Watson's Radio Club

CCF Signals Section

Reminiscences by (Sgt) Alan Masson and (Cpl, later Sgt) David Hutchon.

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The Signals Section of the Combined Cadet Force also had a transmitting station (callsign '24') at Watson's in the 1950-60s. It was located in "The 12-Set Room" in the attic above the Hall (in contrast with the Radio Club, which was in a room in the basement under the hall! The equipment was a Wireless Set No. 12 ("12 Set") transmitter running about 25 watts on AM and CW, and weighing about a ton, and two R-107 receivers. Later this equipment was replaced by a Wireless Set No.19 ("19 Set"), a low-power (10W?) transceiver used in tanks in WWII, and possibly used in junction with an HPA - High Power Amplifier. (See photos below). The aerial was an end-fed wire, probably a 3/4-wavelength on the most popular frequency - 5205kHz. Operation was on frequencies in the lower HF band which gave quite good coverage of most of the UK: LU ("Lima Uniform") - AM on 5205kHz, Whisky Lima - AM on 4030 kHz and Kilo Romeo (freq?) which was CW-only. There wasn't a lot of CW activity but there was some, mostly by those operators who had gained their Amateur Radio licences which in those days required passing a 12wpm Morse test as well as the Radio Amateurs' Exam! Operation was on the 'National Net', contacts were with other schools, and QSL cards were exchanged! Callsigns included (from memory, and from David Hutchon, along with QSL cards):

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                                            Callsign                  School

                                                 14C          Loughborough Grammar School

                                                 17            Dauntsey's School

                                                 19            Edinburgh Academy

                                                 22            Fettes College

                                                 24            George Watson's College

                                                 37            Melville College

                                                 38            Merchant Taylor's School, Northwood

                                                 55            Newcastle Grammar School

                                                 81            Daniel Stewarts College

                                      Also:  31A          Net Monitor! (Jack Hargreaves, G5VO)

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A keen operator of 55 (Newcastle Grammar School) in the 1960s was Nick Henwood, who soon gained his Amateur licence - G3RWF - and became a renowned DXer. Ultimately (2016) he became the President of the RSGB.  He gave a talk on DX operating to the Lothians Radio Society in 2014 (click).

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The Net Monitor (you never knew if he was listening!) also held a venerable 2-letter Amateur callsign (G5VO) and he did appear on the net from time to time, upon which operating procedures instantly improved!. His amateur QSL card is at the bottom of this section.

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The cluster of National Net stations in the Edinburgh area engendered a camaraderie among the operators, who visited each other's stations and met socially outside of school hours, as well as attending the Lothians Radio Society. A number of them obtained their Amateur Radio Licences and still keep in touch.

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David Hutchon recalls his first inter-school communication, which was in morse. For some reason the 12-Set would not transmit voice but it would send morse, which in David's case was quite slow. So he sent "CQ, CQ" in morse and back came, he thinks, Daniel Stewarts (callsign 81) on voice. David struggled on with his morse and they again replied on voice. This was David's first wireless communication, and he was hooked!

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One small snag about the location of the 12-Set Room was that it provided access to the Science Store Room for the teachers and technicians, and so was never secure. Your scribe remembers an occasion when, after gaining his Amateur callsign GM3PSP in his 6th year, he made use of a 'library period' to work some stations on  the 40m Amateur band using the 12 Set and R-107. In the middle of a QSO the door opened and in walked - John Hughes the physics teacher - who fortunately was also GM3LCP, and was not amused. However, he said "finish your QSO, and then get back to studying in the library"! Any other teacher (apart from Tom Simpson) would no doubt have insisted on an immediate QRT! 

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David says he would never of course have gone up to the 12-Set Room when he was supposed to be studying but the only hanky panky he remembers in the 12 Set Room was at one of the school dances, and the girl he had taken was fascinated by radios etc - at least he is sure that is why he took her up there!

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On November 22, 1963 David was at the Debating Society when someone came into the Lecture Room to say that President Kennedy had been shot. Malcolm Rifkind and some others went with David up to the 12-Set Room where they got the news on the radio.

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At some point the WS12 stopped working correctly; not entirely surprising as the WS12 was early WW2 production and faults occurring in the 1960s were hardly to be unexpected. The mains transformer was becoming hot, and someone (who is not recorded) desoldered all the secondary connections. The transformer still got hot, and the matter was referred to the relevant authorities, which in this case turned out to be a REME Warrant Officer. He looked at the ailing WS12, complete with its disconnected mains transformer secondaries and then pronounced “well, you’ve got power going in there but no power coming out there so it’s bound to get hot, isn’t it”. And that was the end of the WS12 at George Watson’s.

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Then there was the night exercise on Castlelaw Hill in the Pentland Hills, adjacent to the military firing range. The Signals platoon, led by your scribe as Sergeant, set up tents and aerial masts to operate in a 24-hour radio competition to contact as many other National Net stations as possible. The equipment was a 19-Set. Things were going moderately well until some of the 'other ranks' unpacked their cans of beer and cigarettes and soon became less than useless, including a certain corporal chanting "down in one, down in one"! But that wasn't all - during the night a gale blew up and it wasn't long before the aerial masts came down and operation stopped. There was no way to get back on the air so we retired to our tents. Then in the morning before we had a chance to try to get back in action  we were inspected by Major Donald Doull who was in overall charge of the Signals Section. He was not impressed!

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Donald Doull was actually a very kindly gentleman, whom we all miss. David recalls that at the last CCF camp he attended, at Cultybraggan Camp near Comrie in Perthshire Donald took out the senior NCOs for a drink. He went round them asking what they wanted. The first two said lager and David wanted to say shandy but got mixed up and asked for a Pimms! Major Doull did not oblige.