Bills funeral will be on Monday Dec 5th.

1.30 p.m., St Thomas’s Church, Maesglas, Newport NP20 3AT 

2.30 p.m. at Gwent Crematorium, Croesyceiliog, Cwmbran, NP44 2BZ. 

Family flowers only, donations in lieu to the R.A.F. Association, c/o Tovey Brothers Undertakers, 9-11, Cardiff Rd., Newport NP20 3EH.

I have just heard the sad news from his son, Nick, that Bill Cooke GW0ION, past Chief Engineer and Managing Director of Eddystone Radio Limited has passed away today very peacefully aged 96, at home in Newport, Wales. Eddystone was, of course, a hugely important part of his life and Nick reports that a photo of the factory was on the wall above his bed. Nick will let me know details of the funeral arrangements when known. Bill’s wrote about his life in the “Cooke Report” which can be downloaded from the History section of this website..

RIP old friend

Chris G0EYO

Gerry O’Hara has written many of the restoration articles on Eddystone receivers on this website. Please be advised that his old Telus  e mail address is out of date. Gerry’s current e mail address is gerrycohara@gmail.com

We are grateful to Dave for sending us pictures of his pair of Eddystone pillow loudspeakers made by Eddystone in the 1950’s. Graeme G3GGL (SK) described them in the QRG as follows; “A flat , smooth, bakelite grille, approx. 4” dia. by 1” thick. “When slipped under a pillow, speech and music can be heard clearly by a resting person but will not be audible to other occupants of the room.” circa.1950. Original price £3 14s 3d including matching transformer, flex and plug.  Advertised on the back of the instruction manual for the Model 670. Extremely rare. “.

Dave says that  they were made for Eddystone by ACOS who made crystal gramophone pick-ups & microphones in the 50’s & 60’s. They are high impedance so he  thinks  they are also crystal. The small brown Bakelite box is the transformer of which he only has one.  Primary has 3 taps to match radio’s speaker impedance, the secondary only one winding for pillow speaker. They have PILLOTONE on the front as in the Brochure etc.  All the wiring is rubber insulated. They were sold as Eddystone Accessory Model 1419.

G6XJ Arthur Edwards, (Sales Director at Strattons) in 1929

Matt Twyman GW6KOA who used to be a test engineer at Eddystone in the 1980’s and 90’s (working on 1650 Receivers as I recall) sent me a page from an old Shortwave Magazine of January 1949 which showed Arthur Edwards G6XJ operating his station in 1929. Arthur Edwards was the Sales Director for Strattons for many years from its early days until the early 60’s before it was sold to Marconi.

There has been a long conversation on the UK Vintage Radio and Restoration Forum about Wendy Mott’s experience in restoring a 888. Many people contributed to this conversation and I asked Wendy if she would produce an article for this website on her experiences. You can find this on the Restoration section of the Technical Folder (above)