Hi all,

I think the vast majority of us who took an active role in transmitting are all a tad to old now and not as mobile as we once were so the idea of stringing up a nice longwire would be less than fun sadly, and as for running from Ofcom well need I say more. But I am sure many of us have good tales to tell. So to start this off I will tell of one site we used for AM ie 1368khz 1975 / 78 in those days someone seen carrying bags with wires hanging out of them and silver metal boxes etc would have been seen as different, funny, and maybe just a little interesting but nothing more! Yea try that today guys and find yourself in the sights of a police sharp shooters rifle at the very least. But back in the day it generated nothing but the odd one or two onlookers and when asked we always told them what it was and why! Many of them made a point of tuning in, which takes me back to the particular story. We would always go and put the longwire up on the Saturday prior to using it on Sunday. The site we used was in Barnet on very high ground you could see much of London from it. One particular Saturday morning we were in the middle of using the high power catapult to send the fishing line over the two Popular trees so nice and high as you know these Popular trees can grow as high as an average AM mast or even more and these two were no exception from the rule. Well one end of the wire being the transmitter end backed on to some house gardens and at most we would just get the odd good morning from those who lived there but this one particular old lady bless her came and said hello and the next week she came to the fence with a tray with 2 nice big mugs of tea and biscuits well bless her she did this every week throughout our using this very site. I have never forgotten this sweet little old lady she was a pure Diamond. I think she must have also brought us good luck because this site was one that never got raided not once.

So over to you for the next tale guys???

Garry Stevens