Radio Officer training in Plymouth By Tim Strickland, G4EOA
Afew months ago, while surfing the ROA website’s training school section, it occurred to me that there was no entry for Plymouth. Having studied there for my MRGC from 1973 to 1976, I decided to rectify this and the following article (from which the web entry is drawn) is the result.
My initial research task was to try and establish when Plymouth’s the first course for aspiring radio officers took place. The parent college still exists in the form of City College Plymouth so I started there. Although very helpful, their archive did not stretch back that far. It was, however, a great asset when gathering information on the 1960s and 70s.
Enquiries with ex-Plymouth ROA members led me to David Nancarrow, G3RID, who was in touch with Bob Morris, ZL2AVM, now in his 80’s and resident in New Zealand. Bob was a student on the first PMG course of four term’s duration which started in September 1954 at the Plymouth College of Technology, the origins of which lay in the School of Navigation (founded in 1862).
The complement of the first course was about 17 students a minority of which were mature students. Entry requirements of GCE in science, maths and English were number of students.
loosely interpreted to ensure a viable
Seven main subjects were studied: Radio Theory, Radio Laboratory, Morse, Typewriting, Calculations, Gear (Radio Room practical maintenance) and Mathematics. By term three the group were expected to be competent enough to build a superhet receiver. Small groups were each assigned a section to build (RF Amp, Local Oscillator, Mixer etc). All sections were then connected together. Bon Morris recalled “…and then came the day when we connected them up and it worked! A great idea.”
The first sitting of the 2nd Class PMG exam took place in the 1st term of 1956. Only Bob Morris and one other student passed, the latter immediately going to sea. Bob stayed on helping with Morse etc while some of the recently failed students took a short intensive refresher and resat the 2nd Class. Bob explained “I then joined the group of students who had been successful on their second attempt, and we started on the 1st Class PMG course. My certificate is dated June 1956 – a little later than some of the others as I managed to fail the theory on my first attempt!”
In the early ‘60s classes leading to PMG second and first class certificates were held in the Paradise Road building originally designated the Devonport Municipal Science and Technical School in Paradise Road. Students who passed either of these qualifications could then elect to study for the Board of Trade Radar Maintenance Certificate. Classes for this part of the course were originally held in a separate
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building on Plymouth Hoe (see picture) which is now a café.
The building was shared with deck officers studying for their Radar Observers Course.
In about 1963 radar classes were transferred to the top floor of the main college building opposite the public library.
In January 1970 following a national review of technical education, the College of Technology was designated as a polytechnic: courses of a high academic level were retained by the newly formed Plymouth Polytechnic and all non-degree work previously carried out by the now defunct College of Technology was the responsibility of the newly named Plymouth College of Further Education. At this time the new college had no central premises of its own and classes for all types of courses took place in a total of 17 buildings across the city. This had an adverse effect on radio officer training which had to re-establish
itself in temporary premises.
The Western Evening Herald ran a feature on the problems this situation presented to the management of the college referring to “the eviction of students, lecturers and equipment from the former College of Technology building in Tavistock Road “…to makeshift accommodation in church halls, disused bottling plants, a former convent, obsolete schools and a cluster of huts…”.
The article opened with a vivid description of radio officer training at that time:
As course content
expanded accommodation
pressures intensified: In
the early 70’s PMG certificates were superseded by the Marine
General Radio Certificate of Competency (MRGC), the
radar course became more demanding and students
were required to take City
and Guilds Telecommunication Technicians qualifications
each year to improve post-
seagoing employment opportunities. By September 1972 students
joined for three years, the
last two terms being devoted to radar.
From 1970 to 1975 (approx) courses for radio officer training were based in a Georgian terrace house at 58 Durnford Street, classes also being held in the college’s Paradise Road building and the former Corporation Grammar School in North Road
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(used for practical electronics and electrical workshop).
Between 1972 and 1976 the former Dockyard Apprentice Training School at Keyham was also used for theory and practical classes. Facilities for the latter included the teaching of Morse code and a complete ship’s radio room which was used both for fault finding and instruction on operational procedures for radio communications.
From 1975 to the discontinuation of radio officer training in the mid to late 1980’s the Kings Road building was characterised by the large aerial tower and radar scanners mounted on the roof as the picture from
the 1975-76 college prospectus shows.
Recruitment and Publicity
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This situation continued until the new college site at Kings Road, Devonport was completed and opened to students in 1974/5 although second year radio officer students were timetabled to use the practical electronic workshops which were completed in advance of the college main building.
When possible, the marine radio section of the college secured entries in the careers’ pages of local newspapers. A typical example from the Western Morning News of March 15th 1974 is given below. The content relevant to radio officer training is shown enlarged. Enticing pictures of current students undertaking fault-finding, radio and radar maintenance tasks were used for publicity purposes.
Staffing through the decades:
Some staff joined when courses were established and spent the whole of their
careers at the college. Past students recall Ted Howarth (‘infinite patience and understanding’), Jock Richardson (“Head of Radar – ebullient with a great sense of humour and disdain for the college management”), John Mitchell (succeeded Ted Howarth as head of courses), Alan Pink (endless fund of stories based on his time at P&O) and Graham Sargent (cabin fault finding with stories of BP Tankers) For more details of staffing please see the expanded version of this article under ‘Training Schools – Plymouth’ on the ROA website.
Prospectus 1975/76:
Each department in the college issued a prospectus relevant to the specialist courses on offer. The following is extracted from the 1975/76 booklet and provides a high level of detail of the radio officer training courses.
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The wearing of uniform
Radio officer students were required to wear a standard Merchant Navy cadet’s uniform with green and gold lapel gorgets, the gold zig zag signifying radio communications – see picture. Also shown is the cap badge utilising the corporate shield of the City of Plymouth
Amateur radio station
The college had an amateur radio station based on an old KW transmitter, a Mercury receiver and a home brew ATU. The station was located in the attic of Durnford Street and fed a long wire aerial stretching down the garden to the rear of the property. Students were encouraged to study for their radio amateur licence and classes were held at lunch time and after hours. Many past students owe their call signs to lecturers Alan Pink and Jock Richardson who gave their time freely to assist those aspiring to be on air. On moving to the Kings Road building in 1975 aerials were sited on the roof of the college.
Student accommodation
Distant students lived either in ‘digs’ or in the (privately run) R/O hostel. Located in Mutley, the hostel was formerly used by navigation and engineering cadets. Run on the lines of a ship, first year students had to clean the place for Saturday morning
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inspections. Students were accommodated four to a cabin and some recall the inadequate heating in winter. The student common room in the basement was the centre of social life.
Some students chose to live in digs with landladies who were recommended by the college accommodation service Full board (including weekends if required) was provided at a reasonable cost. The standard of accommodation varied but, in general was good but, in some cases, it was located a long way from the college.
Second year students could opt to source their own accommodation. Some stayed in guest houses. Each year six or more students would choose to live in the YMCA, Armada Way, which provided
study bed accommodation, a colour TV room, a billiards room, weekly discos and meals. Cooking in rooms was forbidden but that never stopped the surreptitious preparation and consumption of Vesta dehydrated curries.
Firm friendships were made between students some of which have lasted the length of time. One marriage between one of the girls and one of the boys has since taken place. The picture shows radio officer John Williams and two other students at the Remembrance Service held on the Hoe in the early 1970s
Memories of former students:
Thank you to those who
responded to the request for
information and personal
memories when this web entry
was in preparation. This entry is
by no means complete so if you can contribute anything please e-mail your comments via the ROA website.
Personal memories
1950s: Thanks to Bob Morris, ZL2AVM, David Nancarrow, G3RID, Roger Taylor and Ian Channing who contributed the following:I first went to Plymouth and Devonport Technical College in the September of 1958. As the Devonian resident, I was perhaps unwise in choosing an in-county college. If you were resident in the county where the college was, you got a much smaller grant than an out of county student. The Devonport part of the college was a large ugly 19th century granite building overlooking Devonport railway station. The Plymouth part of the college, which was located in the centre of the city, rather looked down on us and refused to allow us to take part in things like the annual rag parade, though we did anyway. The radio officer students had exclusive use of the building apart from one day a week when
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we entertained the girls from the biscuit factory who, if memory serves, were rather jolly friendly ladies.
My initial studies were for my PMG Second Class and I have to say that I struggled rather with the studies. I had particular problems with Morse. The only lecturer I can recall is Ted Howarth who was instrumental in getting me through my exams. He also managed to get me a Marconi Marine student grant and in due course the award of the Marconi Student of the Year. When I first started attending Devonport College, we were housed in a hostel in the centre of the city which we shared with the engineering and deck cadets. The accommodation was individual cabins made out of hardboard, which did not provide much privacy. Later I had digs in with various landladies around the city, some of which were brilliant, some of which were rubbish. In one I had to share a large room with two Maltese dockyard workers.
My fellow students were a friendly bunch, mostly because we all smoked and drank. Though I was on a strict budget we were able to go out drinking most nights and I was also a fairly heavy smoker. The story that I often tell is that my father was paid at lunch time on a Friday. He used to put a ten shilling note in an envelope addressed to me in Plymouth, and it always turned up the following morning. That was my beer and tobacco money for the week.
We had our normal drinking haunts which were on Plymouth’s Barbican, which in those days was very rough and ready and all the pubs were mostly inhabited by fishermen. The regular treat was rough cider at £0.06 a pint of slops at £0.07 a pint or best bitter at £0.09. In terms of my academic career, I managed to pass my Second Class certificate despite my poor Morse which I had to resit. Urged on by Ted I went on to do my First Class and amazingly I passed that as well. Looking back, I was very happy at Plymouth and still retain some very good memories of some great fun times.
1960s:
Thanks again to the aforementioned David Nancarrow, G3RID, Roger Taylor and Ian Channing for these memories of the 1960s. Their time at the college spanned the 1950s and 1960s. We used to spend quite a lot of time at both students’ union buildings mostly on the Hoe and watched colour TV in the one opposite the Poly. This this was in year 2 and radar. Main pubs were the Fortesque and Nottingham on Mutley Plain. One of the students owned the Plume of Feathers in Princetown and we used to go out there when we could get a lift!
I failed the 2nd class Morse first time around but got the 1st Class at my first attempt. The Radiolocator was the MkIV replacing the KH1a. Jock (Richardson) had a sign above the radar set down on the Hoe: ‘use your head – Switch…es, Fuses, LT, HT, Anodes, Screens, Grids’.
I also distinctly recall Jock Richardson telling a fellow student on the radar course who was prodding around with an Avo “Ye’ll never find faults with the equipment turned off laddie.” The KH had many EF50s and EF55s. Both were sealed in metal cans so you couldn’t see inside. To simulate low emission Jock would open a 55 and replace it with a smaller EF50 resealing the can. So we learnt quite a lot from him that served us well with not only MkI Vs, but also the Hermes/Argus beasts of later days. (This led to) me coming ashore to work with Decca. The passing buses on the way from the YMCA to Devonport allowed us to practise Morse by tapping out the bus route number and destination before it got too far away to read the route on the back of the bus.
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Re the Vigilant A/A, the various cams etc on the motor driven shaft were recalled as ‘Devonport High School’. After all this time I think that meant ‘Dash, Paul, Hotch and Space’. During my time there, I stayed in the (now demolished) YMCA building. The food and accommodation were excellent, there were some students on the marine engineering and deck officer courses staying there as well. On Saturday nights, the ballroom in the YMCA hosted jazz concerts which featured many well-known names such as Kenny Ball and Acker Bilk. I failed my 2nd class Morse first time because to my utter surprise the plain language text came out 100%. I was so amazed that I
fluffed the Code Groups!
1970s: Thanks to ROA members John Williams, MW0JWW, (training from 1970 to December 1972) and Tim Strickland, G4EOA, (training from September 1973 to June 1976) plus others for sharing the following personal memories.
Durnford Street was a shabby place and I remember being told at my interview for a place that the college would be moving to brand new purpose built accommodation next year. Next year turned out to be the year after – our final year!
I quite liked Durnford Street as it was only us R/O’s tucked away on our own. I was so pleased to be learning Morse code. The college [teaching] was the first time in my life that I realised I could absorb knowledge and succeed. It and the teachers changed my life. On Friday afternoon we had typing classes in the college in Paradise Road. No one missed Friday afternoon as there we were in neat naval uniform with a captive audience of girls on the business studies course. I liked the uniform – it cemented my ambition. I won the Marconi prize for best student. This was a massive boost to my confidence and my parents’ belief that at last I would settle down and study after a somewhat under-performing time at school. I was interested in the subject and had a burning ambition to be an R/O.
The queue at tea break seemed to be massive as 30 or so of us waiting to be served. A group of us lived in the YMCA. This fostered an esprit de corps. We had various receivers to monitor 500kHz and one of the group’s father worked at GIL so we could hear him on the key sometimes…
We used to go to the pub (The Good Companions) each Friday evening. My half of lager cost 13p!! Before the pub we went to the launderette!
Jock Richardson was a real character. His logical approach to fault finding has stayed with me all my life. “Why are you checking tyre pressure when the car won’t start?” was his way of telling us to use a logical approach and THINK before acting. I still use that analogy today when dealing with fault finding. John Dustin used to preface each of our names with ‘Brother’. Hence we all suspected he had red tendencies. John Nixon’s Friday afternoon tests for telecoms and radio theory were really good preparation for our City and Guilds exams…we owe a lot to him.
Alan Pink was inspirational in our first year…he seemed to know everything and was the first person I met who could draw a one stage transmitter circuit diagram with
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values from memory. I was hopeless at maths at school, really bad. John Mitchell said he would give me a chance as they had a good maths teacher. I can’t remember her name (Miss Newton?) but she was fantastic and took us for three years from the very basics of long multiplication through to differentiation, advanced trig and so on. I wish I could thank her now!
(I attended the college) From Sept 1970 to Dec 1972, we did the first year at Durnford Street. We walked from Grimstone Terrace Hostel to Durnford Street every morning, rain or shine as we couldn’t waste good beer money on bus fares! In uniform and down Union Street in the “Skinhead era” was not for the faint hearted and good training for getting back onboard after a night ashore! There were regular “Meetings” with our headshaven moronic Plymothian brothers, but sometimes the Royal Marines at 45 Commando opposite us used to sort them out well and truly, especially if one of their own had been attacked!
Our second year was totally on the top floor of the Poly at Drake Circus, which was great as no uniform and a “Student’s” life. The only time we went to Devonport was for typing and chasing the hairdressers in the first year! The Radar course was in the classroom on the
roof of the Poly!
Yes, on reflection I had a great time. Unfortunately, I have no recollection of being offered Amateur Radio training. It would have saved me doing the three exams in 2020/1 during Covid!
I went for interview at the BBC for the position of a radio engineer and was offered the job. The interview questions absolutely lined up with the theory we had been taught so I could reply with confidence. The interviewer complimented me on the standard of my training received at the college.