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Welcome . . .
This site is for all radio construction enthusiasts who remember building sets to designs by Gilbert Davey. It's especially for those ageing baby-boomers who remember a series screened on BBC tv's Studio ‘E’ in 1957, which showed viewers how to build a simple one-valve receiver. Has anyone still got the plans? Has anyone (besides me) kept some of the parts, or even a complete set? Can we rebuild them? Maybe we can . . . |
In the late fifties, BBC Children's Television carried a programme on Mondays
at 5pm, called Studio ‘E’, produced at Studio ‘E’,
Lime Grove, London. Hosted by Vera McKechnie, this magazine programme
included talks, travellers’ tales, music, comedy and "how to" features.
It was later re-named Focus. (Before you ask, Blue Peter began in
1958, initially running in tandem with Studio ‘E’ and
Focus but with content aimed at young children. Later, Blue Peter
extended its remit to children of all ages, supplanting the earlier programmes
but building upon their lead.)
According to the Radio Times, the following two Studio ‘E’ programmes (7 and 14 October) did not carry the series, perhaps because the BBC was overwhelmed by the demand for the instructional leaflet. It was reported that within a few days of the first programme, Davey had received over 26,000 letters! Radio Times did not repeat the note on how to send for the leaflet, and the pause in airing the series was probably calculated to allow the BBC to tackle the backlog of requests, and to allow dozens of radio shops to gear up to sell kits of parts. The series resumed on 21 October, and concluded on 18 November. What can account for this high level of interest? There may be several answers. First, Davey already had a huge following among readers of Boy's Own Paper. Secondly, as a practical project with clear and precise instructions, it was bound to have good take-up. Thirdly, interest in science among young people, probably greater then than now anyway, received a sky-high boost when on 4 October, just after the series began, the Soviets launched Sputnik I. The little sets worked well, taking advantage of the well-tried technique of reaction, in which part of the output is fed inductively back into the input, giving an enormous increase in sensitivity. My set pulled in Radio Luxembourg - the only station I thought worth listening to - just fine. In the late fifties, the thermionic valve reigned almost unchallenged. Transistors were then still expensive and difficult to obtain, and relatively untried by amateurs. But within a few years, the transistor conquered all - valves were old-hat. The BBC plans were thrown away; the little one-valvers were thrown away too, or dismantled. After a while, you couldn't get the batteries any more . . . . . . Now, those "baby boomers" are retiring from their labours and have time on their hands. Old-fogeydom is setting in fast, and at least one of them (me) saved some of the bits for 52 years! So can we rebuild them? If we're going to try, we'd better get on with it, because it's not too long until the planned analogue radio switch-off. After that, anything but digital sets will become useless (unless currently illegal low-power re-broadcast equipment is used). I have found little on the internet about Gilbert Davey or his radio designs, and hopefully this site begins to put that right. It deals in depth only with his "Beginner's One-valve Set", and in particular puts forward some educated guesses in an attempt to fill the information gap about one famous version of this, the BBC Studio ‘E’ receiver. It also offers a sketch of Gilbert Davey himself (gathered solely from published sources) and a source list for finding his published designs. I am grateful to the British Library for their research resources and for permission to reproduce images, and also to the rights-holding publishers (individually named throughout) for permissions to reproduce their material. I hope you enjoy this site! Les Franklin. On other pages . . . THE BBC LEAFLET - My search (unsuccessful so far) for the elusive BBC leaflet, and what I undertake to do if a copy comes to light. MY ORIGINAL SET – Pure self-indulgence - memories of my original Studio ‘E’ 1-valve set. PLANNING MY REBUILD – How I decided what to build, in the absence of an original BBC leaflet. MY REBUILT SET - Details of my working set - and a challenge to YOU. YOUR REBUILD . . . - Suggestions for other rebuilds - a list of suppliers, and details of a home-made coil to use in place of the all-too-scarce commercial coil originally specified. GILBERT DAVEY – The man who introduced radio construction to several generations of boys, many of whom became radio or communications professionals. DAVEY 1-VALVER HISTORY - The (incomplete) history of the famous one-valve circuit, 1948-78. DAVEY SOURCE LIST - a reading list for Davey designs. NEWS AND LINKS - see this page for latest news, and links to other sites of interest. |
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