My first rig was a circuit from the Dec 1965 Practical Wireless, with the coils and capacitors increased in value to bring it down into the top end of MW. After lots of shocks and burnt fingers (I was 11) and aerials that blew down in the wind, my friends and I established a little radio station. We were astonished to discover that it could be clearly received over 40km away, and got a reception report to our mailing address from the lads on Veronica (about 65km to the west of us at sea at the time). That was 1969.

The PTT visited after a couple of months and when they discovered my age, they demanded that the rig was dismantled.

We stayed off the air for (I think) about 5 days, and got a second "Unfriendly Visit" about two months later. The second time, they impounded the rig.

The next effort was built with the help of a local radio engineer, was crystal controlled, and ran a couple of 813 bottles modulated with a pair of KT88s. This brute could develop serious amounts of power, and was housed in a nearby lock-up garage, and played out several hours of pre-recorded programmes each Saturday and Sunday.

That one lasted for about 5 months before it was impounded. Another 813-based brute, a VHF receiver tweaked to receive 82 MHz, and a little three transistor 82 MHz transmitter, and we were back to "live" programmes each weekend!

There followed a series of valved AM rigs until 1973, when I built my first (valved) VHF FM rig. It was all downhill from there, working for the Big Broadcasting Concern in the late 70s and early 80s whilst running a couple of London land-based efforts, then building copious numbers of rigs ever since.....