Old Timer's of Isle of Man Amateur Radio Society (IOMARS)
I have been asked by members of the Island Radio Club here on the Isle of Man to put together a page such as the one that I have done for the scrapbook of Alec Anderson (GD3HQR), but for all the old operators living and past on that lived and operated on and around the Island over the years.
Please keep calling back as this will be updated as and when I get photos.
Local Hams
Below is a page from the 1983 RSGB Call book that shows the few members that we had active back then, sadly there are not many of these left today, though you cannot help wonder how many actual ‘Active’ members there are now compared to then????
Most amateurs here are aware that I purchased Douglas’s old Versatower 120ft tower from him back in the summer of 2011, the reason the lucky git didn’t need it was that he had found a much better way to get his SteppIR off the ground, and after seeing this in action, I don’t blame him, it certainly makes it easy to get the beam out of the bad winds that we can get here.
Douglas had been what I can only say is the best of friends I have met in a long while, He has some wonderful stories and his work ethics are as OCD as mine, basically a ‘REALLY’ good friend.
Douglas Dodd (GD3RFK) has a great Location in the very North of the Island, and with this he was also very lucky in erecting the 120ft Mast to mount various antenna’s upon.
In his day Douglas has been known to make quite a few antenna’s to work along side his Hy-gain Beams.
The Photo of the Quad Antenna was actually made from a kit by a Canadian company and was either called orbased on the antenna called a GEM Quad Antenna.
Douglas (GD3RFK) remarked that these two Amateurs were great characters, but both are now sadly Silent Keys. Johnny was from St. Johns, and very much into the White Witchcraft scene that was once very common place on the Isle of Man, the person sitting next to Johnny is Bruce, from the Grove Mount area of Ramsey and were great friends with Douglas.
Jurby Days
Back I the day many event were put on, and normally at any excuse possible as well, these were either organized through the Isle of Man Amateur Radio Society (IOMARS) or through separate members of other organizations such as RAFARS (Royal Air Force Amateur Radio Society), etc.
This photo dates back to either 1985 when Mike had ‘Black Hair’, personally I think he die’ d it, I don’t think he has ever had ‘Black’ hair, mind you we cannot tell from this photo whether he had his hairy legs with him.
Another RAFARS Logbook taken from Jurby Day here in the Isle of Man, this time from 1989.
Going Back even further...
G3DA
Setting up equipment for the very first 70cm DXpedition and activation on the Isle of Man, setting up gear on the top of Snaefell, Early 1950’s
GD3A was the ‘Big Wig’ in Civil Aviation Authority and was based in Liverpool.
This is the stuff I have been after but for some reason, most of the amateurs that have large collections of old photos, of the good times of Amateur Radio would rather they hold on to them and then they get thrown out or buried somewhere when they become SK. I know of at least 1 collection that was thrown on the garden fire when they were cleaning out the house of a deceased amateur over hear, it is so sad that no one else gets to se these people and what they got up to. I wish more people cared about the good old days of amateur radio.
Thanks to Douglas Dodd (GD3RFK) for this great photo.
And Maybe Just as Far!
We have an Amateur on the Island that has been a good friend to me, we have had a few years where I did not see eye to eye with him, but I would like to think that we are back to a good standing now, that is Gofrey as Most of the Island know him by, but on the radio he uses Colyn, and can often be located in the CW portions of the band, Godfrey (GD4EIP) as taught many an individual morse code on the island and will often go out of his way to help any amateur out, especially if it is about CW.
These days, mainly down to my own cancer, I do not see him as often as I would like, but thanks to WhatsApp he will often use m,e as a sounding box when it comes to buying new equipment, or even getting rid of some, I have luckily had some great morse code keys from him and hope to grabs some more as time goes by, but I have often talked him out of purchasing things such as a new Amplifier, etc, ehrn he already has two very good ones, telling him to same his money for his some, and not leaving it to him when he is gone, in hopefully a long time off.
So here are a few photos of Godfrey in the early days when he was an operator in South Africa.
This is a big part of the hobby that we have missed I believe, In the old times when Godfrey (GD4EIP) was young, if you wanted something you had to make it, and not from a Kit, you would grab parts from anywhere and would create something for the shack, nowadays we get electronics kits but most of the times the new hams do not understand what is happening in the circuit, and working with vacuum tubes and the voltages they required was always fun.
So from the old to the new, how times have changed as equipment has got better. Godfrey’s (GD4EIP) new shack is like most these days, full of monitors and more looking like something out of Star Trek.
Calf of Man DXpedition of 1988
This was when the local IOMARS put on a small DXpedition to the Calf of Man, and although the small Island just sits off the coastline of the Isle of Man, it seems strange that this is not a more normal occurrence.
Notice also in them days that the whole family got involved, both XYL’s and children were dragged along for a fun weekend!
The guy standing on the boat itself is Arthur Birchenough, he was a farmer at Glen Tramman, Lazayre.
On the far left of the shot is a very young Simon Brown (HB9DRV) better known as the brains behind Ham Radio Deluxe.
Leaving Port Erin with the Ocean Youth Club’s ketch the ‘Francis Drake’ moored in the harbor, just as a useless bit of info, I’ve actually sailed on this one!
The team making there way to the Island.
Arriving at the Calf of Man with good old Arthur Sinclair (GD3TNS) doing the Health and Safety job for the IOMARS and making sure that the team is not eaten by Sharks!
Making the most of the good weather and taking a walk to the far side of the Calf of Man.
Resting before all the hard work starts, and picking straws to see who’s climbing up the outside of that Lighthouse!
There seems to be a lot of standing around drinking and relaxing?….
….while the rest of the team do all the work!
Its nice that there are loads of buildings around to mount a wire up, the team were given permission to use the lighthouses to put wires up, which made life a little easy for this DXpedition.
Perfect little mast for a wire! The crew put tape over the wires to stop birds from landing on the wires.
You cannot really see it that well in these old photos but there are wires going between the two lighthouses here!
I wonder if it was suggested that someone string a wire out to this lighthouse?????
Looking South after the mist had cleared over the Calf of Man shows just what a nice place to operate from.
Where’s Health and Safety when you need them, well hopefully locked up at the time these guys were having this much fun!, here the crew are putting up Robert Ferguson’s (GD4GNH) baby, a portable lightweight array for VHF!
having a rest next to one of the antennas (actually its the lighthouse keepers washing line, but I bet they tried to use it!
It looks like the team had time for a quick tour of one of the Lighthouse’s on the Calf of Man.
You can get a feeling of the great view that can be had from one of the Lighthouses on the Calf of Man.
The crew packing up the gear ready for the off. On the left of the Land Rover is Stan Ellis (GD3LSF), on the right hand side of the car we have an unknown, then David Corlett (GD1GHK), then Stan Keys (GD4BGK), Les Nichol, Chris Douglas with the Red Shoulders, and hiding behind him is Richard Rimmer (GD3YEO) who was videoing the whole event!
Relaxing before the Packing up me thinks?
What do we do now?
With the weekend over the team sits down to wait for the boat to come to pick them up! Maybe they are still there? does anyone know if they were ever collected!?
From Left to right, and with lots of unknowns I’m afraid, we start with the gentleman with the Blue coat on, this is John Willes Browne (GD4XWB), he was one of the mainstays of the club at the time and was a major contributor to the launch fund for the Repeater Group.
The Brown Jumper ed person in the group in the distance is Ken Wilson, then next in the same group is Arthur Sinclair (GD3TNS), then possibly one of the Lighthouse Keepers, then the last on the right of this group is George Kissack in the blue shirt.
Out of the woman sitting in front of John we only know that the one with the Blue top on is Diane Parslow. The next person with the bright red top and the sports bag is Colin Gerrard (GD4OEA), next to him is Jack Etherington (GD5UG) in the mustard coloured top, the only other operator known at this moment is the very last operator at the far right of this photo which is Robert Ferguson (GD4GNH).
Below we have Stan Keyes (far left at the back) with Haydn Glaister (GD0BCN) in the white top at the back, just in-front of these two are 2 Lighthouse Keepers, then in the front with the hair sitting across the scaffold poles is John Williams (GD6OXG) who built the first repeater logic controller.
Please also checkout the Scrapbook that I came across that belonged to Alec Anderson (FD3HQR) , another very active member of the Isle of Man Amateur Radio Society (IOMARS) back in the day.
If anyone has any photos in their collections of local Ham Radio Operators, or of anyone that just visited and operated from here, I would be grateful if they could forward them to me and maybe put a few words in also and I will post them on this page, I will even return them after scanning them in if you have a problem getting them to me and only have photos!
Last Updated : 27th June 2024
