TVs, homemade or bought, were way outside the reach of Chugalug minor, but he did get to view one with a 9" screen when visiting his grandparents in Southgate, London. There the afternoon/ evening offerings of the Crystal Palace transmitter (as seen nightly at the start of BBC Television Newsreel) could be partaken. I remember being particularly impressed by a cowboy serial, which I was left alone to enjoy while the grownups did whatever grownups did, because in the inevitable shootout real smoke emanated from the TV! Having looked in to check on me, my Grandfather was less impressed though, quickly pulling the plug on the set and ushering me from the room. The repair man was duly called for to administer his usual magic, and once again the potter's wheel resumed normal operation.
We had practical electronics classes in RAF cadet training, for which we had to provide our own projects. It seemed appropriate therefore that the eponymous magazine was featuring just such a project; a tape recorder that required inter alia a wind-up gramophone motor and an ex-Army No. 38 walkie talkie set. I tracked both down, the first from a junk shop, the second from the local government surplus store that was then in every High Street. The first stage was to rewire the No. 38 set to become an audio amplifier. Alas it never happened. despite much (too much?) soldering and testing not a squeak emerged. Just as well perhaps, because stage 2 was to create a play/record head that required windings on a mu-metal armature. Neither junk shop nor surplus store could oblige with mu-metal and I abandoned the project with some relief, for it was obviously aimed at those far more technically accomplished than I!
Last edited by Chugalug2; 19th Apr 2017 at 15:12.