G5MQ 1927 England
Photo sent to 3CS in 1928
Hi greetings from
Liverpool-----G5MQ lived opposite at the back of my house here.
In the 1960 he gave me some 832 tubes and I used them on 2m and
70cm when we were on AM.---I have attached a Photo of his house
but as you see the trees are in the way. he was in the police in
the early days and was one of the pioneer in getting the police
to use radio in Liverpool.-
73 Don Swanson G3OSI
I remember his main receiver was
the famous RCA AR88 a receiver which most amateurs over here
aspired to---those receivers came over here in large numbers
during the war and later came on the surplus market and
eventually I was able to buy one--surprisingly many US amateurs
do not know that receiver but it certainly was the best around at
that time and of course we had to build converters in order to
receive 2m and 70cm. my converters came out at 22 to 24MH from
144 to 146MH---it was great fun in those days etching crystals
with Ammonium Bifloride to get them up to the right frequency. we
had to use 8 meg+ crystals and triple. triple, double to reach
144.as there were no high freq crystals around in 1960.----I have
attached a picture of the AR88 and It is we documented on the
internet.
73 Don Swanson G3OSI
Edgar Menzies 1901 - 1979
I do have a cutting from the Weekly News dated 31.1.1974 entitled "25 years Ago" which would place it about 1949, before I was born :~)). The paper report said " Television in Liverpool" Two of the BBC television engineers who are on the television unit now touring the country, and which was in Liverpool during the early part of the week, telephoned London to tell their colleagues that they had watched a home made television set in a Liverpool house. The owner of the set was Mr. Edgar Menzies G5MQ, who had made the set himself out of ex-radar equipment for about £10. The engineers had with them a commercial receiver, but reception ,though intermittent, was better on Mr Menzies set.
In the early 1960's when we were
little he still had a study at home with his radio equipment in
but the move away from Morse code to speech did not fit well with
him and he gradually lost interest although he continued to
pursue his interest in television, building sets at home and
working as a TV and Radio repair engineer for many years
afterwards. My father also invented the earliest form of Police
radio in the UK - articles appeared in the newspapers in
Liverpool and nationally about him and I have a copy of the
patents he took out to protect his work. I know there are photos
of him in the scrapbook standing very proudly by his latest
invention which took up the whole trunk of a police car!
Thanks,
Dorothy Holden
My sister, Dorothy Holden , has
passed me your details and the link to the information about my
Dad, Edgar Menzies, that you have on your gallery. Firstly can I
say how delighted I was to see the card from Dad and the picture
of his gear at the School House. This was my grandmother’s
home and the photo would have been taken well before my Dad
married his first wife ( I am the eldest child of the second
marriage). My brother Andrew, who lives with me has an album of
press cuttings and photos relating to my Dad’s career with
Liverpool City Police where he ran the Wireless Workshops and
developed various radio equipment for use by the police, firstly
on the push bikes and later in cars. There is also a cigarette
card with a picture of my Dad on relating to the changes in
Policing over the years. I hope to get some of the information
from my brother which I will scan in and email to you asap. Thank
you for doing this project and keeping alive the names of people
like my dad who were pushing the boundaries of technology at this
time. My brother still has my Dad’s morse key, which was
mounted on its side as he found it quicker to use that way. I
will try & get a photo of that for you as well.
Thanks again,
Liz Gould nee Menzies
The photo was at the schoolhouse , which was where my grandmother & my dad’s family lived. My grandmother was the caretaker of the school and the house, which was in the school grounds, came with the job. My Dad lived there until he married in 1931 so the photo would probably date from around the time of the card I would think. Somewhere are certificates that my dad received for working 100 different locations as a HAM. He had 2 because when he & my mum moved to Wales after my dad retired from the police in 1950, before I was born, his callsign changed to GW5MQ so he got a 2nd certificate under that call sign. We lived on a smallholding on a mountain called Moel y Gar which was quite high up and gave my dad more opportunity for transmitting over distance than the house in Liverpool where they had moved from. We moved back to Liverpool when I was quite small and my dad carried on being an active ham for many years after that. When he finally gave up I believe that he had help his call sign for more than 50 years.
I'd love to know what happened to those QSL cards of my dad's, but I expect that with several house moves, a marriage, divorce and remarriage they probably got lost somewhere along the way. I certainly don't remember ever seeing them, although he did have his gear set up in the back bedroom at Tynwald Hill when I was young. I assume that he would have moved his gear with him when he got married. I don't know when my grandmother moved out of the schoolhouse, presumably when she gave up her job there as caretaker. She died quite young I believe , certainly well before my mum & dad got married in 1946.
It was interesting reading Mr
Swanson's comments - his house was at the back of ours and he had
an enormous array of aerials set up. He always used voice whereas
my dad was a morse code man. His transmissions would often
interrupt our tv reception , it would start with him giving out
his call sign, G3OSI, but of course we only heard his end of the
conversation with the person that he was working. I went to
school with his children.
Liz
On the back it says “ G5MQ 1938 5 Metre Rig
at 38 Linkstor Road – which was where my dad lived in
Woolton when he was in charge of the Liverpool City Police
Wireless Workshops based in Woolton. G5MQ on the right.
For the record, here are the
various addresses of Edgar Menzies G5MQ and GW5MQ.
1927 (from QSL card): School House, Fazakerley, Liverpool.
1950 callbook: 38 Linkstor Road, Woolton, Liverpool.
1957 calbook, as GW5MQ: Bryn Celin, Berth Ddu, Rhosesmor, Mold,
Flintshire (Wales).
1962 and 1963 callbooks: 33 Tynwald Hill, Liverpool 13.
not listed in 1971 callbook.
QSL from K8CX Collection
Hamshack Photo courtesy of VA3DN
House photo, AR88 photo, and info courtesy of G3OSI
Info courtesy of his daughters Dorothy Holden, Liz Gould
5 Meter rig photo courtesy of Liz Gould
Callbook info courtesy of G3XZX