RAF Gan 1958 and Later
Nugget 99 - I'm surprised you could 'hear' the silence over the noise of the air conditioning in the VC10 crew only accomodation (the only aircon on the island in the early 70's).
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Nugget 99 - I'm surprised you could 'hear' the silence over the noise of the air conditioning in the VC10 crew only accomodation (the only aircon on the island in the early 70's).
I spent time up the rear hatch of a Valiant, working up a sweat, and then carrying the removed kit into the Electronics Centre, to be hit by the icy blast of the air con.
Bl**dy freezing it were.
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Ah, aircon ... like the new Officers Mess wing at Tengah, intended for V-Bomber crews. But fortunately the rest of us managed to occupy it. Two floors of 48 (? ... ISTR I was in 47) rooms in total, with a central system than ran cold air and noise h-24 through the ducts.
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Remember sitting in the Astra cinema one night about six rows from the front. There was a gannite in front of me who faced the screen and never turned around until he shouted out 'There's a woman in here somewhere.' Sure enough a female loadmaster off a VC10 had just taken her seat at the rear of the cinema. Happy days. Spot the dog and regular features of the Lonely Men of Coral Command.
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Navy wives who were being returned home for being 'naughty'
It mentioned the fact that there were no women on the island apart from a middle aged WVS lady.
It also told the story of the corporal who, having had a 'quickie' behind the 'Blue Lagoon' with one such 'naughty wife', discovered he had caught a dose. Apparently he was carried shoulder high to sick quarters every morning, by his colleagues, to have his injection!
DON T.
Spot the dog, siggy siggy siggy, and all the other squadron/section slides all came with plenty of noise from the assembled audience apart from a slide featuring a gorilla, which was always met with silence.
No one had any idea which section it was. I found out just before I left Gan that it was us, ATC/Ops!!!
And not forgetting 'Shut the shop'.
There was talk of BCal taking over the place as a holiday destination, we all thought who'd want to come all this way on holiday!!!
Happy days.
Uffers ex Gannite
Spot the dog, siggy siggy siggy, and all the other squadron/section slides all came with plenty of noise from the assembled audience apart from a slide featuring a gorilla, which was always met with silence.
No one had any idea which section it was. I found out just before I left Gan that it was us, ATC/Ops!!!
And not forgetting 'Shut the shop'.
There was talk of BCal taking over the place as a holiday destination, we all thought who'd want to come all this way on holiday!!!
Happy days.
Uffers ex Gannite
Goudie,
It wasn't Time, it was the Illustrated London News, with a picture of Gan taken from (of course) a Shack on the front page. I still have my copy, but it's too big for my scanner to reproduce, but if I can get around the problem I'll post it here as well
It wasn't Time, it was the Illustrated London News, with a picture of Gan taken from (of course) a Shack on the front page. I still have my copy, but it's too big for my scanner to reproduce, but if I can get around the problem I'll post it here as well
Nugget90
Like you I hated this business of carrying both sets of uniforms and on the Herc of course we had to wear flying suits. I can recall in January '72 there was a panic on - all the standby crews were called out and instructed to carry blue and KD. A VC10 came from Brize to pick the 60 of us up and then took us to Santa Maria in the Azores. The idiots on high knew where we were going and could easily have said no blues needed as we were bound ultimately for Belize.
In my time ( 67 - 73 ), the only time Herc' crews reported 3 hours before departure was going across the North Atlantic as we didn't know what the track would be. For anywhere else, including Bahrain, it was an hour and a half. Also of course we had standard nav' logs drawn up for the 'trunk routes'.
Sorry for the thread drift folks!
In my time ( 67 - 73 ), the only time Herc' crews reported 3 hours before departure was going across the North Atlantic as we didn't know what the track would be. For anywhere else, including Bahrain, it was an hour and a half. Also of course we had standard nav' logs drawn up for the 'trunk routes'.
Sorry for the thread drift folks!
Bottom right hand corner (actually NW) Officers' Mess, then accommodation huts and other Messes, cinema etc. Suspect tail dragger is the resident SAR Shackleton.
Some of the buildings, same shape, still seem to appear in the Google Earth view
Thread Starter
Continued - Part 8
RAF Gan - Amateur Radio
In April 1958 Cpl. Barry Bonser the RAF Far East travelling radio trouble-shooter from RAF Seletar in Singapore arrived in Gan to install and service some ground-based radio equipment. As a licensed radio amateur he took the opportunity to get the Maldives on the air by bringing with him an amateur bands transmitter and a receiver.
In 1958 in the amateur radio world the Maldives was a ’new country’ i.e. it had not before had a licensed operator operating an amateur radio station, and as such contacts with Barry were much sought after — in the ‘Ham’ world the more contacts you make, the higher your status. Being a Singapore licensed Ham, Barry was able to use his Singapore callsign with the Maldives suffix VS9, which made his operating in the Maldives legal. He operated as VS1BB/VS9 (Barry’s Singapore callsign with the suffix VS9 for operation in the Maldives) and was overwhelmed with contacts from around the world. In amateur radio terms Barry’s visit was a resounding success with well over 1,000 contacts being made with fellow radio amateurs during his short visit.
Barry (right), me (left).
As a radio operator myself I was keen to help and make Barry Bonser’s amateur radio activities at Gan a success and helped him as much as possible. Whilst he was at Gan, I together with another Ham operator (Sgt Don Tranmer) discussed with Barry the possibility of being ’gifted’ from his contacts in the States a suitable transmitter and receiver to establish an R.A.F. Amateur radio club (station) at Gan. Barry was able to arrange for an AR88 radio receiver and a Heathkit 50-watt CW and AM radio transmitter to be donated to Gan for use by R.A.F. radio amateurs as an R.A.F. amateur radio club station. However, there was one small snag — we couldn’t use this equipment until we had been allocated an official Maldive Islands callsign.
Me operating as VS9MA — July 1958. AR88 radio receiver on the left, Heathkit CW (Morse code) and AM (voice) transmitter on the right and an antenna tuning unit on top of the transmitter. By present day standards primitive, but at the time top class equipment.
With considerable difficulty and following constant reminders (at our instigation), from the Officer Commanding RAF Gan, around June/July 1958 Mr Didi the Maldivian government representative on Gan finally received permission from the capital Male for the use of callsign VS9MA as the radio callsign for the RAF Gan amateur radio club. With this permission we started operating.
Operating VS9MA with Sgt. Don Tranmer (background). We were the first operators of the R.A.F. Gan Amateur radio club station callsign VS9MA. When making voice contacts we would sometimes hold the microphone by the window to broadcast the sound of breaking waves, being only 6ft away from the water this was easy to do and made our contacts very envious! - below
One of the prized VS9MA QSL cards which was sent out to confirm a contact with another amateur radio station, in this case G6GH in the UK on 24th July 1958. Operator’s name ‘Don’ (Tranmer). It showed the contact was on 21MHz with a transmitter power of 50 watts into a Long Wire antenna.
RAF Gan - Amateur Radio
In April 1958 Cpl. Barry Bonser the RAF Far East travelling radio trouble-shooter from RAF Seletar in Singapore arrived in Gan to install and service some ground-based radio equipment. As a licensed radio amateur he took the opportunity to get the Maldives on the air by bringing with him an amateur bands transmitter and a receiver.
In 1958 in the amateur radio world the Maldives was a ’new country’ i.e. it had not before had a licensed operator operating an amateur radio station, and as such contacts with Barry were much sought after — in the ‘Ham’ world the more contacts you make, the higher your status. Being a Singapore licensed Ham, Barry was able to use his Singapore callsign with the Maldives suffix VS9, which made his operating in the Maldives legal. He operated as VS1BB/VS9 (Barry’s Singapore callsign with the suffix VS9 for operation in the Maldives) and was overwhelmed with contacts from around the world. In amateur radio terms Barry’s visit was a resounding success with well over 1,000 contacts being made with fellow radio amateurs during his short visit.
Barry (right), me (left).
As a radio operator myself I was keen to help and make Barry Bonser’s amateur radio activities at Gan a success and helped him as much as possible. Whilst he was at Gan, I together with another Ham operator (Sgt Don Tranmer) discussed with Barry the possibility of being ’gifted’ from his contacts in the States a suitable transmitter and receiver to establish an R.A.F. Amateur radio club (station) at Gan. Barry was able to arrange for an AR88 radio receiver and a Heathkit 50-watt CW and AM radio transmitter to be donated to Gan for use by R.A.F. radio amateurs as an R.A.F. amateur radio club station. However, there was one small snag — we couldn’t use this equipment until we had been allocated an official Maldive Islands callsign.
Me operating as VS9MA — July 1958. AR88 radio receiver on the left, Heathkit CW (Morse code) and AM (voice) transmitter on the right and an antenna tuning unit on top of the transmitter. By present day standards primitive, but at the time top class equipment.
With considerable difficulty and following constant reminders (at our instigation), from the Officer Commanding RAF Gan, around June/July 1958 Mr Didi the Maldivian government representative on Gan finally received permission from the capital Male for the use of callsign VS9MA as the radio callsign for the RAF Gan amateur radio club. With this permission we started operating.
Operating VS9MA with Sgt. Don Tranmer (background). We were the first operators of the R.A.F. Gan Amateur radio club station callsign VS9MA. When making voice contacts we would sometimes hold the microphone by the window to broadcast the sound of breaking waves, being only 6ft away from the water this was easy to do and made our contacts very envious! - below
One of the prized VS9MA QSL cards which was sent out to confirm a contact with another amateur radio station, in this case G6GH in the UK on 24th July 1958. Operator’s name ‘Don’ (Tranmer). It showed the contact was on 21MHz with a transmitter power of 50 watts into a Long Wire antenna.
Thread Starter
Danny
See my post #33 bottom picture
Probably a stupid question, but what are the "glider-form" objects at the SE tip of the island, adjacent to the jetty
ATC/Ops and Movers lived in BB60 which was the first one of the three nearest the runway.
It was strange how you got used to four mighty Conway engines spooling up just yards from you at 04:00'ish, with only a prefab building and no glass in the windows between you and them. Your whole body would shake, but after a few weeks, you'd get used to it and sleep on.
It was strange how you got used to four mighty Conway engines spooling up just yards from you at 04:00'ish, with only a prefab building and no glass in the windows between you and them. Your whole body would shake, but after a few weeks, you'd get used to it and sleep on.