Yes indeed! Modern cars are lacking in that respect. We never had a Moggie as my father had a company car as Regional Sales Manager for a printing ink company and that was usually a Wolseley 1500, though one year we did have an Austin A55. I can recall some of the number plates to mind. He had each car for just one year, after which it would be sold to employees at the firm’s HQ. Quite an amazing thing to happen in the late 50’s / early 60’s, first to have a company car and second to get it changed every year. He used to travel around 25,000 miles a year, so I suppose he used up a good portion of the car’s useful life in that first year given the state of the roads.
73, Gerald G4OIG
… and to think all this came from a post about AM.
Must get over to the Welsh Highland Railway sometime to
have-a-look-see at the ex SAR ones there.
The climbing club that I am a member of (the Mercian MC) have a meet most years at the Oread MC cottage at Rhyd Ddu right next door to the station, we can watch the trains going past almost close enough to touch, and out of season of a weekend we see one a day running double-banked for engineering purposes. You can hear them approaching from Caernarvon a couple of miles away and the noise echoes strangely as they pass the lake and the Snowdon Ranger hostel with the crags of Mynydd Mawr the other side of the valley reflecting the sound back. Recommended for photography as you can cross the line and stand on a knoll just the other side to watch them thunder around the bend and into the station before going for one of the SOTA summits of the Snowdon range.
Note the crafty weaving of SOTA back into the thread!
My father had “1238 K” on a Morris Oxford. If he’d been just a bit quicker getting his wallet out he could have had “1234 K”.
However, that plate is only worth £10k if someone is prepared to give you £10k for it. I’m not prepared to spend money on gettng a personal plate, callsign or otherwise.
Note the crafty weaving of SOTA back into the thread!
You should have written “before going for one of the SOTA summits of the Snowdon range to operate on AM”.
I know the precise spot you mean as that’s where Paul and I parked up for Yr Aran GW/NW-019 almost 3 years ago. Maybe time for a revisit with the 70cm kit and the G8 call on a day when the railway is in action. One thing to be sure though, I won’t be running AM on that band - CW more like!
Wish I’d kept the registration number 325 EAN, from my first Mini.
Snap… well almost. 543 OHT - 1962 Willow Green Mini Van. Had that until 1977 when it’s bodywork was eventually beyond economic repair. I was so attached to it that I scrapped it myself to salvage what I could, taking the metal panels to the scrap yard in my “new” L reg 1973 Grey Mini Van. Right luxury!
IMHO it’s only a matter of time before we get some type of vanity callsign system in the UK.
The Americans can obtain a vanity call at very little cost, IIRC (maybe Barry or Elliott could let us know.) No doubt, UK amateurs will be asked to mortgage their houses for a vanity call.
Yep, the dreaded tin worm got my Mini too, Gerald. My girlfriend and myself, drove up to Cummnock for a holiday in 1974 and it poured dowm for the entire journey. After stopping at one of the motorway services, the Mini refused to start again. Do you remember the stupid place that the distributer was located …near to radiator grill, IIRC?
The heavy motorway rain had caused the distributor to fill with up with water and then the engine stopped. Simple soulution was WD40 and then put a rubber glove over the distributer and pull the four spark plug leads and the HT lead out through the fingers of the glove.
Worse was to come when we arrived at our destination in Scotland and found about 3 inches of water in the back of the car with the suit cases absolutly soaked and all the bags floating …the car leaked like a sieve.
I’ve got access to a vanity callsign… GM3PYU. I can, should I desire, pretend to have been licensed longer than I have been alive!
It’s already been on a car but that was eventually scrapped so I’m not sure if the plate can be reissued again. Not that I want it for myself.
No doubt, UK amateurs will be asked to mortgage their houses for a vanity call.
Rightly so. They should bring back the old system, you get the next one in the list. Or if you are prepared to wait, you can reserve a call not yet allocated if you have passed the test for that call. If that’s not good enough you should have your wallet fleeced for being vane in the 1st place. Start them at at least £1000.
IMHO it’s only a matter of time before we get some type of vanity
callsign system in the UK.
In 2004 the RSGB were approaching Ofcom with the desire to introduce vanity callsigns. There is a summary entry in the GB2RS news for 20th June 2004. Ofcom rejected the idea.
IMHO it’s only a matter of time before we get some type of vanity
callsign system in the UK.
In 2004 the RSGB were approaching Ofcom with the desire to introduce
vanity callsigns. There is a summary entry in the GB2RS news for 20th
June 2004. Ofcom rejected the idea.
Who knows Mike, maybe OFCOMs attitude may change if they realise there’s dosh to be made.
Its been possible to chose your call for F/L Intermediate and Full for quite some time, although I should imagine that most, if not all of the desirable ones have been issued already.
With apologies to Brian, for topic devaition …yet again
With apologies to Brian, for topic devaition …yet again
Not at all, mate - I’m here for the ride!
When I got my call I asked for G8BAC (my initials) to be reserved for me, but when it came up a few years later I was so used to G8ADD that I refused it.
Who knows Mike, maybe OFCOMs attitude may change if they realise
there’s dosh to be made.
Hello Mike, I think you may be right given the dire straights that the RSGB were left in following their financial ‘mishaps’. I would never ever dream of getting a vanity call. My call is the one I was randomly issued with 8-).
I have worked some stations who have had a SK in their family and taken over the call which I think is quite a nice thing to do.
As a nod to the Magic Dragon I intend to go AM tomorrow around 29.010 Mhz and see what happens. If anything exciting happens I will report back to this thread
I can tell you now that 75% of your RF power will be wasted.
Sob, tears welling up in my eyes… ok…G6TUH/QRP
I have recently found I can produce 1mW / 0dBm on 600M band which I think will get me to the end of the garden 8-(
Hopefully 29Mhz AM will fare better!
Mike G6TUH
Edit update: Afterthought ~~ I will put a note here when I am QRV. Any SWL reports welcome. If the MM0FMF theory is correct it will be 25W to a vertical!
