The club officers and committee hope that all members and their families had a very happy Christmas and would like to wish everyone a happy healthy and prosperous new year.

On Thursday 9^th October 2003 we were honoured to be visited by Rob Mannion G3XFD, editor of Practical Wireless Magazine.

After his talk he presented a trophy to the winner of the Practical Wireless VHF QRP Contest, Tim Boon M0AFC from Accrington.

Later our Chairman, Geoff Oliver G0BJR, announced that in view of Rob’s outstanding contribution to the hobby of Amateur Radio we were appointing him a Life Member of Oldham Amateur Radio Club. In confirmation of this Rob was given a Life Member’s Certificate designed and printed by our Secretary, Mike Crossley M1CVL. This prestigious award entitles Rob to visit us anytime and to receive a free copy of Old Hams News whether he wants it or not. Geoff also presented Rob with a bottle of Jameson’s Irish whiskey.

The presentations weren’t over yet. Geoff then presented Susan Hamilton with a flower arrangement in acknowledgement of her hard work in preparing a superb buffet that everyone tucked into immediately afterward.

Over 50 members and guests enjoyed the evening. Some were moved to comment that the evening had been, a great success, a rare treat, and one of the best evenings the club has ever had.

Ian Moth M0IJM took the photographs for this report. All his photographs of this evening can be seen in our Yahoo Club Group on the Internet.

It is with regret and sadness that I announce the death of club member Norman Lomas G3OGN.

Norman was born in 1923. He saw distinguished service with the Navy during the war in the Battle of the Atlantic. He served aboard HMS DIDO as a radar operator. Amongst the many tales he told me of his experiences of that time was one where he was involved with the capture of a German ‘U’ boat, the only one ever to be captured. Norman was also involved in sailing her back to Britain. Even after the war the Navy recalled him in 1952 for another short term of service.

Norman looked forward to and enjoyed immensely his annual reunions with his Naval colleagues in Liverpool each year. Ironically the 2003 reunion was the last to be held due to declining numbers of the celebrants. It was marked by the presence of HMS Ark Royal.

After the war he worked for Salford Electrical Instruments as a salesman until his early 60s. After that he worked for Northern Blankets in Royton until his retirement.

He became a licensed radio amateur in the 1950s after taking the course at Openshaw Tech. He took playing radio very seriously and was an avid constructor. He made several items of test equipment for the club and for a time he organised a club construction group which successfully built several projects.

He was the first club member to be awarded the Fred Lees Memorial Trophy for his work in refurbishing our radio shacks when we were located at Moorside Conservative Club. Special Event Stations were a great favourite of his and he attended many of them. He is pictured here at one such event in Oldham’s Central Library operating GB2OLE in 1992.

Besides Amateur Radio he was heavily involved with Amateur Dramatics firstly in Prestwich and later with the Middleton Amateur Dramatic Society.

He had suffered from Diabetes and Kidney problems towards the end of his life and for his last few months he moved to Lytham St. Annes to enable his daughter to more easily care for him. Soon after moving there he was diagnosed with Throat Cancer to which he quickly succumbed.

Norman died on Monday 13^th October 2003. His funeral was held at St. Anne’s Crematorium before any club members were aware of his passing.

Rest in Peace Norman.

With thanks to Norman’s life long friend Jack Elliot G3KIQ for his assistance in producing this tribute to Norman.

By Geoff Oliver G0BJR

This year the Oldham Amateur Radio Club Rally will be held on Sunday 18^th January 2004 at the Oldham Sports and Leisure Centre, Lord St. Oldham. Our Rally organiser Hazel Crabtree 2E1WIC has spent the past three months booking in traders and cajoling the ‘maybe and might do’ traders into making the right decision by booking some table space.

Other members involved with the organisation of the Rally are Geoff Ashton M0AUG, Mike Crossley M1CVL, Geoff Oliver G0BJR and Steve Crabtree M0CRZ.

At the risk of boring you all with the same message but once again the officers and committee appeal to all members to lend a hand on the day. Traders will be arriving at the Hall from 06:00 hours and as many members as possible will be required to help them transport their goods from their vehicles to their tables. Likewise similar assistance will be needed at the end of the Rally to move their unsold goods back to their vehicles and bid them bon voyage. Please remember that many of the traders will have long journeys to make and a further unloading task before their day is finished, so help from us will possibly lighten their workload, and hopefully encourage them to attend next years event.

Our colleagues from RADARS, the Rochdale and District Amateur Radio Society, will host the Bring ‘n’ Buy once again this year.

It will be a hard days work for us, but as it’s our only fund raising event please try to help. Despite this there will be time to take full advantage of the rally and enjoy ourselves.

CHAPTER TWO - KNOTS and SPLICES

The Seamanship job, knots and splices was great, but there was worse to come as we were introduced to the gunnery school, the gunners mate and the joys of action stations. What we said about him and his mum not being married I leave to your imagination. We also had a few days of 303-rifle target practice. I did much better with that by scoring more bulls. However someone shot a cow on the hillside behind the targets - the farmer was not best pleased.

The end of training came at last, and everyone was getting ready to go on leave. As for me I had to go in dock for an operation. I had a hernia, so that meant 3 weeks flat on my back in an air raid shelter. It was a decontamination centre for gas attack and used as a ward for people who couldn’t be moved during air raids. I shared it with 3 other chaps who were also having operations. All this lot and I hadn’t had a smell of the war. But soon the German bombers came over during my last week and the crunch of bombs in Plymouth was like a November 5^th night sky.

Upon my recovery I finally had 3 weeks leave. I managed to catch my brother John on leave at the same time. He was RN like myself but a gunner on merchant ships called DEMS Defence Equip Merchant Ships. He did convoy work along the south coast and got plenty of hammer from the shore batteries on the French coast. Later he made lots of runs across the ‘Herring Pond’ to New York where he made many friends. As a result of that we received many food parcels at home, and very welcome they were too.

After my leave I reported back to HMS DRAKE at Devonport Royal Naval Barracks. From there I transferred to Tobermory on the Isle of Mull as ‘Ships Company’ on the "Western Isles", a training ship for new ships company. The skipper was the famous Commodore Stevenson, "The Terror of Tobermory". He had a team of specialist officers to train the new Frigate and Corvette crews in the rigors of battle, and the tales about him went through the Fleet. I’m sure he left everyone quaking in their boots. If you are interested you can read about him in the book, "The Terror of Tobermory", written by Lt. Comm. Richard Baker, retired. He was in a visiting ship at the time. He told me by letter that he was on HMS Peacock. Richard Baker became famous as a BBC TV Newsreader after the war and the presenter of The Last Night of the Proms.

That didn’t affect me, I was inboard Jack (I had to get that one in). I was "ships company" - that meant I had to help in the running of the ship, even in my capacity as an Ordinary Seaman. As an able seaman or AB you had to pass all the seamanship tests in the manual and every 3 years you received a good conduct stripe or badge.

My first job was in the Signal office; my boss was Chief Yeoman of Signals Mr Payne. My job was a messenger, taking signals round the ship on a clipboard. Any messages received in the w/t office I took to the Chief. He marked off the officers concerned and I had to find them.

I don’t think I had quite as good a job in my life. I had all the info at my fingertips and I never got dirty, (more later).

At this stage I was watch keeping with another "bod". Our periods of duty were 4 hours on then 4 off, we both missed coal ship every Tuesday. That was an added bonus besides getting neat rum (the lads got 2 of water one of rum). We called the rum "Grog". Every one shared the coal ship because of the lunchtime fare of corn beef mash and peas. It couldn’t be more compatible with coal dust, it even got behind the eyeballs. The dress of the day was a pair of overalls and sea boots, and most finished up "Black as the Hobs of ‘Ell" using a Naval expression.

My next job was quartermaster on the gangway. The sail maker, a 3 badge AB, approached me and offered to instruct me in the Bosuns pipe. This was done well below decks out of earshot of everyone else. I must have done alright as I was given the job. That was to accompany the officer of the watch, who I must add, was as green as me. My duties were to write up the ships log, including weather conditions, visitors to the ship and Pipe each skipper on board also going ashore. This included the Commodore who sometimes went ashore in Civvy dress. He would wave his hand and say "don’t pipe". He was always great with the ships company, but he was the Terror of Tobermory to the visiting ships.

During this period I remember one morning watch 0400 -0800 I heard a call from the bridge lookouts. A submarine with Aldis lamp was flashing Red 90. To my surprise I read the message quite clearly, ‘HMS Thunderbolt passing through the Sound of Mull’. I discovered later that "She" was the old Thetis, which sank in Liverpool Bay 1938 on its trials. She was later raised and renamed.

I was given a new job as Liberty Boats Crew. This was a Diesel launch with a good well deck astern with seating for liberty men. It had a funnel amidships and a small wheelhouse for the sailmaker our cox’n. My job was bowman at the sharp end with a boathook, and to sort out the seating arrangements. Again we were turn about with another crew, so it meant we were off every other night. There was a small hatch forward of the funnel, It led to a mess deck with room for 3 hammocks, and a stove to brew up on and plenty of coal.

One stormy night the cox’n hung his hammock before he went ashore for his usual pub run. He had the fire burning in the stove. He came back well tanked up and climbed into his hammock. How he did that I don’t know, but later he had to obey the call of nature. He put one foot out of the hammock and sat on the hot stove. That meant a lot of cleaning up and a spell in Rose Cottage (Hospital).

The launch used to be tied up alongside a steel door in the side of the ship where we could get on board, and also load the coal. At the time I was on the gangway, and the liberty boat was due to go ashore for the last time that day. Our friend Stripey, the relief cox’n had just come back, 3 sheets to the wind and half asleep. We heard the pipe "Away Liberty boats crew" and the lads in the mess deck said, "that’s you Stripy" so away he went. Meanwhile the other crew had left the ship and being a dark night Stripey put his foot out into thin air. Result - "Man over board". It was one of many incidents I can always look back on and have a laugh. We never lost any crew members I am glad to say.

It was now Christmas 1942 and we were all getting ready for leave and their "Rabbits" (duty free cigs at 4 pennies for 20 Woodbines or one pound of "Tickler" Tobacco" for 2/6 that was our monthly issue). Tobermory is a very nice place to visit especially in winter. The show of the " Northern Lights" or the "Aurora Borealis" in Mull I will always remember. I believe Aurora, a Roman word, meant "Goddess of the Dawn" and Borealis, Northern Magnetic Pole.

Regarding entertainment in Tobermory. I was very interested in dancing and I discovered that dances were held at the Church hall run by Chrissie, who incidentally was also the lady who gave us an early morning call. The sound of that Scottish musical voice over the ships tannoy got a BUZZ going round the ship. So everyone wanted to meet Chrissie. She turned out to be quite good looking in the Battleship class, but very pleasant and she gave us all a good time with the Scottish dances. At the time I preferred modern dances so I felt like a fish out of water (if you will excuse the term) but I did get a bit of the drift of what it was all about.

I digress a bit and mention my oppo: or opposite number who used to relieve me. I discovered he was getting his feet under the table of a resident of the Island. The lady was a widow, with a daughter of school age. She had lost her husband during the war. He introduced me to her before he was drafted to the mainland. She was a nice young lady about twice my age. A pack of butter or bacon from the canteen helped the friendship along. At the time the shortages were quite chronic.

Catering in the ship was canteen messing. We each had an allowance to spend on our grub. Each day the Leading Seaman in charge of the mess made out a chit, so we could get the stores for the day and plan our meals. If we missed breakfast, (bacon and such) and had a slice of bread fried in fat in the galley, we got a refund of 10 bob at the end of the month. That meant a lot, mind you a slice of bread was enough. It was very thick and heavy as we made our own. That was canteen messing on a small ship. Mind you the Western Isles was an old Belgian cattle boat before the war and refitted, but it turned out to be an excellent job.

At the end of 1942 it was time again for a draft and some leave. I was sent back to H.M.S. Drake my base, for a week or so then on to another camp for a short spell. It was called Glen Holt, a Holiday camp in peacetime; it was out in the country near Plymouth. Then it was back to Drake for a few days. At least we had our own cinema, and a canteen where we could get great Pasties. We called them Hoggies, and Cornishmen, hoggy waffers. The rest of the Barracks food was not too bad provided you could tolerate cold fried egg and bacon. The lunchtime fare was always soup - it was great and plentiful. Then a Pestle of pork, boiled up. The leftovers ended up as supper at 1900, but if you were Liberty men at 1700 you always missed out on your supper. But you could always get a decent meal and a bed for the night, also a good hot bath, which I had at weekends whether I needed it or not. Regarding the cinema in the Barracks, it was well worth attending even a bad film, as the comments from lads were well worth hearing. When you think of it, these lads never knew what was around the corner. Some didn’t give a toss - they were young.

I knew very little about Plymouth in my short stay as a Barrack stanchion, (an old Naval expression as only old sailors would know). But when I was in my home Port I visited either the Sailors Rest or Agnes Westerns. Both did good service to the lads who were far from home and in the Naval service. Our good lady Aggie was very well known long before my time.

I was getting quite used to the system. I decided it was no use bucking it. So I kept my nose clean. Others seemed to go the other way. There were a few who kicked back at the system, they did their chokey and didn’t seem too bothered about it. Chokey meant they had to go to a training camp, and their mates had to escort them there, as I will reiterate later. Naval Laws mixed with traditions did seem a bit strange to a landlubber, but who am I to say what’s right or wrong about it. I went along with it and it was no trouble to me.

In April 1943 I was drafted to Blythe near Newcastle to join H.M.S. Dart fresh from home leave. I had just started a courtship with my future wife. It was Elsie’s 21st birthday, so I asked our postman to get me a card. As we had a couple of weeks in the dock before trials, I was hoping to get a reply back. It was a great experience, with bag and hammock and other new shipmates in a lorry from the station, all wondering what the ship was like, and as it turned out crammed together like sardines. There were 4 separate messes of 18 each, so 72 bodies living quite close to the waterline of the ship. Not a lot space to sling your hammock, so some slept on the lockers or on the deck (floor). There were some lads who couldn’t get used to a hammock. I’m glad to say I found mine great. I had a space next to the iron ladder so a few steps and I was in, with my back to a bulkhead light which was always on even at lights out. It was an emergency light with a back up battery. So book in hand, my head on the top of my hat sometimes for a pillow. I could drift away and dream of home, and forget the war for a spell.

Our Captain told us to go to the local cinema to see "In which we serve" to get some idea what war was all about, (they still push it at us even today).

We sailed to another dock for degaussing, (that’s a word from memory). This involves putting a big cable round the ship, to take any residual magnetism out of the hull. Apparently hammering metal in a dockyard, makes it magnetic and great for magnetic mines. So an A/C current is passed through the cable to neutralise the magnetic flux. A few runs out to sea were our trials, to see that everything was working. It was alright on deck in the fresh air but down below in the warm, with the smell of fuel oil made the old tummy do flip flops. To get down on your bunk or locker made it worse. I thought I would never get used to it. The trick was keeping the mind busy. The P.O in charge gave us plenty to do and within a few days nobody was seasick.

Sea time was split into 7 watches, 5 of 4 hours and 2 of 2 hours called dogwatches. So the first watch 20:00 to 00:00 midnight is taken by Red watch, then midnight to 04:00 taken by White watch. Blue will take 04:00 until 08:00 then Red again, the forenoon watch to 12:30, which gave a chance to the White watch to get their dinner and do the afternoon watch 12:30 to 16:00. Then it was first dog 16:00 to 18:00 Blue watch, Red again second dog 18:00 to 20:00 then White went to first watch till midnight.

The system wasn’t too bad but when we were working in a danger area, we did two watches Port and Starboard. Which meant we did 4 hours on and 4 hours off and a bit rough. The old names were Larboard and Starboard. But as they sounded the same, they changed to Port and Starboard. By the way Port is the Left side of the ship indicated by a Red light and Starboard is the Right side indicated by a Green light. This is seamanship law and rules of the road for ships passing at night.

There were other watches - first part of port and second part of port - first part of starboard and second part of starboard. Very confusing but all logged on your station card, which you kept around your neck with your pay book and your dog tag. Mind you we always had to work 08:00 to 12:00 even if we were off watch. At sea most of the lads were doing lookout duty on the bridge, each side with binoculars and some at the Stern over the Gun hoist. This was a raised platform with 2 Oerlikon guns on each side. We had 10 altogether on the ship as well as two 4 inch guns fore and aft with duty gun crew. We all had to be able to take over each other’s jobs in an emergency. So we had to practice each day as gun crew or depth charges - my main job in submarine attacks, and a loading number on the Oerlikon during aerial attacks.

After our trials our first trip was round the north of Scotland, to the west via the Pentland Firth, then Little Minches to, would you believe, Isles of Mull and Tobermory Bay. We got the full treatment. It was all "by the book" and I can’t recall having any shore leave.

It wasn’t long before we were off again, this time to Belfast, thankful that our workup exercise was over. The Commodore had his pound of flesh. It was early morning and very foggy, we approached Belfast with foghorns blasting. Luckily we had the R.D.F - now called Radar. It was still in the experimental stages, and very secret. It saved a lot of lives. Two of our youngest members were delegated to work that turn about, I’m sure they were only 17. We used to call them ‘Stroppy little B-------‘ as they were full of it.

By George Stead G0GSQ

Many thanks to Bertie Whitcher G7JUL for his help with editing this piece. (Editor)

OLD HAMS NEWS

Every year Old Hams News is submitted for entry into the ‘Local Clubs’ category of the Practical Wireless Spotlight Club Magazine competition. This year was no exception and in April the last 3 editions of our rag were despatched. As you may remember we actually won the competition in 2000 but in subsequent years we haven’t faired too well. This year 5 judges viewed the various entries and each could award marks out of 10 to each entrant. Therefore the results listing that you see below gives scores from which 50 was the maximum and is taken from the December 2003 edition of Practical Wireless.

    1. South Dorset ARC 47.75
    2. Cleddau ARC 46.50
    3. Worthing & District ARC 46.00
    4. Oldham ARC 45.25
    5. Harrow RS 45.00
    6. Yeovil ARC 44.75
    7. Warrington ARC Points not stated.
    8. Braintree & District ARC 43.50
    9. St. Leonards ARC 42.50

This is a much better result than last year so let’s hope we can improve again this year. Many thanks to all those who have contributed to our magazine. Please keep the articles coming in.

A report in the October 2003 edition of Old Hams News described the preparations that had taken place to make ready for the erection of our new mast.

Shortly after the concrete base was laid the mast was delivered. Then arrangements were made to actually assemble the structure the during the weekend after Rob Mannion’s visit and opening ceremony. Prior to this certain extra plans and preparations were made to accommodate the size and weight of the mast.

The actual fixing point of the mast onto the base is some 6 feet above ground level so Steve Crabtree M0CRZ and Chris Cunliffe G7OOD erected at frame with a hoist mounted thereon to help with the basic lifting of the mast. Then the mast was slowly lifted onto a small scaffolding tower and manoeuvered into position and the locating pin was slid into position.

The winches were mounted and the wire ropes attached and the mast was cranked into the vertical position. A test lift was made telescoping the mast to it’s full height and then it was lowered back to it’s parking position.

The rotator cage was fitted onto the top section and the rotator bolted on. A certain amount of engineering had to be undertaken to accomplish this task but Chris Cunliffe G7OOD expertly carried this out.

On the down side some of the nearby residents have complained to Oldham Council about the mast. It seems they are fearful that another Vodafone mast has gone up at the ATC. A council planning officer has visited the site and at the moment we are going through a planning exercise, in conjunction with the ATC, with the council. We are confident that once everyone knows that this is nothing to do with Mobile phones that the issue can be amicably resolved.

Thanks are due to the following members who helped out with this task.

Chris Cunliffe G7OOD, Steve Crabtree M0CRZ, Alan Burgess G4GLV, Peter Rushton G7PMZ, Ian Firby G7VCG, Stuart Wilson G7MFK, Neil Hemingway G7BPM, Geoff Oliver G0BJR.

The editor would like to thank all contributors to this edition of Old Hams News. The next edition is due to be issued in April 2004. Any contributions for this edition should be forwarded to the editor, Geoff Oliver G0BJR on or before Thursday 18^th March 2004 to ensure inclusion.

Articles will be accepted on many formats, via email to "oarc@zen.co.uk", hand or type written notes, as a .txt file on a 3½-inch floppy disc, or by word of mouth. Photographs, drawings, circuit diagrams and other graphics to enhance your article will also be most welcome. In order to keep the cost of producing Old Hams News as low as possible, photographs in the hard copy version will be reproduced in black and white only. The Internet edition will show the photographs in colour. Occasionally, photographs excluded from the paper edition due to technical and/or space limitations could be added to the Internet version.

If you submit an article for inclusion in Old Hams News and you do not wish it to be included in the Internet edition you must state your wishes at the time of submission. Otherwise the editor reserves the right to include/exclude your article as he sees fit.

For reference the officers and committee members are listed below and will be happy to help with any enquiries you may have.

Chairman – Geoff Oliver G0BJR
G0BJR@thersgb.net
Secretary – Mike Crossley M1CVL             Treasurer – Geoff Ashton M0AUG
M1CVL@thersgb.net                                                          M0AUG@thersgb.net
Craig Taylor G7MCT     Chris Cunliffe G7OOD
Stuart Wilson G7MFK     Steve Crabtree M0CRZ
Sue Burgess G4RKE

N.B. Old Hams News is the official journal of the Oldham Amateur Radio Club. It is distributed free of charge to all fully paid up members of the club. Articles appearing herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the editor, the Officers and Committee, or the membership of Oldham Amateur Radio Club. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of articles included, the editor is not responsible for any inaccuracy that may occur.

Written, edited and produced by Geoff Oliver G0BJR

© Oldham Amateur Radio Club 2004