Always wanted an Eddystone 888A? Well now is your chance to do so and at the same time help raise funds for running the Eddystone User Group website and group.io forum. Victor Jenkins from Northampton, who will be known to many of you as a rather talented restorer and collector of Eddystone receivers, is someone who freely offers his knowledge and advice to other Eddystone enthusiasts via the EUG group.io forum and through his restoration articles on our website.  He has been a generous financial supporter of the EUG in the past and has now come up with an offer that we could not refuse. Victor, needing to create some space in his shack, has decided to sell his Eddystone 888A and rather generously wants to donate the money raided by this sale to support the running of the Eddystone User Group. The signal meter and loudspeaker would be included in the sale (see below).

This 888A was the subject of a detailed restoration, re-alignment and performance improvement modifications which he wrote up as an article for this website. You can see it here. Victor wishes to get offers of £250 for this set. The purchase would on the understanding that the set is not quite standard and has been refurbished as described in Victor’s paper. See the For Sale Ad on the website. There are conditions associated with the sale. The set would have to be collected from Northampton where it can be inspected and checked out. Payment would be in cash which Victor will transfer to EUG.

This is a great opportunity to get a rare classic set in top working order, probably better than when it left the factory 75 years ago, with good provenance and at the same time,

play a big part in helping keep the Eddystone User Group Website and Forum running.  Go on, its nearly Christmas, still time to send a note to Santa!

Chris Pettitt G0EYO

EUG Admin

Victor Jenkins, who will be known to many of you as a rather talented restorer and collector of Eddystone receivers, is someone who freely offers his knowledge and advice to other Eddystone enthusiasts via the EUG group.io forum and through his restoration articles on our website. Victor needs to create some space in his shack and has decided to sell his 888A and rather generously wants to donate the money raised to support the running of the Eddystone User Group. The signal meter and loudspeaker would be included in the sale.

Victor wishes to get offers of £250 for this set which is the one that was the subject of the article that he wrote, and which can be seen here on the website. The purchase would be on the understanding that the set is no longer quite standard and has been re-aligned, modified and refurbished as described in Victor’s paper.

As you can see from the photographs below its condition is very good.  The terms of this purchase would be that the buyer goes to inspect it at Victor’s home in Northampton, (no couriers or shipping) and tries out the set for themselves. Once satisfied, he pay the agreed price in cash to Victor who will transfer the funds to the EUG. 

If you are interested in purchasing a great classic set, carefully refurbished, re-aligned and improved and at the same time supporting the Eddystone User Group, contact Victor via e mail:

Victor Jenkins victorspost@outlook.com 

Gerry O’Hara VE7GUH, the author of the recent article on the Refurbishment of the Eddystone 830/2 receiver, discovered an unusual instability issue on the receiver during extended testing. He has written up his findings and includes some other fixes for minor issues he found whilst investigating and fixing the stability issue. He has produced a short “postscript” article which will be found HERE in the Restoration Folder. There are links in the article to YouTube videos demonstrating the problem and describing the fix.

The name Gerry O’Hara VE7GUH, will be familiar to many of you. For twenty years he has supported the Eddystone User Group and this website with many excellent articles on restoring Eddystone receivers. Have a look on the “Restorations” page of the Website to see how prolific he is. What those of you who are also Facebook subscribers may not know, is that Gerry is also the author behind the many articles on restoring vintage sets under the name of “Radio Restoration”. Recently Gerry restored an Eddystone S830/2 and wrote a daily blog of his experiences in bringing this old girl back to better than factory specifications. His blogs are great learning experiences. Gerry is truly a master of his art as well as the owner of an array of test equipment that most of us could only drool over. What’s more he knows how to use it. If you wish to read more of Gerry’s articles on radio restoration, you can find them on the SPARC (Society for the Preservation of Radio in Canada) Museum website of which Gerry is the 2025 Vice President. (I am also pleased and honoured to have had Gerry as a Trustee of the Eddystone User Group for the past 10 years)

Find the article  Refurbishing an Eddystone Model S830/2 Communications Receiver HERE

Enjoy.

Chris Pettitt EUG Administrator

When Bill Cooke, my predecessor as MD of Eddystone Radio Ltd retired in 1985, he showed me a 78rpm disc that supposedly had a recording done by Harold Cox, a previous Technical Director of Stratton & Laughton. We had no facilities at West Heath at the time to play this recording, so for many years it remained in a cupboard and disappeared when the company was sold in 2000.

Well, it turned up this week. Peter Carney, the son of one of Eddystone’s longest serving employees, Production Manager, Stan Carney, contacted me to say that his father had rescued to disc when the company closed in 2000 along with a framed portrait of the radio company’s founder Mr George Strattton Laughton which used to hang in the MD’s office.  He was interested enough to transcribe it into an MP3 electronic file, a copy of which, he has given to me, with his permission, to circulate it amongst Eddystone enthusiasts. The disc sounds like a BBC production and is about 6 minutes long. It doesn’t mention Eddystone or Stratton and Laughton as the company but they interview George Stratton Laughton himself, as well as the then Technical Director, Harold Cox ,and the Sales Director, Arthur Edwards G6XJ, about the companies War work and post-war work in the supply of short wave radio communications equipment to the police, various ministries and governments around the world. There was also a big market in  ex-pat British workers in the colonies wishing to listen to the BBC World Service throughout the world. There is no date as to when the recording was made, but it may have coincided with Laughton’s celebrations of their 100^th  year anniversary in the 1960s.

Read more about the history of Eddystone Radio Limited and its founders on the EUG Website HERE

You can listen to the 78rpm disc recording HERE

Francesco Nardi IZ0QRK of Gaeta, in Lazio, Central Italy is restoring an Eddystone EC958 Receiver and is looking to locate the three “turret disks” A (aerial), B (rf) and C (signal mixer) complete with all coils (especially for VLF bands), because the ones in his receiver are missing or broken. If you think you can help Francesco, then please contact him via his email address  francesconard@gmail.com

Item Now Sold

Paul Eden of Bromsgrove, Worcs has For Sale a bit of a mystery item. Its a DC/AC power converter 50W.  Eddystone Model No 978/12. Input 12V DC. Output 250V 50Hz. This belonged to his Father-in-Law, Keith Shakespeare who worked at Eddystone for many years and is now sadly passed. It looks to be mint (never used) and comes with original packing box. In the 1970 edition of the EC958 receiver data sheet there is reference to an accessory DC/AC converter to run the set off DC, but no details. Could this have been the unit that they offered. We have no technical information or circuit diagrams and we havent been able to test it. Paul is looking to get £10 for this item plus postage costs and if you are interested you can contact him on paul.lizeden@gmail.com. 

Patrick Carroll JG1SJZ/KD0MSD, an ex colleague of mine from GEC-Marconi days is looking to buy an Eddystone EC10 in working order. Although primarily domiciled in Japan he comes back to the UK occasionally to see family so would arrange to have the purchased set sent there for him to collect on his next visit. Patrick was Marconi’s man in Japan during the time I was at  Eddystone but he started his career as a sales engineer at Eddystone in 1977 so has fond memories of the company. If you think you have something that would be of interest to Patrick then please contact him via e mail  p32r2002@yahoo.com

Chris G0EYO EUG Admin 

Gustavo in Toledo Spain has an EC958 set to sell. It looks in nice condition and he says it is complete and works well. The S/N plate does not identify what edition it is but it looks like a pre /7 variant. Gustavo is looking for offers and hopefully local collection. If you are interested then please contact him direct on e mail: Marugan Gustavo <pavi70@yahoo.com>

Zeljko Curkivic 9A4NA in Split Croatia has an Eddystone EC958/7, badged as a Marconi H2311, for sale. He proposes to put it on E Bay eventually but wanted to offer here first. He sold a similar one in 2019. Zeljko states that the receiver is in working condition but will need some restoration. It does receive signals on HF but as it was in the storage for a long period, the receiver will need checking and alignment. As far as he can see it is all original and nobody has played with it. For some reason the digital display only shows 0.00 or 9.99 as it can be seen on the photos. If anyone is interested please email Zeljko at curkovic1970@gmail.com for price, more details and more photos if needed. Zeljko will be attending the HAM Radio fair at Friedrichshafen on 29.06.2024 and he is willing to bring it with him to save on delivery and courier charges. See his QRZ page 9A4NA he has a fantastic morse key collection.