his monthly list - see CONSTRUCTION RESOURCES page - or visit the BVWS National Vintage Communications Fair in Warwickshire on 15 May.   Then why not try the Studio ‘E’ set after that?

Dear Les,   I've recently become interested in old valve radios (am retired and, unlike others, radio passed me by in my youth).   Not being familiar with electronics, let alone valve technology, I thought I would have a go at building a simple set to understand things more.   I eventually stumbled on your site and decided to have a go at building a Studio ‘E’ set.   I am currently getting together the components.   Once I've built [it], I can experiment with things a bit for myself, but I'd like the first attempt to have a reasonable chance of success.   I also wanted to say your web site is one of the best I've come across, not just for its content, but it's a real pleasure to look at visually - I for one appreciate all the effort you've put into it.
Many thanks, David Green.

I'm delighted that someone else wants to do another Studio ‘E’ build!   Good luck - please keep me in touch with your progress - and thanks also for your kind comment about the site.

Hi Les,   Thanks for your Gilbert Davey source page - Very interesting indeed.   Attached are three cover pix for Fun with Radio.   You might be able to use them on your web page.   Thanks again, and best wishes for 2011.
Regards, Graeme Zimmer.

Thanks very much for sending the three scans of Fun with Radio covers - it's nice to see these as so often the dust covers are missing.   I will publish them on the site if I can resolve copyright issues.

Hi Les,   Just found your site - what nostalgia!   I became interested in radio in the mid to late forties.   The household radio was a Rentaset job, a three-station switched set up which was connected to the local substation which was only 50 yards away from our home!   When we moved house to a rural area in 1950, we were supplied by Rentaset with a proper radio set with long-, medium-, and short-wave.   The short-wave was "magic" and I was hooked on radio!   My uncle gave me a Scott-Taggart ST 400 home-made radio which was a great performer.   After this I made my own sets with items given to me by my uncle.   I made a few radios using circuits from Newnes Wireless Encycopedia of 1932.   I did not make the one-valver you describe, but I have made many others.   I have started to build another one-valve radio but not got very far at the moment.
Best wishes, Anthony Glynne Jones, GW4TFS

Many thanks for your reminiscences, Anthony - glad you found something of interest on my site.   Anthony has been busy - he has written again saying that he completed his one-valver (not a Davey design), is now working on another set using a Russian valve requiring only 18 volts HT, and is toying with building a Studio ‘E’ set!   Let me know how you get on, Anthony.   Does anyone else out there remember a rented radio setup as Anthony describes?

Well, that's one other Studio ‘E’ set on the way, and - perhaps, maybe - yet another before too long!   I look forward to further news from David (the newbie) and Anthony (the seasoned constructor).

8 November 2010:
Hugh Castellan's
One-valver and Holiday Radio
Featured two sets by Hugh Castellan: his Davey One-valver (a distictive take on the original triode design with a flavour of the past), and his Holiday Radio (a resurrection of a lost but once-popular design, the result of prolonged research and brain-cudgelling).   These two sets now appear on a new page, YOUR DAVEY SETS, together with two more of his Davey sets as described briefly above.   More Davey set details welcomed for this new page!

8 November 2010:
Comments and recollections
Dear Les, Haven't a clue about the techie stuff but it all looks fascinating.   You obviously do need to get out more!   The site is written and constructed in such a way as to be accessible at a variety of levels.   Congratulations!   Brought back a few memories, too.   I do remember the Lady Jayne hairclips.   And could just picture your parents in the various anecdotes.   I know Tony will be interested too - maybe too interested?   I believe he still has a collection of radio valves and other parts in the cellar.   So watch this space.
Love, Hazel.

That's my cousin.   Thanks, Hazel - but, uh-oh, am I going to get the blame here?   Better stick to collecting those fountain-pens, Tony.

Hi Les, I came across your site by total accident.   I thought I was the only one who remembered Studio ‘E’, eclipsed as it was so soon by Blue Peter . . . I still have my original Kaye and Ward Fun With Radio, Fun with Short Wave Radio, Fun with Transistors and Fun with Silicon Chips . . . Anyway, it's a wonderful site.
Kind regards, Alan Giles.


Fun with Short Waves is what inspired me as an 8-year-old - I can almost recollect the contents . . . how I would dearly love to get a copy!   . . . All this was after learning to "twiddle the dial" of the Sobell table radio on short wave.
73s and all the best, David Smith G4COE.

A kind offer of Fun with Short Waves was passed on, so I hope you've got your copy now, David.

G'day Les, it was great to read on Mike Smith's MDS975 feedback pages your comment on Gilbert Davey and Fun With Radio.   I think that book was mostly responsible for leading me into a lifelong interest in radio.   I remember reading that book in our school library way back in the very early 1970s as a small child, and I've been into radio (and ham radio) ever since!   I managed to pick up a later edition of Fun With Radio some years ago whilst I was wandering through an old book store sale in Brisbane . . . It brought back wonderful memories, and it is still very precious to me!
Regards, Felix Scerri, VK4FUQ, Queensland, Australia.


Thank you very much for such a wonderful website.   Gilbert Davey certainly fired me with enthusiasm for the hobby.   I still have my copy of Fun with Radio that my aunt bought me for my 12th or 13th birthday.   It has brought me endless pleasure.   At the same time she bought me an electric soldering iron as she saw me soldering with a hot poker at the gas stove!!
Best regards, David Muir.

I just wish I'd had such a generous and imaginative aunt!

Many thanks for all the contributions above - keep them coming!

2 May 2010 Many favourable comments received since launch in March 2010.   Links added.   Some "under-the-bonnet" adjustments made.

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CONTACT ME
Were it not for the many people who have viewed this site and then taken the trouble to get in touch with me, there would be no news to report (or to archive).   My sincere thanks go to all who have contacted me with their thoughts, stories and suggestions.