Once Upon a Field Day

ONCE UPON A FIELD DAY

By Eric G3PGM

Once Upon a Field Day

This story begins some time before the Second World War when my eldest brother, who had noticed my interest in things electrical, gave me a piece of 'high tech' equipment as a Christmas present. This was bought at J & M Stone's Radio in the Market Place Reading (no longer there of course). I think they had two shops in Reading at that time. This present, which cost one shilling and six pence, (seven and a half pence, quite a lot to spend on a present in 1938,) was a complete – Morse key, buzzer, four and a half volt flat battery. All nicely contained in a moulded plastic case that also had the Morse code characters embossed down both sides of the key. It could also be arranged to control another similar unit over a pair of wires, and the use of headphones, depending on the connections made to the four connectors at the rear of the unit. My younger brother persuaded my parents to buy him one for his birthday (which was imminent), and before long my brother and I were sending words (sometimes rude ones) to each other, much to our parents annoyance, for they never could work out what we were laughing about! Unfortunately, he soon lost interest but I went on to develop this new found skill. By the time War broke out, I was getting to like it! During the wartime period a lot of Amateur Radio equipment was 'put into storage' by the authorities, but domestic radios were left alone. Most of the commercially produced radios were Long, Medium, and Short wave bands, and a lot of them were T.R.F. sets that had a 'reaction' control to make them more sensitive, and I believe, a bit more selective (the Q multiplier principle I think). This could be carefully adjusted to the point of oscillation, and this made the broadcast 'wireless' a fairly useful C.W. receiver. There was always plenty of C.W. to listen to, but always coded, never plain language, for obvious reasons. The slower stuff gave me something to practice on, although it meant absolutely nothing to me.

Soon after my eighteenth Birthday, I was invited to take the equivalent of the 'Kings Shilling' and present myself at Brock Barracks in Oxford Road Reading for Primary training. This should have taken 6 weeks, but prior to call-up, I had been in the Army Cadet Force and had passed my War Certificate 'A' parts 1 & 2. To cap it all, I was Cadet Sergeant in charge of the Signals Section of the local Cadet Force Platoon (six young lads who didn't know a dit from a dah!).. I could read Morse code at about 10 w.p.m. Without a teacher it had taken me 8 years to reach this point, (who said it was easy?) This made me a prime candidate for an advanced posting to Catterick Camp in Yorkshire to become a wireless operator. I had done a little bit of Short Wave Listening using a War surplus receiver chassis, a BC348 -- no power supply, no case, not working, no guarantee etc. 30 shillings (£1.50) from 'Clydesdales', a war surplus outlet that was very good. I had heard of a shop in Oxford Road, Reading that repaired such mysterious pieces of radio equipment. I think it was called Johnson’s Radio. The engineer was the late Maurice Owen, G3AKQ who then lived in Tilehurst. He made the repair, sold me the components to build a fairly basic power supply from a diagram he provided, all for about £2. (come back 1946 --). Most of the stuff I had heard as a Short Wave Listener made no sense at all to me, but at least it got me out of 2 weeks square bashing. My primary training was cut to four weeks.

So here I am at last, Catterick Camp, miles from anywhere, a new cap badge and a new title! I am no longer Private Davies E. of the General Service Corps. I am now Signalman Davies E. of the Royal Corps of Signals, very soon to be renamed the Royal Signals. During the first week of training, I took, (and passed!) my D3 Operator Wireless & Line test --- at 8 w.p.m. It was not very long before I was charging around the Yorkshire moors in the back of a bumpy 15 cwt. truck trying to get maximum smoke out of a 19 set. A couple of weeks later I took and passed the O.W.L. B3 test at 12 w.p.m. This training lasted only a very short time because I was called before the Commanding Officer, and I was told to have all my kit packed and be ready to move out. I thought I might have been in some sort of trouble but.... he was smiling !. " Signalman Davies" says he... "Sir" says I ...waiting for him to bare his teeth..."tomorrow you're being posted to Special Ops…. here is your travel warrant, and be ready for a 0900hrs departure. Collect your packed lunch from the cookhouse. You will be met at Loughborough railway station and taken to No. 10 Wireless Training School.... behave yourself and good luck.".. and, he actually shook my hand!! Next morning I found myself joined by 3 others from an earlier intake. The driver helped stow our kit into the back of the truck and we all drove off to the local railway station. The journey was uneventful, and a few hours later we arrived at Loughborough in Leicestershire and met the other driver as planned. The truck soon arrived at 10 W.T.S. before I had got to know the driver apart from exchanging pleasantries, and he relieving me of one cigarette. I found out later that he never bought any of his own, so I kept a wide berth of him from then on. Training began the very next day and was very intense indeed. After only a couple of weeks or so we had taken the Op Spec grade 3 test, which is the slowest speed test of the school, about 18 w.p.m. From the results of this test some idea of the suitability for further training can be assessed. I never saw anyone drop out of the course so I guess we all passed this 'entrance exam'. Further intense training followed, both in the classroom and at the low-level section of the 'active' wireless station at Beaumanor Park, a part of the Bletchley Park set up. There were about six similar outstations. As time went by and our skills developed we were introduced to higher level traffic and by the time I had taken my Op. Spec. grade 2 test at 24 w.p.m. I was handling some of the higher level traffic, and for achieving this I was paid another --- shilling (5p.) a day! It soon becomes a bit difficult, at these speeds, to send good 'school' Morse using a straight key for hour after hour, and the job was made a bit easier by using a 'creed machine'. This is a fairly simple device that uses punched paper tape to create the dots and dashes, and the speed can be easily controlled using a variable speed motor drive. Coupled with this was a mixer, which could insert any kind of QRM that took the fancy of the instructor. As a matter of interest, a lot of the traffic was not in English, so the use of Continental and various other types of C.W. was necessary. This added another dimension to the requirements of an Op. Spec. I went on to learn a bit of Arabic, Chinese, and Russian Morse, and whenever it became indefinable, it was 'classified' as Baghdad Morse. Thankfully this is all over 50 years behind me now, and I have forgotten, through lack of use, most, if not all of these extras that I had learnt. Classroom lessons began to give way to Radio theory, well, at least one aspect of it. We went through quite an interesting period of learning R.F. Propagation, and Aerial theory. By now any further increase in speed was getting rather difficult to achieve, and only a few, (‘regular’ soldiers doing 3 years or more) went on for further training. I was only a National Service man in the Army for ‘The duration of emergency’, (DOE) whatever that was supposed to mean. In the end it simply meant anything from now until then. Instead of doing 2 years N.S. I did nearly 3 years because I was D.O.V’d. my demob was ‘deferred – operationally vital’.

Back in Camp one evening, I was on my way back to my quarters after a visit to the NAAFI, I passed a Nissen hut that had its door open, and from which I could hear some C.W. I could hear well enough to identify some Q code signals and odd words in English, plus a few words like XYL, OM, RPRT, RST etc. which meant nothing to me, so I gently knocked on the door and looked in. "Come in" says a rather rotund Corporal who had looked up and recognised me, "we're on 40"... Oh yeah I'm thinking ... 40 what? I only understood Megacycles per second! I had stumbled upon a rather infrequent meeting of the 10 W.T.S. Amateur Radio Club, callsign G3CHR (now defunct), and this Corporal was our course instructor. He could see the rather large question mark written all over me, so he did his best to tell me what they were up to. They were about to pack up for the evening and as there was no time to explain all, he loaned me an Amateur Radio operating manual and said all the answers were in there somewhere! At every NAAFI break and brief pauses (during and between lessons, in other words, every possible opportunity), I asked many questions about amateur operating and procedures. A few days later, at my request, the station was put on the air again and I made my very first faltering QSO, on 40m (with a lot of help from the Corporal). I believe he had his own callsign, but I never made a mental note of it -- pity. The best thing was, by finding a Radio Amateur at the Training School as our course instructor, and sharing the same Barrack room, I was able to devote quite a bit of my spare time learning all about the mysteries of the hobby. I never even had to cross the road. At the end of the course we were granted 14 days embarkation leave, before being posted as a full blooded operator to my first 'active' station at No.1 Wireless Regiment in Schleswig Holstein, Northern Germany, close to the Danish border. Whilst on this 14 days leave, I decided to go into Reading on my motorcycle via the Wokingham Road. I was near the Sutton School / Palmer Park area when I noticed a large advert in a shop window for what was probably one of the first television sets to use printed circuit board technology. The set was, I believe, a PAM (a part of the ‘PYE’ group) and the shop was W Seaward (later and sons?) Radio & T.V. I was curious enough to stop to investigate. This was the first P.C.B. I had ever seen and I became so engrossed, that for a while I was unaware of another chap standing next to me also showing a lot of interest. We began chatting, and he introduced himself as a teacher from the nearby school, name of Charles, and with an interest in Amateur Radio. He became G3FUO in 1948. I explained my interest in Amateur Radio and he suggested we go into the shop and meet an active Radio Amateur. (have you noticed -- I never use the term 'ham'!) So off into the shop we go and there I was introduced to Wally Seaward himself, G3AED. He was a telegraphist in the Navy during the war, and a very good one at that as I subsequently found out. It was not too long before we had established our common interest in C.W. and the subject of the forthcoming, first post-war, N.F.D. with the typical problems that still exist today, like food, cooking, equipment etc. and the eternal problem, lack of operators! The first post-war N.F.D. was all happening this coming weekend. Wally was the only operator. Hugh, who became G3GKD in 1949, was down to do logging, and Mike, who became G3GKH, also in 1949, would have helped out but he wanted to assist his uncle, G5DF, on the ‘B’ Station from the Scout hut site in Tilehurst. So, would I help the Reading Radio Society out? (This was before it became RADARC.) Does a donkey like carrots? At this stage I knew nothing about Field Day so I would have to pick it up as I went along. Fortunately it was all very easy for me because there were plenty of helpers who set up the station. My only task before the event started was to climb the tree and attach an anchor point to a large branch for the single, 256' long wire antenna, half wave on 160m, and full wave on 80m. (We were not very sophisticated those days) for which I was given the honorary title of 'Monkey Man'. I was still only 18 years old, and had no fear of heights. No one told me when to stop climbing, but I reckon I was probably 60' up before I looped the halyard over a suitable branch. The team then lowered the antenna until the pre-measured 45' down lead reached the ground, we then took the 'tent to the aerial'. The far end of the aerial was supported by a rather nice govt. surplus device made of thin wall paxolin tubing with 3 legs and a vertical section, all cigar shaped, and each made in two halves. The assembled sections of tubing tapered from about three inches diameter at both ends, to about six inches diameter in the middle, and were each approximately 20' long. The 'mast', when fully assembled, was a tripod about 15' between the feet, and 15' high, and a vertical section which added another 20' (minus a small overlap), this made it 30' or so high, and with two 'back' guys set at about 120 degrees, became quite a rigid structure. I have never seen another of these since.

The first post-war N.F.D's were very much different to the field days of today. For example, here are just some of the very strange (sometimes silly) rules that were in use. I no longer have a copy of the rules for 1947, but at least my memory is still holding reasonably well, and a comparison can be made with the oldest set of rules I have to hand (1951). I have also found snippets of information that goes back to the very first R.S.G.B. N.F.D. which took place in 1933, but not a complete set of rules. The first, 1933 field day saw what can be best described as a set of ‘provisional rules’. I say that simply because there were annual changes that were made in an attempt to create a level playing field..

From memory, I believe these were some of those 1947 rules, (unless the real truth was simply withheld!) I can half believe it. Some of the immediate post-war rules (for home use) were very different to those of today. Even music was allowed, but only one choice of record per day! After the umteenth time of playing each day, I think a lot of them got thrown against the wall. This was all supposed to be for checking the quality of your modulation.

a) Anyone, I was told, who was capable, (does that mean 'not drunk'?) could operate the equipment providing the licence holder was present. In 1951 this rule reads.. 'All operators must be holders of a G.P.O. Amateur Transmitting Licence and must be a fully paid up corporate member of the R.S.G.B.' (This might have been applicable in 1947, but luckily, or diplomatically, I was never told!) Perhaps my Military qualifications were considered to be good enough, and, on this occasion, I was stone cold sober!

( Rule 7a and 7b, ) Three aerials were allowed, two for transmit, one for receive (7a) none of which could be altered in any way after the start of the event. ( 7b. ) Maximum height to any part of the aerial shall not exceed 45 feet. ( no mention of aerial ‘supports’) Max. 256' long for the 'A' stn. Max. 70' long for the 'B' stn.
Stations must operate from tents only. ( Rule 8.) No caravans etc.
Battery power only. This was compulsory. 5 Watts maximum to any stage of the transmitter. ( Rule 6.) Power for any part of the station shall not be derived from the supply mains. a.c. generators were banned as petrol was still rationed. Anyone using one would be looked upon with considerable suspicion. It was noted however, that a.c. generators were mentioned in a few pre-war reports, and quite frequently in reports from 1950 onwards. Our 1947 set-up was 2 identical transmitters, apart from frequency coverage, one for each band, one in use, one on standby (Rule 5.), two simple A.M.U's. one for 160m. and one for 80m. to voltage feed the aerial, and a mechanical changeover switch. Relays were considered far too complicated, and unreliable, for field days. Even many 'base' stations never used them. The valve line up for both transmitters was identical. A 6C4 oscillator, (it might have been crystal controlled, I’ve forgotten), a 6C4 buffer/doubler, and a TT11 P.A. 6C4 valves were chosen because of their modest heater current of 0.15 amps, and there were plenty of them, and TT11’s on the ‘surplus’ market at 'Bob Eyles Photographic Studios' in Southampton Street. Yes! He made more money selling govt. surplus gear, and, they were very cheap. 6C4's were 1/- (5p) and TT11's were 2/6 (12 and a half p.) If, at this time, the 12AU7, which is identical to two 6C4’s in one envelope, had been available, (they were very much more expensive) we could have saved a valve holder! The TX. was powered by a single 6V. car battery. This provided the heater volts direct and the 200 volts H.T. for the transmitter via a vibrator pack (it had a different meaning those days!) For receive, we used an HRO with the A.F. Amp. valve removed to conserve battery power. This meant using headphones. A 6V. car battery provided power for the heaters, and from Wally's workshop, 2 enormous Ever Ready 120V. 'dry' batteries (about 4 times larger than normal, the biggest I've ever seen) in series for the H.T.
No access to the chosen site for setting up of any equipment, tents, aerials, fences etc. prior to 1200 local, (1100Z) on the day of the contest, (Rule 9).1600Z start, C.W. only, and frequent reports of less than T8 would mean automatic disqualification! (Rule 10) All transmissions must end with a number indicating which band was being used, for example ......AR 1 K … AR 7 K..... etc. ( Rule 11 ).

These were still in use in the early 50's. Harmonic suppression was not so good those days, and the bands were all harmonically related. 1.75--3.5--7--14MHz. etc. , so you could be transmitting on 1.75MHz.. 160 m. went down to 1.715 MHz. In 1947, so you could easily be on any or all bands up to 14MHz. and possibly beyond! I can't remember when the L.F. end was changed to 1.8 MHz. Only 4 bands were activated so the numbers 1, 3, 7, & 14 were used. ( Rule 11 ). There were 2 stations per team, the ‘A’ station used 1 and 3, (1.75 MHz. and 3.5 MHz.) and the ‘B’ station used 7 and 14. In 1950 the exchanges had to include RST plus the time, and by 1952 it was changed to RST plus the first three letters of operator's surname. (RST plus serial number didn’t come in until 1957.) All of these ‘requirements’ were expected to be sent three times. It was this weird procedure that really slowed things down. (see 1951 extract below). Everything was very gentlemanly, and it went on for ever. Anyone who broke 'the rules' of conduct was considered a cad. I don’t know if the 3 by 3 exchanges were obligatory, but certainly were not necessary. If a good signal path existed between stations, the repetition was often ignored, much to the horror of some old timers! What do you get now? ..your callsign, his callsign (once) 599001..... then silence! Not even a ‘k’. If you can't handle it, tough, because if you don't respond within a few seconds, he's gone!

By 1988 winning N.F.D. stations were making about a thousand contacts and scores of four and a half thousand plus points or more started to appear, and this was from one station!. Remember G3ULT/p, 1992? 1142 QSO's, 5279 points! Yes! There was six bands to choose from, and, for a year or two it didn’t seem to matter whether they were in the ‘open’ or ‘restricted’ section the scores were more or less the same,. Restricted winners 1042 QSO's for 5081 points with a yield of 4.8 points per contact on average. Compare that to the score of the 1933 winners. The contest was of 27 hours duration. The A station made 30 contacts for 81 points, (a modest 1.1 contacts per hour, and 2.7 points per contact) But the B station made 34 contacts for 283 points, (still only 1.26 contacts per hour but over 8.3 points per contact!). Some suspicion was aimed at the B station. Then criticism, when it was found that they had used the mast(s) of a one time Post Office radio station GKB, at Northolt! (there was no height limit then) thus giving them an unfair advantage. Many rule changes took place over the next few years. These rule changes involved Petrol Electric generators, aerials, power, and bands in use for each station, etc. Between 1933 and 1936 all full licence callsigns were of the G plus a number followed by two letters. To identify participants of NFD, a P was added. Thus G9XX would become G9XXP for the duration of the contest. This was changed later to /p, (I don’t know when, but I presume it might have been post war at the resumption of Amateur Radio, and the introduction of G plus a number and 3 letter callsigns). In 1937 the number of stations allowed to take part in each district was increased to four. The contest was shortened to 24 hours, and as far as I know, these rules remained so until the outbreak of WW2 when it all stopped - for the duration.

To give some idea of the effect of the late 40’s early 50’s procedure had on speed, let’s examine the results of the leading contestants in 1951. (This is the only set of results to hand that have survived the ravages of time.) I know I shouldn't have thrown all those bound volumes of RSGB Bulletin away just because they were getting tatty. Just one out of about twenty survived, Vol. 27, July 1951 to June 1952.

Extract from Volume 27. The results of the 1951 N.F.D.

The WINNING team was Falkirk. The ‘A’ team was GM4JQ/p and the ‘B’ team was GM4MF/p, The average contact rate for both teams was under 6 contacts per hour each. The total for 24 hours was 134 contacts giving 428 points, 3.2 per contact, for the 'A' team, and 139 contacts giving 503 points, 3.6 per contact, for the ‘B’ team.. As a matter of interest, the Reading Radio Society came in 50^th out of 117 entries with 105 contacts (an average of a little over 4 per hour,) giving 336 points for the ‘A’ team, and 90 contacts (3.75 contacts per hour) giving 239 points for the ‘B’ team. --- I said it was slow!.. Stations outside ‘G’ (but in the British Isles, such as GC, GD, GI, GM, and GW) had a slight advantage because of the slightly complicated scoring system. On average this gave nearly half of a point per contact advantage to stations outside of G.

Assuming propagation conditions were equal for everyone, (and we all know that they never are) the 1951 (GM) Winners claimed 3.41 points per contact, and the (G) runners up claimed 2.85 points per contact. Just a couple of examples to ponder. If you were a G portable and you worked a portable station in Europe you would claim 4 points. If you were a GC, GD, GI, GM, or GW portable working the same European station you could all claim 5 points. G to GW was worth just 3 points, but GM to GW would give you 4 points. The system is too complicated to explain in full, even if I could, but calculations on scores over numbers of contacts made seems to suggest this was generally correct. The full scoring system is given below. Does it ‘read’ different to you?

Taken from the National Field Day rules for 1952. Rule 13. Points will be scored for established contacts on the following basis :--

A.—Between all Town or Area Portable Stations and Fixed Stations :--

Outside the Town or Area (or Town or Area Group) but within the British Isles……………….1
In the rest of Europe (including Eire)……………………………………………………………2
Outside Europe…………………………………………………………………………………..3
In the British Empire……………………………………………………………………………..6

B.—Between G, GD, and GW portable stations on the one hand and :--

Portable stations outside their Town or Area (or Town or Area Group), but within the prefix zones G, GD, and GW………………………………………………………….………….3
Portable stations in the prefix zones GC, GI, and GM……………………………………………4
Portable stations in Europe (including Eire)………………………………………………………4
Portable stations outside Europe…………………………………………………………………..6
Portable stations in the British Empire……………………………………………………………12

C.—Between GC, GI, and GM portable stations on the one hand and :--

Portable stations outside their Town or Area (or Town or Area Group) but within their own prefix zones……………………………………………………………………………………………….3
Portable stations outside their own prefix zones, but within the British Isles and Eire……………4
Portable stations in Europe…………………………………………………………………………5
Portable stations outside Europe……………………………………………………………………6
Portable stations in the British Empire…………………………………………………………….12

(For those people wondering what GC is, it’s the old prefix for the Channel Islands. Now GJ and GU.)

It’s all as clear as mud…..how could anyone get confused?..

Having digressed slightly, let's return to the story.........would I help the Reading Radio Society out?

The N.F.D. site was at Radstock Farm, which is on higher ground between Beech Lane and Radstock Lane, Earley. Our tent was just through the gate of the field next to the farm buildings. The actual location was chosen so that easy access could be made to take the large expended 6V. car batteries away, and bringing fresh supplies. Many cars of that period had 6V.systems. The Field Day proper was like any other field day, apart from the speed, or rather, the lack of it. But it was an event that happened several years later that is somewhat thought provoking.

On my way home from work, which was at Racal–Mobilcal in the Basingstoke Road. Reading., I sometimes called in on a friend, Dave, G3RBK, who then lived at the 'Woodbine Poultry Farm' in Cutbush Lane. Earley. He now lives at Spencers Wood, but not currently active. He let his licence lapse, but threatens to take it up again – one day. My journey would take me past the old Field Day site. On this particular day (it could have been 1967 or 1968), I found the road blocked, and a serious looking Police Officer prevented any further progress. Upon enquiry I was told that a survey team working for the Lower Earley housing development scheme had discovered some unexploded bombs. They were a few feet below the surface of the ground in the very same field that we had used for N.F.D. Apparently these bombs had been jettisoned by a low flying enemy bomber sometime in the early 1940’s. The farmer said he remembered hearing the aircraft in the early morning as he was about to return his cows to the field after milking. He also said he remembered hearing the thuds of something hitting the ground but with very muddy conditions much of the evidence was soon hidden. (so the story of the day went. See post script below.) There they remained for over 25 years until that day. I could do nothing more than turn back and find another route home. Later that evening, or possibly the following evening, during a TV News broadcast, some pictures and film footage was shown. A reporter was seen interviewing a bomb disposal expert who was sitting on one of the U.X.B’s (after it had been made safe I suspect). The bombs appeared to be 200 kg. H.E. types. Some distance away an Officer was giving instructions to everyone concerned by yelling into a megaphone! The reporter asked "why the megaphone and not radio?" only to be told in no uncertain manner that the slightest amount of R.F. would 'blow the lot sky high'.….(I assume he meant V.H.F. from a very nearby walkie- talkie).

I then had a very sobering thought. One of the bombs was found exactly where the operating tent had been, and we had been using more than the 'slightest amount of R.F.’ albeit L.F., all over that weekend in 1947, and every year from 1947 until 1952 that I know of, and possibly later. I’m glad they found them, and not us! I wonder what would have happened if,

a) We had known the bombs were there?

Or, b) We had been using a few hundred watts?,

or worse still, c) We had been using a few hundred watts on V.H.F?.

E. Davies. G3PGM.

Post Script..

Dave, G3RBK who I mentioned earlier, paid me a visit for a cuppa and biscuits in Nov.1999, and I asked him if he remembered the bomb incident. Not only did he remember, but, he actually worked at the farm at the time. Being a self employed poultry farmer, he was 'directed' by the Ministry of Labour to work, part time, on the farm until he was called up for military service. It was that or the coal mines to become a 'Bevin Boy'. His story is slightly different from mine, (bearing in mind that I only wrote what I could remember and what I had been told at the time of the discovery) but in essence the story is the same. He told me that on his way to work that morning in 1942 he heard the aircraft and the falling bombs. His boss, a Mr Charlie Bunce, had finished milking, and it was Dave’s job to bottle the milk and deliver it locally using a horse and cart – wartime restrictions I’m afraid. He was unable to use the bottling machine because one of the bombs was just outside the bottling shed door. He had to take the milk to his home (the whole farm area was evacuated) and then fill the bottles from the milk churns using a jug. Everyone complained of the late delivery, but none of them knew how close they were to getting no milk at all that day! Regarding the bombs, he told me that a part of the field was very muddy, but four of the bombs were easily located. It isn’t certain how many bombs were in the ‘stick’. The Army bomb disposal team was called and within 24 hours had dealt with these four bombs. One was defused and emptied of its explosive material, one was found to be too difficult to move so after sand-bagging, was blown up on the spot, and two others, having been defused, plus the emptied one were all taken away for further investigation. This was not widely reported for wartime security reasons. This leaves the mystery of the bombs that were found in the late 1960’s. It must be assumed that these bombs did fall into the soft mud, and were the ones found later by the survey team, I don't know how many were found. — or are there still any hiding, under someone’s cabbage patch? The whole area has now been built on, and the nearest landmark must be Woodmere Close, off of Radstock Lane. If you buy a house there, don't go QRO on 70cm., just in case! A recent visit to the site (well Chris, G7MER drove me slowly past it, stopping here and there) showed that the farm and all the farm buildings have now gone. There is no sign of the field gate, but the tree that was next to it was almost exactly as I remembered it except it has been severely trimmed both at the top, and the large branch that supported the aerial. It is probably 30 feet shorter and a lot 'bushier' than when I hung that bit of wire from it in 1947