In prep – psp
Iain Maconochie GM3GIG was an active member of the Lothians Radio Society in the 1950s and 60s, participating in National Field Days and other events. During WWII he had served as a Radio Officer with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and survived being torpedoed. He died on 19th July 2015 at the ripe old age of 94. His funeral service at Oakvale Funeral Home and subsequent interment at Morningside Cemetery were attended by Alan GM3PSP on behalf of the LRS. He was buried not far from Tom Simpson GM3BCD and Sir Edward Appleton. Subsequently his sons kindly provided a number of photographs of LRS events and QSL cards for scanning for this website.
An engineer by profession, Iain was involved in the construction of hydro-electric power stations in the Scottish highlands and sometimes operated from locations near the projects. This apparently unsent QSL card was from the Lochan Breaclaich Project near Killin in Perthshire.
In this group shot taken at NFD 1955 at Loanhead, Iain is in the rear row, extreme right.
Possibly at the same NFD in 1955, Iain is relaxing in a pith helmet on the left, next to George Millar GM3UM.
Click for more photos of NFD in the mid-1950s in the LRS Archives
In the early days of the LRS social bus outings were held, with XYLs included. The date and location of this shot are not known but it was likely in the mid-1950s. Iain is wearing a tie, fifth in from the right.
Iain is rear left, behind Syd Rowden GM6SR. The other three have not been identified yet. Interestingly, a collection of Syd’s received QSL cards was discovered in Iain’s radio shack.
Iain’s radio shack in 2015 after his death. He was licensed in 1950 and operated until about 1976, mostly AM on HF and the lower VHF bands. Apparently he lost interest in radio when it became a “black box” operation, and the equipment in his attic shack remained largely untouched after 1976. The black and white photos in this report were found pinned to the panel on the left in the shack.
Iain strongly believed that radio amateurs should be primarily interested in the technical side of the hobby and should build as much of their own equipment as possible. His rig consisted of an HRO-MX receiver and the HF transmitter was home-brew (of course) all-valve AM phone and CW. The QSL card shown above describes the Tx for 14MHz as used at Killin as 6AG7/6V6/815, running 60W (input). It may or may not have been the one in this photograph. The station also included crystal-controlled converters and AM transmitters for 2m and 4m.