On behalf of the Eddystone User Group Admin and moderators, I wish all our friends a Very Merry Christmas. Without doubt 2020 has been a year without precedent. Last Christmas no-one could have foreseen what was ahead of us. This coronavirus has affected everyone, from mild inconvenience to the loss of income or even, sadly, the loss of a loved one. Many of our followers are of an age that is probably considered vulnerable and have had to be shielded from the rest of the world. This may have meant more free time to work on those old sets, for the website and the forum have been busy with requests for help which to a large part we have been able to satisfy. The For Sale and Wanted section of the website has been popular and we have been able to help a number of families move on loved sets.  Although our costs are very modest I am glad to say that generous donations from friends and enthusiast have helped us meet them. We all hope that 2021 and vaccinations will get the better of this dreaded virus and life can get back to what will no doubt become a new normal.

We wish you all the best and a Happy New Year but above all please stay safe.

Chris G0EYO EUG Webmaster and Administrator

An Eddystone user has come across this Escutcheon which has an Eddystone lighthouse motif on it so reasonably concludes that it must have come from an Eddystone set from the 20’s or 30’s. Research in all the usual places and request on the EUG Forum have failed to come with any information. Do you recognise what set this was used on. If so contact admin Chris G0EYO on g0eyo@blueyonder.co.uk  

There are plenty of requests for information on Eddystone Receiver Cord Replacement on the EUG Forum and we already have Gerry O’Hara’s VE7GUH Technical Short No 20 on Drive Mechanisms and Gearboxes in the Restoration section. Ian Nutt M0ECQ has found two Works procedures which he has kindly copied for inclusion on the website. These procedures cover Cord Replacement for the 730 series and for the 830/7 receiver and have been added to the Restoration section.

Older Eddystones do not have product detectors, so resolving SSB signals can be a bit difficult with just the BFO and adjusting the RF and AF controls. Roy Kavanagh GM4VKI has modified his S680X to incorporate a product detector and has provided a step by step write up on how to do it. You will find his article in the Restorations folder but you can download a copy from here. 

Nigel G6DGR in Sutton Coldfield is helping his father-in-law Ken G3PMW dispose of his radio equipment and has discovered two rather rare Eddystone Absorption Wavemeters S696/1 complete and in wooden carrying cases, coils and calibration charts. The S696/1 was supplied with nine coils and covered the frequency range 200 kc/s to 200 Mc/s. Price in 1954: £13 10s 6d.

Ken was a Marconi TV Transmitter engineer in Chelmsford from 1950 until he retired in 1990. Ken says that these two units were bought by Marconi in 1954. They were bought just as the meters and coil sets and the boxes and aluminium graph plates were made by the company to protect them while in use. When Marconi pensioned them off, he and his pal Roy G3PMX bought one each and when Roy became SK some years ago, his unit was passed to Ken. Both Ken and Roy were members of the Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society for many years.

Go to For Sale section (right) for more details THESE HAVE NOW BEEN SOLD TO ALAN AINSLIE AT THE EDDYSTONE MUSEUM.

Gerry O’Hara VE7GUH has taken his S820 AM/FM Tuner out of storage and given it the once over using a new piece of test gear to measure the 10.7MHz filter response. You can find the article in Restorations here

The post on Arthur Edwards G6XJ and his QSL card resulted in a message from Tony G4UZN who has a fantastic Historic QSL card collection https://qsl-history.webs.com/. (He is the guy who advertises in Radcom for old QSL cards).

Tony found a pre-war G6XJ QSL card dated 1933 which although blank does have an interesting message on the rear about a trip to Denmark on the SS Mongolia in July 1933.

Tony’s collection got me thinking about other hams that were employed by Stratton and Laughton in the early days of the company. The Laughton’s company history “A Century of Achievement” published in 1960, mentions several people of which Tony has been able to find QSL cards.

George Brown G5BJ, who designed the VHF two way transmitting /receiving equipment that was sold to the Metropolitan and other Police Authorities in 1938 in case landline telephone communications was disrupted by enemy bombing. George G5BJ eventually left Stratton and Laughton to join the Birmingham Police to take charge of their radio section. The 1938 QSL card shows a contact with W4TS on 14MHz fone (AM) and the 1946 card shows a contact with VU2WP on 28MHz CW. The police equipment went on to form the basis of the 400 series R/T VHF equipment which was used in the D-day landings.

In 1924 Stratton & Laughton formed a retail organisation under the name Webbs Radio. It had five shops including those in London and Birmingham but in the end only the London store survived. Webbs Radio was under the able management of E.J. Pickard G6VA. During the war  E.J.Pickard was brought back to Birmingham and was on fire watch in November 1940 when the Bromsgrove St works was destroyed by enemy bombing. He and Harold Cox (Technical Director) and E.M.Lauze courageously went in and out of the burning building bringing out practically all the valuable radio test equipment. The QSL card shows a 1933 contact with OZ2K on 7MHz CW.

Also part of the Webb’s Radio staff was H.W. Stewart G2CY, H.R.Adams G2NO, and their resident American Buyer in Boston, Ted McElroy W1JYN. Tony G4UZN also had a QSL card from G2CY dated 1933 for QSO with OK2K on 7MHz CW and from G2NO dated 1936 with G2TG on 7MHz together with a Xmas card of the same year. Ted W1JYN was apparently the world champion high speed telegraphist. I think there must have been a parting of the ways in 1937 as I have seen a Short Wave Magazine ad for Eves Radio Limited in Wolverhampton with G2NO and W1JYN offering American Radio equipment and parts.

Again let me thank Tony G4UZN for his help and interest in Eddystone alumni QSL cards. Visit his site it is fascinating.  Chris G0EYO

Robert in mid Wales has two receivers he wishes to go to a good home free of charge due to age and health issues. The 940 was purchased off EBay in 2019 and is in nice condition and has the speaker mounted in the cabinet. It had been restored by the previous owner. The 840A is a bit scruffy and has had some work done on it including a new set of valves. The sets appear to work but Robert has not been able to fully check them out. You would have to collect these from Robert’s home in Llanbrynmair, Powys (SY19).

If  you wish to take up this generous offer of Robert’s then please contact him via e mail  at robert.reay@btinternet.com 

Arthur Edwards G6XJ joined Stratton & Laughton’s Radio Section in its very early days. Arthur was a radio amateur and eventually became Commercial Director and General Manager. During his war service he served in the Fleet Air Arm. We published a post in January 2016 of a picture of Arthur in his radio shack in 1929 (from Short Wave Magazine,  January 1949- see below). Arthur left the company when it was purchased by Marconi in the 1960’s.

Last week on E Bay I noticed a QSL card from G6XJ for sale which I purchased for the princely sum of £2.50. The card is for a QSO in November 1950 with G3DOE (Thanet Radio Society) on 80m band. The radio company had the call sign G6SL from the early 20’s and I took over the registration of this call for Eddystone Radio when Managing Director in the 80’s and still have it.

Andrew Van Tilburg in Melbourne Australia has created dial artwork for the Eddystone 730/4. There are two files:

1. A Visio file which will need to be unzipped. Download and
2. A pdf file for those who don’t have Visio. Download 

To view the Visio files you will need the later version of Microsoft Office Visio