ok, folks, so here we go...
so far, the first 2 radio bods who come to my mind straight away are chap called John (or Big John, to give him his very appropriate monicker!), and one Dave Page.
these two guys both worked at EMI (which later became Thorn-EMI, but more of that later), at the Radar building that was known as Dawley 1. Basically, there were 2 buildings on Dawley Road, Hayes, Middx, building 1 being the QA, test and production facility and building 2 being the R&D facility.
Dave Page, as far as i can recall, started off as an apprentice in the old days, as that usually was the way employment was in those days, gradually moving up into his final position of senior test engineer, working on the famous Searchwater (search-puddle, as we called it!) airborne radar, which apparently is still in use by the RAF in its Nimrod aircraft.
the other guy called Big John started with EMI much later, i would say just a few years before Thorn-EMI closed down, somtime around 1989 or thereabouts.
this guy was nicknamed Big John, because thats what he was...over 6.5 feet tall and as wide as 2 barn doors!
in fact, EMI legend has it that he lifted a young junior engineer up by his ankles and held him upside down for a while, when the young guy immediately shut up!
this john guy (i cant recall his surname) used to drive an oldish Ford Transit van, which he had converted inside to house all his radio gear, and he used to go out at lunch time to fiddle about in there.
i lost touch unfortumately with all the engineers at EMI when i left in 1986, hence the reason why ive set up this blog, in the hope that either or all of them may come across it on the web and leave a message here.....
ok, enough for today...more to follow...
