Comments by "boiler room bob" (@boilerroombob) on "Ringway Manchester" channel.

  1. They hold as much fascination now as when I first heard one in 1982 in over 40 years my intrest has never diminished ...and I get a real kick listening on a vintage set to them ... something like an old frg7... or a realistic dx 200... really takes you back to those cold war days. Well done Lewis
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  2. I was given a warning in Oct 1987 after being caught on 11m ssb.... ironically the man who dobbed me in..was a person who sold me an ssb set a few years earlier...anyway I'd apparently wiped out his video player that was recording his wife's favourite TV show the "thornebirds"..its amazing what info comes out from reading a dti officer's upside clipboard ......and asking a few trusted neighbours.....I went out next day after the vist and confiscation and sourced a new cobra 148 but hid it when they came to interview me in early November....oddly enough a few years later in 1991 my mum worked in the local grocery store and saw the same man who reported me to the dti/ofcom get caught for shoplifting fresh ham from the deli counter by trying to put it in his pocket and just pay for his bread rolls ... but alas the store owner was a man who would put his confetti on elastic at a wedding and would never back down and said ""take the ham out of yer pocket mate and dont come back""" ...and thus he was barred for life from the shop.... Mum said after relating the story ""every dog has his day son"".. and felt she had seen justice done for her little soldier ...I was 17 at the time.... bless her she's 73 now and I had lunch with her today man she can still fight love you mum x Ps always a gem from you Lewis well done m8
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  3. Redifusion set up a large cable undertaking here in the south east essex uk in 1964 it closed the antiquated 5 channel system in 1997 due to competition from the superiority of the the multichannel vrigin media system ...in late 80s though they introduced Premier movie channel .£10 per month ..but my friend noticed that all they encrypted it with was a simple signal that they removed with an inline notch filter at your end ...so a few electronic buffs soon copied these filters / pcb .....lol.....and sold them in local pubs ...for £20 sovs Or £30 sovs if you wanted the fitting service x
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  4. The times I've heard it on shortwave was always late at night...after a while it was always followed by another very strong transmission booming 5+9+30....from our loft bedroom .......identified as the "xyl station" bellowing...... "TURN IT DOWN OR PLUG THOSE KENWOOD HEADPHONES IN !!!!" Happy to say we celebrate 30 years of wedded bliss next year 😅 Great info Lewis keep em coming rog x
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  5. I love the chaos of things going wrong in radio ....and particularly number stations...I can imagine someone at a mixing desk frantically trying to pull the broadcast or get someone on the phone to make a decision lol Great history as always Lewis Well done
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  6. I remember this causing a stir .......its nice to see that unlicensed signals travel just as far as licensed signals ....... UK hams would've laughed this off ....but some American hams see this as a crime against humanity Great history Lewis x
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  7. I heard this live at the time I could not stop laughing at squeaky x
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  8. If I had a time machine I would go back and help people like this ...and if I was a sympathetic farmer they could have used my land ......Great experiences Lewis well done again...looking forward to tommorow
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  9. Poor bloke! needed rescuing by the sound of it... probably living out his days now on a florida key selling fish after turning stool pigeon on his amigos x Another great contribution Lewis well done
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  10. About 5 years back a ham on 2 meters told us off and lectured me and a mate discussing published scanner frequencies we kindly told him to jog on ...it was a joke ....I also remember buying shortwave magazine in the mid nineties and reading a 3 page article on scanning with not one single frequency in it! That's because radio communications agency had told the publishers off lol
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  11. Absolutely 1st class history Lewis and well researched ....well done m8
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  12. I did the same as an engineer in the 90s at a famous London Hotel LOL
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  13. Loved Windows Xp it was so reliable ...no wonder it was used by Russian security services and others .... but as with all systems used .... operator or system error creeps in... love these mistakes .....Great vid Lewis
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  14. A great peace of Manchester radio history Lewis......it just goes to show...what the public want the public doesn't always get.......in essex in the late eighties and early 90s inner city radio "icr" in Chelmsford held a similar status for a while and the complaint to ofcom/ris/dti came from the chief engin eer of essex radio complaining about the inner city's monster signal ....the icr engineer was kieth jermey g7wcm ..pirate legend in essex and London in his own lifetime sadly now a silent key....he had pirated top band since 1970 and been involved in all aspects of pirate radio since the early 70s chased and caught by the dti to many times to remember....he built my 1st rig in 1989 for infinity fm....he loved hanging out on top band and 2 meters... loathed by many but loved by us pirates and real hams ......when some youths Stole his 2 meter set on pretense asking for a light after knocking on his door one afternoon we purchased him a new straight away from ebay because 2 meters was just not the same without him .....his early exploits not long after deciding finally to go legal and getting a licence in the mid 90s were the ones that led to a ban on air for a while in 2000 for falling foul of the repeater group locally...that story can be found on the lpws website Kieth we won't forget you m8 x Goigle kieth Stafford inner city radio and you can hear some of the shows he done back in the day x
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  15. Great track Lewis..... of what was past ...but still lives on in our day with more questions than answers
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  16. Great video lewis.,...chaos reigns at the Ukraine/Russian border with this type of traffic ....I would imagine its a mix of both sides pysops along with pirates chucking in there part to its so easy today with hf set 100w good antenna to put this stuff across 40 metres. Keep going lewis soon 150k subs
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  17. I remember clearly hearing the very last of the e05 transmissions in 2003 it felt just like 5 years earlier on hearing the very last of the Swedish rhapsody number station broadcasts ..... it made feel like the agent.in the field as we were hanging on to the very "end of ende " to those transmissions in the spring of 98 just above the 80meter amateur band on 3.825mhz ....back to E05 however ....I used to hear its transmissions in 1997/98 very very strong in s.e essex uk in the evenings beaming to Europe and beyond with that Iranian jammer clearly warbling underneath the dsb-am suppressed carrier...... "American foreign policy has never been welcome in terhan" ......many readers of and contributers to ENIGMA newsletter were sure the transmissions were emanating from the us transmission facilities at uk Air base at Barford St John in Oxfordshire....hence the monster 9mhz band signal to essex that had a groundwave swirl and feel to it...
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  18. I have a feeling lewis that some of the bands will not be given back after the event...thus more control over the radio version of...... "le yellow vests"
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  19. my friend was an apprentice then a radio applications engineer at the marconi site Chelmsford and occasionally on overtime at weekends ran a pirate medium wave / am station from its site using the company long wires zeps and inverted L ....along with there fantastic earth system.....when the gpo asked to come to site looking for it and asking g questions about access ....security said " sorry government site sensitive defence work go away please" Chelmsford police at the time in early 70s did not have the appetite to attend either on a weekend as to busy with there own stuff x Great vid Lewis keep em coming
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  20. 14:31 Great video lewis .....i need to get set up i have access to some tall structures....the mesh is unobtrusive to site ....we will talk further on this.....as for emp issues i will store in the wifes handbag...its like a black hole in deep space in there
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  21. I don't think I slept more than 4 hours a night from 1988 to 1998 as I was glued to a scanner over night....its funny how the authorities behaved we had little wave of warnings here in south east essex uk .....in the late 80s and 90s .......the local police had the evening paper publish an article where they said they can track scanner users down and know when there listening..we rolled up laughing at that one as we chatted on 11m ssb ....then one day soon after my equally addicted scanner friend had the police turn up on his door step asking him to stop listening in every night on his vintage realistic scanner ...he was shocked but ......not for long ...it came out eventually from a sympathetic police officer that a family member he fell out with had dobbed him in..... strange days ....and good times listening to the old bill miss them days ....1 friend got caught on a handheld scanner in the street and the young cop just warned him and took its serial number .....and a policeman once told me though that ..you could listen... but must not divulge to others what you heard.
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  22. I slept very little in the 80s and 90s due to that magic box of tricks the "realistic scanner" from tandy and had to be pulled away from the scanner to go to the pub on fridays!...and then I wouldn't go on to a club as I wanted to get back home to catch all the.... police.....cordless phone...cellphone....baby alarm action.....arguments, love affairs' divorces, and drug deals, even ladies of the night being ordered over the phone like it was burger joint......and that quite respectable neighbour a few doors down who was so sweet... my jaw hit the floor one night ....even my my mum supposedly asleep in the next room shouted out to me "turn that up I missed that bit"! those were days .....Great article Lewis well done x
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  23. "The FCC won't let me be there trying to shut me down on mtv" ....so go the lyrics from a famous us rapper and the same for the alternative cb band users in the US 30 years ago ...I wonder what the situation is today over there....the last uk prosecution for 11m was 2003 Great video as ever Lewis x
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  24. I once had one purchased from the back of "electronics today" a uk magazine long out of circulation now.....and was demonstrating it in the street with some teenage friends way back in 1985.....one of the girls took it into her kitchen where 2 sets of parents were chatting and drinking at the kitchen table she put it hidden on the work top and we listened in the street .....we nearly fell over whe they began to discuss buying counterfeit notes from another person Eg £5 for a forged £20 ...we were all 15 years old at the time unbeknown to the daughters of the parents I had taped it on the large portal ghetto blaster ....I played to my mum and she said best destroy this neighbourhood secret......strange but great days.... Another great video Lewis from the ringway stable x
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  25. Great video Lewis we all miss listening to the law.....the only civilian tetra police receiver I know of is in the cctv control room of the local council.....boy I wish I could take it home 😅
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  26. 1st class video Lewis .....I can imagine the bureaucracy around these towers took so long in the 50s and 60s that technology over took the decisions made
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  27. In the 70s the phone was tied to house....now we are tied to the phone......that's the only hazard today...... Great video lewis as always sir x
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  28. a worthwhile cause if ever there was one Great vid Lewis
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  29. Great radio days I clearly remember this time Lewis hearing this thumping across the bands ....Great history ....well done lewis
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  30. I must have heard it all in the 80s and 90s including the guy on 49.860 mhz baby alarm beating up his poor Mrs ..... he left the home as she called the police ....I drove around my local streets but could not find him.
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  31. It was clearly an addiction which has left some unhappy and some with good memories....but whatever your views...its now part of the fabric of radio history Great series Lewis thank you for your time in posting this up 73s rog
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  32. Well done Lewis this is a great story
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  33. I first heard this in 1982 .....it frightened me as a 12 year old 😮 I heard similar gong in German supermarket once....but we digress Great video Lewis
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  34. Love a bit of local radio via what was called the... "restricted service licence" ....although a lot of us also see this as a great "qrp experiment and certainly the signal was not restricted... Some clubs even sold little radios with earphones fixed on the channel ....great archive lewis 😊 😂
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  35. Despite most governments worldwide cutting budgets for radio investigation activities e.g ofcom in uk or the fcc across the pond the remaining staff in what ever listening or detection or prosecution role there are in .....are never never off duty they listen at home ....in the car ..and in even bed with an earpiece ..... just like all of us ..... Great video Lewis ...
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  36. I think Lewis any decent road wide enough or long enough would have been used in an emergency....particularly in the cold war ...but either way the legends live on in what you have shown us today ...a big well done gor the 1st info
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  37. Well done lewis just whats needed on a sunday
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  38. I love the clashing of other stations saw it occur once with e5 counting station vs an Iranian warble jammer (Iran back in the day and more recently clearly at odds with U.S foreign policy) ....and then an Israeli e10 counting station started up ....the target area must have been a right mess LOL Gongs and chimes frightened me as kid aged 10 with my first short wave reciever in 1980....some said they heard a similar gong in a German supermarket but that's another story....Great info as always thank you Lewis....speak.soon
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  39. Great reporting Lewis of an alternative radio scene which was king in the late 70s and 80s in many parts of the uk ... and with original footage makes this story fantastic ...well done
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  40. In early 80s a lady on the cb i knew ....her mother had cab firm i was amazed to see a taxi pmr set in her kitchen connected to a discone but pmr set ...a tait... had a channel selector and every channel was tuned to different cab Co in the area . She loved listening to the competition.
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  41. The ambassador is spoiling us..said the ferrero roche advert in the 90s...but today its lewis with these short movies which intrigue us all ...thank you lewis and your partner in crime for spending time marching around london x
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  42. Weather balloons ...robots ....but just whos flung dung here ? ....Chinese intelligence and there tentacles reach far and wide today.... in software....in hardware... in fact everywhere ....even the device you reading this on .... Great video Lewis would be great to hear one on air .....maybe one day .....or was that a one time pad I found in my fortune cookie from Chinese take away on the corner of my street?
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  43. A great piece history Lewis..there is something comforting about those old callsigns reissued to others and that the work that went into radio experiments under there origanal owners use ... brings all of us together at this time in history x
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  44. I did exactly the same its on 49mhz LOL LOL it's where I got started in radio back in 1980 age 10 then on to cb ham fm pirate radio and full circle back to all of it in the last 17 years greatest fun even now is modulating on am on an old 23 channel am cb set
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  45. Wheels within wheels ....Lewis great series so far and obviously this antenna was a clear choice for all listening and intelligence agencies worldwide
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  46. Great history Lewis.....I wish we all had a time machine to visit these sites x
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  47. Fantastic article lewis well done mate
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  48. When I first got my scanner in 87 a massive manhunt erupted one night that went on until the early hours of the morning...we wandered out about 2am with my friends dog and naturally we were stopped by a lady c.i.d officer that wouldt have done the stasi proud in east Germany ..we said we could hear it all on the radio in our house .the police just looked confused......without stating it was a pro 57 we were listening on ...they ran us through there systems and let us go about on our way ...but that event all started when one man slipped out of a flat they were staking out and past the observation car....it was both manic and entertaining as they pursued him through a school football field but clearly this guy was a predecessor to ussain bolt a d slipped away ....no air support back then....Great days x
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  49. Great video Lewis.....where the hell did you get that small black one from??😮
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  50. 1st class as always Lewis well done informative and educational
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