Where it all started....

That was the year, that was...2020...!!

 Hello folks!

Hope this very very late addition to my blog finds you all well?

What a year this has been! One which we shall remember all our lives, no doubt.

Covid19 has changed our lives dramatically....sadly some have lost their lives to it.

All we can do is sit and wait till it fades away...we are virtually powerless and as we speak, there is talk of a new variant being found, which is an evolved version that is even more deadly and immune to mask-wearing and all the present precautions we are taking.

That said, let's move away from those miserable thoughts and chat about EMI!

On my sister blog emiradiohams.blogspot.co.uk I have had quite a few comments from ex-employees of EMI, but this blog has received none at all....at some time, hopefully during the Xmas holidays, i will decide to close one blog down and incorporate everything in just one single one.

I myself have moved out of Hayes and so have lost touch with the few EMI personnel whom I used to meet there, namely Mike Greengrow, Phil Armstrong, and very fleetingly, that art dodger of EMI, Ron Snowball himself! I'm sure he will not mind me giving him that nickname!

So, as we speak, the world is in a right mess...jobs are disappearing fast, and woebetide you if like myself, you are over 50.....even youngsters are not finding jobs and are having to run Uber cabs or pizza delivery to make ends meet.

Just a few more names have come to mind when I used to work at EMI....Ted Deer was in charge of the microwave adapters cupboard in the main Test Area at Dawley 1. He was over 50 at the time (1984) so he has probably passed away by now.

Another chap, I can only recall his first name now....called Paul, also worked in the Searchwater Test Area 1, testing the radar receiver in a quaint little RF protected cabin. Also helping him was another new engineer who joined at the time, name of Steve (surname unknown)...this new engineer worked there for around a year and then left....only to reappear in an electronics periodical as Stephanie.....unknown to us, he had left EMI and had a gender change operation and was now a woman.

Of course, nowadays that is fully accepted but back then in the 80s, it did raise a few eyebrows.

Colin Clements is a follower of this blog, whom many of you may know...he worked on the RF bench at Searchwater radar, tuning RF connectors and plotting VSWRs etc!

The fabled Frank Goulty I lost touch with soon after I left EMI in 1984....as well as Bertie Joseph, one of only a few black guys working at EMI. Brian Gordon was another one who worked briefly at Searchwater but left after a few years to emigrate to Florida, USA.

One or two other names I recall are an Indian chap called Pala, who I heard had also moved to the USA whilst I was at EMI and another guy named Chagan Patel, who worked on development work, also moved to the USA.

Finally, a young guy (at the time) who worked with us at Searchwater test, was an apprentice named Rayat (again, first name completely gone!)....our colleague Gianni Jarvis who follows this blog, may recall Rayat.....he left after his apprenticeship ended and worked for a computer company where he became Vice President, no less....I came across him recently on Facebook Messenger where he told me he left corporate life years ago and now refurbs property for a living!

Well, that has exhausted my few brain cells that still remain active, so I will bid you adieu until next time....if I don't post again before Xmas, here's wishing you all a very merry one and with all good wishes for the coming new year!

PS if you wish to email me, youre welcome....I'm on     gpo888@gmail.com

How I joined EMI....way back in 1976...!

It's a kinda funny story really....

I'd just finished my HNC at Harrow College, next to Northwick Park hospital and because I didnt have any experience working in the electronics field, I first worked as...wait for it...a train guard on the London Underground, then left and worked for a few months with a TV rental firm called Visionhire (those were the days when many people couldnt afford to buy colour TVs, so they rented them instead, form companies like Visionhire, RadiRentals, Granada, Multi Broadcast etc etc...all defunct companies now of course..). Just for a bit of nostalgia, here are some photos from that era...
















 



 


 


 


 



 








 

ok, ok...nothing to do with radar...but i fancied Diana Rigg in the TV series The Avengers like mad...she broke many teenagers boys hearts....!

and Diana Rigg as she is today in 2013....alas...time is our enemy.....

 


 





After around 8 mths there, I left that job too and found one much nearer to home, which I could even walk to if I wanted. That lasted just 4 mths, as I'd applied through the local job centre for a position at EMI (it wasnt called Thorn EMI then).

Well, after not hearing anything from EMI, I forgot all about it, thinking that it was a waste of time, but lo and behold, after around 8 mths, I got a letter from them saying I had passed the security checks and could I come in for an interview!

I attended the interview, but I admit I had ot waffle through it, as the personnel officer asked me a load of technical questions about which I hadnt the faintest idea what he was on about! I was also grilled about the Official Secrets Act, which I had to sign as part of the job, as I'd be working on classified material....(James Bond theme comes to mind here.....!)

He asked me if I could use an oscilloscope...yes; could I use a frequency generator...yes: then he looked at his crib sheet and asked if I could use a spectrum analyser...well, I said...yes, I can, but it all depends which make!! This very last question, I felt, was the one that made the interviewer decide to take me on....thinking back now...if I'd spoken the truth, and told him no, I'd never used a spectrum analyser, my whole life would have changed, as I'd never have landed the job at EMI, and all those events thereafter in the world of technology, would have eluded me. Isn't it absolutely amazing how life is.....?

By the way, when the time came to use a spectrum analyser, I found the Staff already working on the radar so very helpful....they knew I'd just left college and so would need to be shown a few things before I "picked up" speed....guys like Steve Read, Cyril Heard, John Gilbert etc were instrumental in my becoming an expert with RF measurement techniques.

He asked a few more questions and said that was fine, and would I mind coming with him on a tour of the place?

So we walked all the way from the personnel building, whihc was situated down Blyth Road, crossed the Dawley Road, and walked into the radar section. We first toured Radar House 2, which was the design and development building, then walked over to Radar House 1, which was where the radar was actually built, tested and shipped from.

Soon after that, I was invited to my first real job in the exciting filed of radar electronics...the rest is history!

Cymbeline ground radar as built by EMI Hayes, UK

This pic shows a Cymbeline radar mounted atop a military vehicle. The photo looks like it may have been taken at Hayes, Middx.







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Thorn-EMI..50 years of radar book

A hard-to-get-hold-of book about radar at Thron-EMI...it's still available at amazon.com at around £10...a must for ex-EMI engineers...plenty of pics of the old staff and management (boooo!!).

Searchwater radar as used in the Falklands war...

Another shot showing a Sea King helicopter fitted with Searchwater radar system, used to much effect in the Falklands war

Thorn-EMI Searchwater radar system mounted on Sea King helicopter

this photo shows the helicopter version of the Searchwater radar system, designed and built at Thorn EMI Radar, Dawley Road, hayes, Middx, UK where i worked back in the 80s