Such a shame to hear that those old computers and other bits of equipment have probably gone in the skip, as a radio/computer nerd that doesn't sit well with me! Great video as always!
Totally agree it’s just sad to see I go someone took care of that equipment and someone is gonna throw that equipment without realising The value that equipment had to someone that work there
That's what England is - they throw everything in the trash. They have no concept of giving something away. Also you can be arrested for knowingly selling a used item without rewiring and replacing the electrical cord on it for no reason at all even if the cord and radio is fine which is absolutely stupid.
@@MrWolfSnack Well I've lived in the UK my whole life, and I can reassure you that we say exactly the same thing about the Americans! Over here most people are happy to give things away to people that'll appreciate them! And as for rewiring, no that's not the case either, if an item is to be used in a public space or sold in a shop then it needs to be tested for safety, but if it is being used or sold privately then there's no need, and rewiring products just because they're old isn't a requirement either, only if they're unsafe.
Nice to see my old haunt of G4GSU and Castle Irwell. I was there 1979 to 1982 and freshers day was my introduction to Amateur Radio, taking the exam in Dec 1979 and getting my first license in Feb 1980. We used to visit the UMIST shack and it is a long time since I saw that UHF repeater! The tower at Castle Irwell also had the studios for Salford University Radio, and I believe was knocked down some years before the site of the old racecourse was redeveloped. Happy days
Reminds me of correspondence with a fellow in Japan (YT channel "宮甚商店"), who just built a small BC/AM transmitter, in order to communicate with his tube AM radios. He mentioned that BC / AM in Japan is about to be abolished. On an up note -- I noticed that Australia has a new station on SW (4835kHz) and despite decline here in the US, there are new people coming into the hobby. Greatly enjoy your channel ... fun series (albeit sad) ... Cheers! Christopher
This is heartbreaking to see this once great broadcasting site to go to ruin. I'm sure lots of great memories and friendships were had because of it, and for that at least it has served a noble purpose.
Sad to see this decay and lack of interest, over this way in Perth Western Australia the WAIT (Western Australian Institute of Technology) had a good Amateur radio club and that all faded some years ago in about 1979, now the place is called Curtin University, in the last few years there has been an interest there on building satellites and BINAR1 was built by students and launched, also a head of department has a lot to do with the SKA (Square Kilometer Array).. cheers Eddie VK6YA
The HAM hobby decays also here in Czech Republic. At the end on 90's when in school, I was using CB with friends, we travelled to hills sometimes and I did know some local HAMs, as they sometimes went to the CB band to talk with the "plebs". :) Visited some and admired the expensive stuff. Then we got mobile phones... These days, the pinnacle of HAM activity is 13 o'clock "weather round" on a major Prague repeater and some PMR expeditions coordinated via web. I never got a HAM license, considering it, but would not have time and good conditions for the hobby. But I listen to the mostly empty bands using SDR sometimes. Anyway it was a great series even if I do not care about Manchester. :) I doubt anyone here will ever do something similar about the local history. 73
There was an active amateur club down here at University of Sussex. The shack was still extant when I visited 10 years ago, bit those operating it were mostly alumni.
It is sad this hobby is going away. As a kid growing up in the USA in the 1980's and 1990's, I used to play around with the AM radio band after dark to try to hear stations the next state or states away. I used get some Canadian radio stations (like CFRB in the Toronto area) on a good night from where I lived in the Washington DC area. I also used to tune in my shortwave radio to BBC and NHK all the time. I still have the Radio Shack branded Sangean digital display shortwave radio that I bought on clearance sale for about $35 in 2001. However with the advent of being able to stream radio stations on the computer or through Amazon Alexa, I lost interest in it all. I also have a 1980's Bearcat digital display table scanner that my grand dad once owned. I used to listen to the police and fire services in that area. Unlike in the UK, there are several laws protecting US citizens rights to own a scanner and also listen to police and fire/rescue as long as it is a table top or house based scanner. Some states have restrictions on scanners in vehicles aimed at curbing fire chasers and folks using them to commit a crime.
Sangean makes some great stuff! My first shortwave receiver was Radio Shack's DX-392 with the built-in cassette recorder. Too bad most of the stations I heard on it in the 1990's are off the air now, my favorites were Radio Netherlands, Radio Australia, and Voice of Free China. Even WWV doesn't seem to come in as well as it used to, and it's under constant threat of budget cuts.
Man, when I was a kid back in the late 1960’s thru late 1970’s we simply adored our two local hobby shops. A trip to the hobby shop on our bikes was an every few weeks event. I’m 60 years old and still have my original WWII fighter aircraft models sitting in a box in the basement. We used to go gaga over all the new models and paint colors coming out. I used to even paint eyes on my models pilots with just a few hairs in my brush.
I don't know what is more sad. The yagi with half an element remaining or the shack left trashed like that. It would have been great to have been a part of a station like that back in the heydays. Great series Lewis! Very interesting!
This pretty well mirrors the fate of the Nottingham University radio society. I last used the shack in 1984, and I was the only operator. The club had a dedicated 60ft mast and a couple of rooms. It’s all gone now, and there was no active club by the mid-90s. I was at Leicester Uni around 2010 and could find no trace of a club.
Thank you for putting this history together. So sad to see the interest of radio go away and turn to smart phones and twitter. If the young people today would only become more interested in radio.
Hi Lewis, firstly I love your videos so please keep going! I was at UMIST studying electronics between 1981 and 1984 and wasn't even aware of the club. You mentioned Professor Gott. He was my professor for multi level logic. I wasn't aware he was a radio ham. I was excited about going to UMIST after my interview where I visited The Ferranti Building kitted out with Racal receivers and the Tesla high voltage laboratory. I was like a kid in a sweet shop! Best Wishes David M7CZM
Thanks for this video series. Its a bit sad to the the demise of UMIST since I got my degrees from there but I suppose it was inevitable after the university proper got a more business oriented chancellor in the late 90s. The Sackville St. building looks like one of those "redundant but got listed" sorts of buildings that's left to deteriorate in the hope that it will deteriorate enough to justify demolishing it. (The youTuber "Martin Zero" did an exploration of the building a couple of years ago -- it was in quite a sorry state even then. He talks about the history of the school and how it became UMIST, worth a look.) As for amateur radio I don't think its dead so much as technology has moved on taking a large number of would-be amateurs with it. Unlicensed bands are more flexible because amateur bands are relatively restricted in how they can be used which essentially restricts us to legacy technologies. (I can't speak for the UK but here in the US the FCC is really paranoid about encryption and technologies like spread spectrum.) Although there's a lot of fun to be had from legacy technologies like Morse and, of course, the endless search for the perfect H/F antenna this means the hobby is only attractive to a relative minority. Its not 'dying', though, its just its peak as a cellphone substitute has passed and its back to normal.
Sadly todays kids, unless they belong to a shortwave station/club, or similar, will never know the mystery and romance of radio clubs like the ones you mentioned...and the daring of those clandestine stations was so exciting. Including that of the pirate stations in your earlier episodes...all they care about is what comes out of their electronic equipment, including their smart phones. The romance of radio is gone...along with the mystery. Tonight, Friday, after my daughter, me, and my grandies return from their piano lessons, and finish their dinner, this grandpa is going to show them how to make a small paper speaker...as long as some noise comes out of it, I will be happy, but in doing so, if it sets them off to a career of somekind in the future, then this grandpa's efforts haven't been wasted. All it needs to do is set a spark of interest with the girls and off they go. Something a lot of schools don't teach, unless they have teachers with imagination and lateral thinking. I have already got their interest going having helped them build a fox hole radio (Crystal set)..they couldn't believe there wasa no batteries. I don't believe in a level playing field...if my grandies can do stuff that other kids can't then that is good. But I told them grandpa teaches them with love, and they are not to be conceited about what they learn that other kids can't.
I am very surprised at the idea that a university with a technical and engineering focus, wouldn't have a lot of people interested in Amateur Radio., even today.
Ham radio will get a revival once we get a base on the Moon or maybe Mars but us oldies will be pushing up weeds when that happens. Thanks for all the very interesting content. Cheers Dave.
The moon base or Mars base or the planet they are looking for will be occupied by the politicians who either caused the war or when Mother Earth get its revenge. No ham radio revival. Maybe wrist band communicators ala Dick Tracy. Permit me to steal your sentence: Thanks for the very interesting content: video & comments. ex-WB2TMV
@@RingwayManchester hi yes I have commented on your videos before. I seem to remember you have featured the Sackville building before. One comment said it was on the 14th floor. Not sure but I think that’s where the water tank rooms were situated and I have visited them many times! Lynton G4XCQ
I know this is a year old now, but I feel like amateur radio is about to enter a renaissance, I know a lot of people who are starting to take notice of the benefits.
What a waste. All that equipment should be gathered up and put into safr storage. On another note, I'm considering settling up a pirate repeater station. This has been on my mind for a few years.
Would it not have been posible to work with the astronomy department and make, created amateur radio telescopes or would the city just be too much interferences?
Well. Researched. Love this series Don’t like the scrapping of gear old PCs are a getting rare. I suppose the old repeater is a bit long in the tooth though. I like the Idea of Hiding a repeater 😉
The problem with young people not caring much about radio comes from all the laws, rules and regulations of it which make the internet alternative even more compelling than it already is.
there is to much of just chuck it away these days you think a local radio club or rsgb would have stepped in to save the radios pc just a other part of radio history gone good video Lewis.
With spectrum bandwidth trading in the billions, black box equipment so readily available and electronics being nearly all SMT or solid state the core or all radio amateurs focus was always electronics. Without it you didn’t operate or pass an exam. Today you fill in a cornflake packet on why you should be entitled to operate on HF and a few days later your licensed. Not that I object of the three tier system, I object to the lack of electronic knowledge after passing the foundation license as many will stop learning after M6 or M7. The hobby is in decline and it’s not down to the internet or emails it’s down to the curriculum in schools being so pathetic as to not teach electronics and only have it as a branch of physics. Don’t blame the internet!!! Blame schools and universities.
I think if you want to get students interested, it might be best to stop referencing it as “radio” (I know, blasphemy, apologies) and start calling it “wireless telecommunications”. You’ll get all the CS kids interested…at least that’s my theory. My interest in radio waves greatly expanded when I realized how much digital traffic there is on various frequencies (I’m at 40 and I work in technology so it’s a little strange I wasn’t really aware, but…) Anyway, these videos have opened my eyes to all the things you can do on a radio frequency and, as a result, I am much more keen. I think most folks who hear the word “radio” only really think of analog broadcasts, especially “radio stations” that play music and such. They’re all dying these days, so folks might see “radio” as a dying medium when, in reality, it’s more utilized than it has ever been!
Such a shame to hear that those old computers and other bits of equipment have probably gone in the skip, as a radio/computer nerd that doesn't sit well with me! Great video as always!
Totally agree it’s just sad to see I go someone took care of that equipment and someone is gonna throw that equipment without realising The value that equipment had to someone that work there
That's what England is - they throw everything in the trash. They have no concept of giving something away. Also you can be arrested for knowingly selling a used item without rewiring and replacing the electrical cord on it for no reason at all even if the cord and radio is fine which is absolutely stupid.
@@MrWolfSnack Well I've lived in the UK my whole life, and I can reassure you that we say exactly the same thing about the Americans! Over here most people are happy to give things away to people that'll appreciate them! And as for rewiring, no that's not the case either, if an item is to be used in a public space or sold in a shop then it needs to be tested for safety, but if it is being used or sold privately then there's no need, and rewiring products just because they're old isn't a requirement either, only if they're unsafe.
Agreed, that was a beautiful Mac. Quadra 800 or PowerMac 8100 I believe?
Nice to see my old haunt of G4GSU and Castle Irwell. I was there 1979 to 1982 and freshers day was my introduction to Amateur Radio, taking the exam in Dec 1979 and getting my first license in Feb 1980. We used to visit the UMIST shack and it is a long time since I saw that UHF repeater!
The tower at Castle Irwell also had the studios for Salford University Radio, and I believe was knocked down some years before the site of the old racecourse was redeveloped.
Happy days
Reminds me of correspondence with a fellow in Japan (YT channel "宮甚商店"), who just built a small BC/AM transmitter, in order to communicate with his tube AM radios. He mentioned that BC / AM in Japan is about to be abolished. On an up note -- I noticed that Australia has a new station on SW (4835kHz) and despite decline here in the US, there are new people coming into the hobby. Greatly enjoy your channel ... fun series (albeit sad) ... Cheers! Christopher
This is heartbreaking to see this once great broadcasting site to go to ruin. I'm sure lots of great memories and friendships were had because of it, and for that at least it has served a noble purpose.
My thoughts as well.
So sad. I am 60 years old and I am still an active radio user. It does not matter what the future hold this is one hobby that I am sticking with
Sad to see this decay and lack of interest, over this way in Perth Western Australia the WAIT (Western Australian Institute of Technology) had a good Amateur radio club and that all faded some years ago in about 1979, now the place is called Curtin University, in the last few years there has been an interest there on building satellites and BINAR1 was built by students and launched, also a head of department has a lot to do with the SKA (Square Kilometer Array)..
cheers Eddie VK6YA
Someone else from WA, woohoo!
The HAM hobby decays also here in Czech Republic. At the end on 90's when in school, I was using CB with friends, we travelled to hills sometimes and I did know some local HAMs, as they sometimes went to the CB band to talk with the "plebs". :) Visited some and admired the expensive stuff. Then we got mobile phones... These days, the pinnacle of HAM activity is 13 o'clock "weather round" on a major Prague repeater and some PMR expeditions coordinated via web. I never got a HAM license, considering it, but would not have time and good conditions for the hobby. But I listen to the mostly empty bands using SDR sometimes. Anyway it was a great series even if I do not care about Manchester. :) I doubt anyone here will ever do something similar about the local history. 73
There was an active amateur club down here at University of Sussex.
The shack was still extant when I visited 10 years ago, bit those operating it were mostly alumni.
It is sad this hobby is going away. As a kid growing up in the USA in the 1980's and 1990's, I used to play around with the AM radio band after dark to try to hear stations the next state or states away. I used get some Canadian radio stations (like CFRB in the Toronto area) on a good night from where I lived in the Washington DC area. I also used to tune in my shortwave radio to BBC and NHK all the time. I still have the Radio Shack branded Sangean digital display shortwave radio that I bought on clearance sale for about $35 in 2001. However with the advent of being able to stream radio stations on the computer or through Amazon Alexa, I lost interest in it all. I also have a 1980's Bearcat digital display table scanner that my grand dad once owned. I used to listen to the police and fire services in that area. Unlike in the UK, there are several laws protecting US citizens rights to own a scanner and also listen to police and fire/rescue as long as it is a table top or house based scanner. Some states have restrictions on scanners in vehicles aimed at curbing fire chasers and folks using them to commit a crime.
Sangean makes some great stuff! My first shortwave receiver was Radio Shack's DX-392 with the built-in cassette recorder. Too bad most of the stations I heard on it in the 1990's are off the air now, my favorites were Radio Netherlands, Radio Australia, and Voice of Free China. Even WWV doesn't seem to come in as well as it used to, and it's under constant threat of budget cuts.
That stuff needs to be saved. Being really interesting to boot those old computers up.
73 M7TUD
Such a shame to see it all go, just like all the hobby and model shops. But yet very informative Lewis, see you soon
Dave.
Man, when I was a kid back in the late 1960’s thru late 1970’s we simply adored our two local hobby shops. A trip to the hobby shop on our bikes was an every few weeks event.
I’m 60 years old and still have my original WWII fighter aircraft models sitting in a box in the basement.
We used to go gaga over all the new models and paint colors coming out. I used to even paint eyes on my models pilots with just a few hairs in my brush.
Yes in Liverpool we had a shop called Hobbies and one called City Models and Toys I seem to remember.@@65gtotrips
I don't know what is more sad.
The yagi with half an element remaining or the shack left trashed like that.
It would have been great to have been a part of a station like that back in the heydays.
Great series Lewis! Very interesting!
This pretty well mirrors the fate of the Nottingham University radio society. I last used the shack in 1984, and I was the only operator. The club had a dedicated 60ft mast and a couple of rooms. It’s all gone now, and there was no active club by the mid-90s. I was at Leicester Uni around 2010 and could find no trace of a club.
Thank you for putting this history together. So sad to see the interest of radio go away and turn to smart phones and twitter. If the young people today would only become more interested in radio.
Such a shame to see it deteriorate, then disappear. Great story, though. At least you have managed to preserve some of the history.
Hi Lewis,
firstly I love your videos so please keep going!
I was at UMIST studying electronics between 1981 and 1984 and wasn't even aware of the club. You mentioned Professor Gott. He was my professor for multi level logic. I wasn't aware he was a radio ham.
I was excited about going to UMIST after my interview where I visited The Ferranti Building kitted out with Racal receivers and the Tesla high voltage laboratory. I was like a kid in a sweet shop!
Best Wishes
David M7CZM
Thank you for what you are doing
This is such a well researched video, Lewis. I really enjoyed it. If I might quote Shakespeare "O, call back yesterday, bid time return!" (Richard ll)
Thanks for this video series. Its a bit sad to the the demise of UMIST since I got my degrees from there but I suppose it was inevitable after the university proper got a more business oriented chancellor in the late 90s. The Sackville St. building looks like one of those "redundant but got listed" sorts of buildings that's left to deteriorate in the hope that it will deteriorate enough to justify demolishing it. (The youTuber "Martin Zero" did an exploration of the building a couple of years ago -- it was in quite a sorry state even then. He talks about the history of the school and how it became UMIST, worth a look.)
As for amateur radio I don't think its dead so much as technology has moved on taking a large number of would-be amateurs with it. Unlicensed bands are more flexible because amateur bands are relatively restricted in how they can be used which essentially restricts us to legacy technologies. (I can't speak for the UK but here in the US the FCC is really paranoid about encryption and technologies like spread spectrum.) Although there's a lot of fun to be had from legacy technologies like Morse and, of course, the endless search for the perfect H/F antenna this means the hobby is only attractive to a relative minority. Its not 'dying', though, its just its peak as a cellphone substitute has passed and its back to normal.
Sadly todays kids, unless they belong to a shortwave station/club, or similar, will never know the mystery and romance of radio clubs like the ones you mentioned...and the daring of those clandestine stations was so exciting. Including that of the pirate stations in your earlier episodes...all they care about is what comes out of their electronic equipment, including their smart phones. The romance of radio is gone...along with the mystery.
Tonight, Friday, after my daughter, me, and my grandies return from their piano lessons, and finish their dinner, this grandpa is going to show them how to make a small paper speaker...as long as some noise comes out of it, I will be happy, but in doing so, if it sets them off to a career of somekind in the future, then this grandpa's efforts haven't been wasted. All it needs to do is set a spark of interest with the girls and off they go.
Something a lot of schools don't teach, unless they have teachers with imagination and lateral thinking. I have already got their interest going having helped them build a fox hole radio (Crystal set)..they couldn't believe there wasa no batteries.
I don't believe in a level playing field...if my grandies can do stuff that other kids can't then that is good.
But I told them grandpa teaches them with love, and they are not to be conceited about what they learn that other kids can't.
They were a thing here in Central California's Universities & Community Colleges too but, no more !
I am very surprised at the idea that a university with a technical and engineering focus, wouldn't have a lot of people interested in Amateur Radio., even today.
Ham radio will get a revival once we get a base on the Moon or maybe Mars but us oldies will be pushing up weeds when that happens.
Thanks for all the very interesting content. Cheers Dave.
The moon base or Mars base or the planet they are looking for will be occupied by the politicians who either caused the war or when Mother Earth get its revenge. No ham radio revival. Maybe wrist band communicators ala Dick Tracy.
Permit me to steal your sentence:
Thanks for the very interesting content: video & comments. ex-WB2TMV
It is sad to see these clubs disappear.
Very interesting video. As my Buddhist friends say - "change happens".
Happy days.
In the States Amature radio is becoming more popular with younger people for survival and civilian tactical reasons
How on earth did you find the shack? I spent 14 years looking for it when I worked there, and never found it!!!
Lynton! How do I know your name, have we crossed paths here or via email before?
It's on the 14th floor, Main building.
I sat my one of my bar exams in that building and was searching for it but could not find it.
@@RingwayManchester hi yes I have commented on your videos before. I seem to remember you have featured the Sackville building before. One comment said it was on the 14th floor. Not sure but I think that’s where the water tank rooms were situated and I have visited them many times!
Lynton G4XCQ
1:17 I love that old Racal Dana stuff
Thanks for your work
That's so sad😔 I hope they give the equipment to some amateur radio group 🙏
Unfortunately it was all thrown in a skip
Brilliant and really entertaining Video Lewis, thanks for all your hard work in researching about the umist radio club. 😎
Thanks Lewis
It's sad when you think about it. What was the influence of computer clubs on radio clubs? But they have been deemed to have diminished also.
I know this is a year old now, but I feel like amateur radio is about to enter a renaissance, I know a lot of people who are starting to take notice of the benefits.
What a waste. All that equipment should be gathered up and put into safr storage.
On another note, I'm considering settling up a pirate repeater station. This has been on my mind for a few years.
Would it not have been posible to work with the astronomy department and make, created amateur radio telescopes or would the city just be too much interferences?
Well. Researched. Love this series Don’t like the scrapping of gear old PCs are a getting rare. I suppose the old repeater is a bit long in the tooth though. I like the Idea of Hiding a repeater 😉
The problem with young people not caring much about radio comes from all the laws, rules and regulations of it which make the internet alternative even more compelling than it already is.
Great video, now I need to find something to cheer me up.
Good series of videos Lewis
What a fasinating set of videos, great work but sad all that kit will be thrown out.
73 de 2E0LIG Nathan
That is such a shame 😢
Fascinating 👌🏻
Thanks so much
What a shame
Cool series.
there is to much of just chuck it away these days you think a local radio club or rsgb would have stepped in to save the radios pc just a other part of radio history gone good video Lewis.
With spectrum bandwidth trading in the billions, black box equipment so readily available and electronics being nearly all SMT or solid state the core or all radio amateurs focus was always electronics. Without it you didn’t operate or pass an exam. Today you fill in a cornflake packet on why you should be entitled to operate on HF and a few days later your licensed. Not that I object of the three tier system, I object to the lack of electronic knowledge after passing the foundation license as many will stop learning after M6 or M7. The hobby is in decline and it’s not down to the internet or emails it’s down to the curriculum in schools being so pathetic as to not teach electronics and only have it as a branch of physics. Don’t blame the internet!!! Blame schools and universities.
I think if you want to get students interested, it might be best to stop referencing it as “radio” (I know, blasphemy, apologies) and start calling it “wireless telecommunications”. You’ll get all the CS kids interested…at least that’s my theory. My interest in radio waves greatly expanded when I realized how much digital traffic there is on various frequencies (I’m at 40 and I work in technology so it’s a little strange I wasn’t really aware, but…)
Anyway, these videos have opened my eyes to all the things you can do on a radio frequency and, as a result, I am much more keen. I think most folks who hear the word “radio” only really think of analog broadcasts, especially “radio stations” that play music and such. They’re all dying these days, so folks might see “radio” as a dying medium when, in reality, it’s more utilized than it has ever been!
prob person has broken into steel any copper
doubt that stealing was the motivation. Youth just likes being destructive.
👍
G3XDY mentioned in the video is still very active and lives a mile from me in Ipswich.
Fascinating story, with a sad ending :) Many friendships centered around radio technology was formed here :) 73 de OZ1LQO
Such a shame Lewis, however thanks for a great story. G4OWW. ……