G7HZZ

My Ham Radio interests evolved from my interest in Short Wave Listening in the 1950s and 1960s when there were thousands of broadcast stations on the air ~ and much better propagation than nowadays.

As a teenager I would listen to English language stations from around the world and often send reports in order to receive their QSL cards, information packs, posters, stickers and calendars. My receiver was a fairly simple domestic valve radio, which in those days typically covered the broadcast bands, but not the Amateur bands, etc.

In 1961, I became interested in geology and archaeology after visiting a Roman Gold Mine in Wales. I later studied Geology and in 1967 began work as a geologist and undertook mineral resources surveys in many parts of England and Wales. In 1982 I was involved in developing geoscience databases and information systems, and later moved into marketing geoscience maps and books. I retired in 2011 and now just "bum around".

Backstory . . . . . .

During the mid 60s, I was in a small town rock band in Cheshire - euphemistically called "The Elite". We were pretty average, mostly playing what we called "Weddings, Christenings and Funerals". The Weddings and Christenings are self-explanatory: the "Funerals" were the Working Mens' Clubs, and where the audience hardly listened to us whilst they played cribbage or dominoes.

However, we did have our high point in 1966, playing in support of major touring bands that visited our humble town - notably The Small Faces and The Mindbenders. We also came second in the regional rock band competition in '66 and were asked to sign-up for a tour of the 'clubs' in Hamburg, but we declined and missed an opportunity to become rich dipsomaniac womanising addicts with mullets and a repertoire of rather uninteresting R&B music.

While other band members used commercially-built amplifiers, I had a couple of 'home-brew' amps, one of which (if I recall correctly) used two 6L6G valves in push-pull configuration, and which outclassed the cheaper commercial amplifiers of the day. There was also a super ex-BBC microphone which weighed several kilograms.

Then came geology and a trudge through a university 'education' that was - typical of the 1960s - quite unexciting, though very formative in giving me a foundation in quite rigorous scientific methodologies which has tended to make me quite 'pernicketty', analytical, and intolerant of idiots and 'fake' news, etc.