About me.

	Hi, just a little potted history of yours truly. I was born in Tebay, so can call myself a real Westmerian, (man of Westmorland) in 1961 . My schooling was in Appleby where I lived from a few days old until my early 30's, firstly Appleby County Primary School then Appleby Grammar School where I became an ATC cadet, more of which later. Leaving school I intended joining the RAF but circumstances dictated not. I started work in a local electrical shop where I'd purchased electronic components for my various "projects" including my home made hi-fi. Over nearly 23 years I went from repairing kettles, irons, toasters and the like to being mainly a video recorder engineer. House wiring, re-wiring, TV/Satellite distribution and aerial erecting also featured along with many other "skills". The mid eighties say me returning to the blue uniform which had first appeared in the ATC, I joined the Royal Observer Corps, becoming Leading Observer/Post Instructor at 22Grp 56 Post (Appleby) until the Corps was stood down. For those who don't know about the Royal Observer Corps, this little video will explain a lot, I actually was in charge of this post on 4th July 1985 while on annual training camp at RAF Leeming. I'm still in regular contact with former observers even though we were stood down in 1991, true lifetime friendships have been made. In 1993 I married Caroline and we now have three children Lisa, John and Alice, living firstly in Warcop then Kirkby Stephen and since April 2008 back at Warcop. Late 1978 saw me introduced to amateur radio by Bill Capstick G3JYP and Mike Smith G4HMA. In May 1979 I sat the City and Guilds 765 amateur radio exam, obtaining my license on 8th October 1979, a true lifetime hobby! Recently I've become involved with the ATC again through my son John, I was a Civilian Instructor from early 2008 to 1st October 2009, now I've made a return to uniform as an RAF CFAV sergeant. Since July 1998 my career has totally changed, I'm now a signalman on the Settle-Carlisle railway at Appleby having also been at Kirkby Stephen and Garsdale signal boxes.
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	When emptying the shed at Kirkby Stephen for our move to Warcop I found an old Polaroid photo gently rotting away behind a box. After a lot of restoration work I've managed to get a reasonable image from it. The photo shows Mike G4HMA in his shack/kitchen sometime around 1980. The object to the left of Mike's head is a weather balloon! Among the equipment is an Eddystone receiver and a linear using 2 x 813 valves.