Looking Back - 1939 to 2011 - the Autobiography of Robert V. J. Padula, OAM

1954 - Shortwave Radio reception at Auburn

Home
1941 - Bikes and Cars
1943 - Hiking - Hills and Coasts
1944 - Growing up in the War Years - Part 1
1944 - Growing up in the War Years - Part 2
1944 - Growing up in the War Years - Part 3
1945 - Auburn schooldays - Part One
1945 - Auburn Schooldays - Part Two
1945 - Auburn Schooldays - Part Three
1945 - Upwey and the Puffing Billy
1945 - Gramaphones and Record Players
1946 - Flinders St Station
1946 - Astronomy
1946 - Beach and Swimming Adventures
1946 - Going to the Pictures
1947 - Adventures at the Altona Bungalow
1947 -The Listener-In Magazine
1947 - Balwyn WIldlife Sanctuary
1948 - Fishermen's Bend Aerodrome
1948 - Radio Australia QSL cards
1948 - Excursions
1949 - Australian Rules Football
1949 - Radio Monitoring at Auburn
1950 -Trains and Ships
1950 - Radios for Communications
1950 - Radio Listening Clubs in Australia
1950 - World Radio TV Handbook
1950 - Shortwave Radio Propagation Research
1950 - Medium Wave Radio Propagation Research
1950 - Radio and Hobbies Magazines
1950 - Discovering shortwave radio at Auburn
1951 - Photography
1951 - Competitions on local radio stations
1952 - Camp Buxton - YMCA Shoreham
1952 Tennis and Ten Pin Bowling
1953 - Stamp Collectiong
1953 Camberwell High School
1954 - Royal Visit to Melbourne
1954 - Shortwave Radio reception at Auburn
1956 - Melbourne's Olympic Games
1956 - Trainee Telecommunications' Technician
1957 - Trainee Technician - field work
1957 - National Service Registration
1958 - Laverton Air Show
1958 - MOOMBA Parade
1958 - Trainee Technician - field work
1959 - The move to Mont Albert
1960 - Working at Deepdene Telephone Exchange
1963 - Trade Unions, Staff Associations, Industrial Relations
1964 - Senior Technician work in the Melbourne CBD
1964 - Project support for Radio Australia
1964 - Project support for Radio Australia
1964 - Amateur Radio
1964 - Media Writing
1964 -Travels
1964 - Engineering Support for International Broadcasters
1965 - Professional Employment with PMG/Telstra
1967 - Professional Qualifications - Institution of Engineers Australia
1967 - Australian Radio DX Club Photo Gallery (to 1979)
1972 - Wireless Institute of Australia
1972 - Natural disasters in Melbourne
1980 - Australian Radio DX Club Gallery (to 1995)
1981 - Award of the Medal of the Order of Australia
1995 - Padula Books
EPILOGUE
LINKS TO AUTHOR'S PERSONAL WEBSITES
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEPENDENT BIOGRAPHIES
SPECIAL CHAPTER - Oldtime Australian Radio Drama from the 1930s
SPECIAL CHAPTER - Radio Monitoring Clubs in Australia - 1920 to 1949
SPECIAL CHAPTER - Melbourne Picture Theatres - History - 1906 to 1970

auburrndualwavemantel1940.jpg
The dualwave Mantel at Auburn, 1954

THE YEAR OF 1954

In January 1954, I bought a dualwave "Chassis Radio" at Maxwell's, Elizabeth St, Melbourne.

 

This was sold without a cabinet, and  I used this right up until about 1955. This lived on the small table in our bedroom - that table is still in good condition and is now in the little room next to the den here in Mont Albert!

 

I bought that radio from my wages of 21 shillings a week earned at Buscombe’s

chemist - I remember that I had been allowed to take some time off on a

Saturday morning to go into town and buy the radio. I dragged it back in the

train to the chemist, in a large cardboard box.

 

I ran an antenna from our upstairs bedroom window (shared with my brother) to a large ventilation chimney on top of the horse stables used by the bakery, at the rear of our back yard. Parts of that antenna are still there, today!

 

Later In 1954 I bought a secondhand dualwave mantel radio – this sat on the mantelpiece in our bedroom - I think we got this at a junk shop in Burke d, Camberwell.

 

I painted the cabinet light blue gloss. This set covered the SW bands from 16 to 49 metres – the 49 metre band was not overed by my main “chassis radio” which only tuned 42 to 13 metres.

 

When I was using the “Chassis radio” I was able to hear stations in the 49 metre band by tuning to their double spots (“IF images”) which would be fall in the 7 MHz range. The IF of the Chassis was 465 kHz (not the standard 455 kHz), and double spots would occur 930 kHz away. Thus, a station on 6000 kHz would be audible on the double-spot image frequency of 7930 KHz. 

 

In 1954, I was attending Camberwell High School, and several of my schoolmates were also interested in radio, all of us read the Radio and Hobbies magazines avidly!

 

We used to look at the adverts which had started to appear for war surplus receivers!

 

RADIO ENGINEERING TEXTBOOK

In the same year, I bought a text book entitled “Radio Engineering”, published in the UK in 1951. I still have this reference, which gave me a good grounding in the theory of radio communications, propagation, and transmission.

 

SHORTWAVE REVELATIONS

The purchase of the Chassis really sparked my interest in Shortwave long distance radio propagation!

 
In 1954 I started writing to broadcasting stations for verifications (QSLs) and I have maintained that interest until the present day..

 

I also had an interest in monitoring amateur band stations, in the years 1954 to 1956.

In 1954 I started sending reports for QSLs.

 

At the present time, September 2011, I have received 8460 QSLs from 1053 Stations in 230 countries, a world record, resulting from 10,950 reception reports being sent out!.

 

I became quite frustrated at not being able to tune in to the regular 49 metre band, and was anxiious to get a  better receiver with greater frequency cioverage..

 

AR8 RECEIVER
I operated this dualwave radio until May 1956, when I acquired an AR8 ex-airforce communications receiver, which I boight from A.C.E Radio, Sydney, for 34 pounds, seventeen shillings, and sixpence, A lot of money in those days.

logbookp1.jpg
Page 1 of my first Shortwave Logbook 1954

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