16. Trevors Bolt

Getting away from sadism and masochism (TX crews and Competitors) or a while, a tale of technology gone wrong. In preparation for the National Final that Mid-Thames club was to run down in the Bristol area, Trevor Gage wanted to check that each transmitter to be used (before Chris built standard identical TX’s) could be heard over the full range that he proposed to use them. In order to keep this information to himself, he organised a test with Chris and Bill North. Chris put up a mainly vertical wire to the water tower that supports the GB3SN 2m repeater aerials, and with Bill connected each of the transmitters in turn whilst Trevor went to locations every 2.5 miles across the map towards Guildford. Trevor heard all the transmitters at every lay-by right out to 25 miles. When he returned for some lunch in Four Marks, Trevor described his new innovation that Colin Boyce and he had devised to switch in attenuation to the input signal when the signals were strong, as they had been close to the site. This consisted of a bolt across the gap in his receiver antenna to short out the gap in the shielding , thus acting as a one turn shorting loop. They had thought of the material problems with the bolt being right next to the compass on Trevors set, so had chosen a brass bolt.

Over lunch we decided to check the accuracy of Trevors bearings at all the bearing sites, only to find they were all 60^o out. On investigation, we found that although the bolt was all brass and non-magnetic, the screws that Colin had used to fix it to the frame were brass plated steel. So Trev had good if not accurate bearings. Pity we told him really, he’s done well since replacing the screws.