G2YC 1932 England

QSL card sent to Barbara Dunn G6YL.
Started as a SWL in 1925.
Licensed in 1927 at EG6YL, Britian's first licensed YL.

Call sign 2YC (later G2YC) harkens back to the earliest days of amateur radio. The names and dates of the three holders are Alfred Kendrick from 1918 to about 1925, Herbert John (Jack) Stannard from 1929 to 1980, and me from 2007 to present.

Alfred Kendrick (1901-1988) was issued 2YC in 1918, when he was 17 years old. According to his son Bill Kendrick (G3RDW), Alfred was very active on the bands from the start--one of his passions being audio and the construction of home-brew hi-fi speakers. He began to lose interest in amateur radio when he was married in 1922. Sometime thereafter, his licence apparently lapsed and the call sign was re-issued in 1929 (see below) with the new 'G' prefix to designate a UK amateur radio licence. Alfred became interested again in amateur radio in the 1960s and, since his original call sign was not available, he was issued the call sign G2YX which he used until his death. Most of Alfred's records were lost after his death in 1988. Interestingly, one of Alfred's golfing partners in his later years was a Jack Stannard, but he had no relation to the second holder of G2YC.

Herbert John (Jack) Stannard (1910-1980) was issued the call sign G2YC on 23 Dec 1929 at the age of 19. At the time, he lived only a few minutes' walk from where the BBC's iconic Broadcasting House was being built on Portland Place in London W1--surely exciting days for anyone involved in this new technology. Jack Stannard trained as a dentist but soon moved to electronics and spent most of his working life with General Electric Company in thermionic valve research and development. By the early 1960s, Jack was living in Hendon, north London where he befriended a young SWL, Keith Spicer (now G3RPB). Keith remembers that Jack was a real experimenter and that his shack was a complete birds-nest of wires and upturned equipment. Jack was primarily a CW operator, often on 80m. In the early 1960s he made one of the first transistorised transmitters and used it on 160m, mostly phone. By then, he mainly operated on 2m and frequently took his equipment to the hills of Dunstable Downs where he operated from his car. Keith remembers that Jack often discussed his enjoyment operating on 10m and 20m during the 1948 sunspot maximum. Jack became a SK in 1980.

Tim McKnight, who lives in Ireland, is the third and current holder of G2YC (also Ei2KA). The call sign was issued to him in 2007 by permission of Jack's niece who is his relative by marriage.

QSL K8CX Collection
Info courtesy of Timothy McKnight G2YC