Virpil VPC Mongoos T-50 CM3 REVIEW (Not Radio)

RELUCTANT UPGRADE!

I recently moved my FlightSim PC from my Radio Shack to our Hobby Room. It would make both hobbies so much more pleasant due to spacing. Unfortunately, it ended in a bit of a disaster too. My beloved Thrustmaster Warthog Hotas Throttle decided to transform itself into a  very expensive paperweight.

 

No amount of fettling would bring the old girl (well only two year old actually) back to life, so it meant I'd have to order a replacement PCB at a cost of around £60 but they're not currently available due to the global Silicon Chip shortage.  So I dug out my CH PRO USB throttle in its place and then immediately remembered why I'd put it away in the first place. 

Windows cannot recognise your device 😰

The CH PRO throttle and FighterStick cost around £250, so they're not exactly budget items, but after using a Warthog Hotas, they certainly feel cheap! It was no use - I just couldn't live with the CH kit any more and so I looked for a new throttle  (I'll still repair the broken one when PCB's become available again and then sell it to recoup some money).

Needless to say, I could buy a new Warthog Throttle replacement, but looking on the internet I could see that plenty of people had suffered the same premature failure I had. Not good at these prices. 

So after some research, I discovered that the 'next level up' was the VIRPIL products. They looked magnificent and had rave reviews, but my God, they are expensive 😰

Top of the range is the Virpil VPC Mongoos T-50 CM3. It's their latest model and provides the user with over 140 programmable buttons, dials, switches and sliders. Some may think that's overkill, but believe me, FlightSims soon gobble up those assignments!

The Virpil £Ouch!

The unit costs a staggering £450. Yeh, that's outrageous! That's more than I paid for my Warthog Thottle & Stick combined! Well if you spend a lot of time on your hobbies and want the best, then you have to pay for it - or don't - your choice.

Just like everything else, the Virpil products are on back-order and it was just a stroke of luck that I stumbled upon one for sale on eBay - couldn't believe it! I ordered it on a Sunday night and it arrived on the following Tuesday.

As soon as you pick this baby up, you just know that it's something very, very special. It OOZES quality and all those switches and rotaries feel oh so smooth. The big throttle levers slide backwards and forwards with almost no lateral movement at all. The supplied detents allow you to choose where and when the idle/off and afterburner starts and stops. The finger-levers at the front just fall into your grip, allowing you to move past the detents with ease.

Most of the rotaries and hats also have a push-button to add to their usefulness. The six large square buttons are illuminated and each one can be altered to display its own colour. Additionally, you can flick off the covers of the switches and insert a description label - there's a pack of useful icons supplied in the box, but I prefer to make my own.

 

In addition to the supplied configuration software, you can also open up the throttle and make physical adjustments to the way the levers work. It's just another way that Virpil provide the ultimate levels of customisation. That's cool!

 

The connections for the USB leads are proprietary and at first I couldn't see the value in them, but then I realised that the option would be to have a fixed cable or a USB socket, neither of which is great afaik. Virpil's connector is very strong and stable and they provide a pass-thru socket for attaching other Virpil products to - that's a big plus!

The configuration software that I mention earlier is errr, just like most other hotas software - complex!!! I guess there's now way to dumb these things down and you just have to get your head stuck into a book or a few videos. That's where I'm up to right now - figuring out by trial and error how to assign all the functions of my sim to this throttle.

 

This is where I'm up to right now. It takes a lot of time to get through it all and even more to refine things. And remember, assignments usually relate to a specific aircraft, like the F-16C in DCS WORLD. If I switch to a HARRIER or an A-10, then I have to use different assignments (although some will obviously be common to all). 

Thankfully, the VPC T-50 CM3 has a 5-position selector switch which I'm hoping will permit me to program five different aircraft into the device and switch from one to another quickly and easily. I'll report back on that 😂 Wish me luck! 

Finally, I managed to replicate the ICP from the F-16 on my StreamDeck. This will be really handy, since it means you don't have to scramble around for your mouse to make adjustments. I've not assigned keystrokes to it yet, because some of the ICP buttons don't have keys assigned by default.

 

 

Here's some VPC pix...

Specification from manufacturer:

VPC MongoosT-50CM3 - Throttle Control System

The VPC MongoosT-50CM3 Throttle is the newest generation of our popular VPC MongoosT-50 Throttle design. Designed to integrate into every VPCockpit control set, it can also be used as a stand alone throttle unit.

As with our flightstick base units, the internal mechanics are constructed from high precision aircraft-grade duralumin which offer tension adjustment (accessed internally) and use our high precision, digital contactless VPC sensors.

The MongoosT-50CM3 Throttle now includes our brand new detent system. Controlled via all-metal finger-lift levers, the detent system can be adjusted via quickly interchangable detent plates to create the perfect setup no matter what you're flying!

Included Detent Sets:

★ “Classic” Detents - Lift to pass detents, push return.
★ “Classic Plus” Detents - Lift to pass detents, push return but with an additional tactile bump immediately after crossing the detent range.
★ “Warthog-Type” Detents - Lift to pass and lift to return detents.
★ “Aerobatic” Detents - Push through and push return detents.
★ “CosmoSim” Detents - Push through central detent.

Featuring 6 x LED momentary buttons with a transparent cap which can be removed to insert your own button inlays - perfect for labelling your controls!

There is now our detachable USB and AUX connection points which will allow daisy chaining with other VPC devices such as our VPC Control Panels for simplifying your setup.

The full feature set includes a huge number of controls surfaces and configuration possibilities that will surely satisfy even the most avid of virtual pilots!

Throttle Base Panel:

★ 6 x Customisable Momentary Buttons
★ 3 x Momentary Toggle Switches (ON-OFF-ON) 
★ 4 x Latched Toggle Switches (ON-ON) 
★ 1 x 5-Way Mode Dial
★ 2 x Encoder Dials (+ Push)
★ 2 x Throttle Axes (VPC Contactless Sensors)
★ 1 x Auxiliary Axis (VPC Contactless Sensor)

Throttle Handles:

★ 1 x 8-Way Hat (+ Push)
★ 3 x 4-Way Hat (+ Push)
★ 1 x 2-Way Hat (+ Push)
★ 1 x Encoder Dial
★ 1 x Encoder Dial (+ Push)
★ 4 x Momentary Push Buttons
★ 1 x Slider Axis
★ 1 x Analogue Ministick (+ Push)

 

 

 

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LDG MC-7610 REVIEW

EXTERNAL ANALOGUE METERS

Who doesn't like big analogue meters?? No one! There's just something a little magical about them and when I am using the Icom IC-7610, I love to switch to the big VU-style meters on the display but then I lose my expanded scope and waterfall.

The answer of course, is to use an external meter and thankfully, LDG have made a unit containing two analogue meters in a single steel case. There's one meter for each receiver in the IC-7610 and they can be set to indicate Signal Strength, Power, SWR, ALC, Compression, Current or Voltage.

 

Straight from the box, the LDG MC-7610 looks pretty impressive. It looks and feels like a quality bit of kit, unlike some of the MFJ meters I've seen (and owned). Each meter measures around 75mm wide by 35mm tall and the case itself is 220mm x 85mm x 85mm (WxHxD). There are four feet which add another 5mm to the height.

The meters are illuminated and have adjustment on the rear panel for individual brightness and colour. Also at the back is a Power Button, a Power Connector (12V+/- 15%) and a Radio Interface socket. The supplied interface lead is a simple 3.5mm stereo jack-plug to jack-plug. It's rather short, so unless you're planning to sit the meters right on top of the radio, you'll want to buy a longer lead.

Strangely enough, the meters don't work unless you supply the unit with power. I thought that the power connector was for illumination purposes alone, but it's not.

I strongly suspect that these meters will work perfectly well with the IC-7600 and maybe even with some other dual-receiver Icoms that have the external-meter connect. You can see on a close-up of the meter itself, the word M-7600.

So apart from looking fabulous, what do these meters offer ? They give you a nice easy to read meter for each receiver and permit you to place them in a location which suits you. They cost around £190 new I believe.

Am I happy with the purchase? Yes, for sure! They look so cool and are really easy to read from my operating position without the need to reach for my glasses. 

Thanks for visiting the blog!

73, Tom, M7MCQ.

KENWOOD TH-F7E Mini-Review

GOLDEN OLDIE

A 'USED' HT BARGAIN!

If you're on the hunt for a very cheap, value-for-money handheld transceiver, you'd do well to consider the discontinued  KENWOOD TH-F7E. Of course there's lots of HT's out there on the second hand market, but the feature which makes the F7 stand out from the crowd (apart from its low price) is its wideband rx and its ability to receive HF SSB!

The radio is an FM DualBand 2M/70cm transceiver with a 5W output. It's capable of listening to two separate frequencies at the same time (even on the same band). The ultra-wideband receiver has a wide range of modes including AM/FM/FM-N/FM-W/SSB and even CW!

There's also a wide range of tuning-steps including a very fine step for accurate SSB tuning. Inside the unit is a ferrite-bar for AM Broadcast listening - something which is often omitted in other handheld radios of this type. The only other HT I've owned with a built-in ferrite antenna was the Kenwood D74 (which cost me an arm and a leg).

With two bands available (Main-A and Sub-B), you can monitor any two frequencies of your choice, or if you prefer, you can de-clutter the screen and just have one band active. The Main-A band provides full TX/RX on VHF and UHF, while Sub-B provides RX only from 0.1~1300MHz in any mode.

In addition to the 'rubber duck' and ferrite antennas, Kenwood have made provision for an external antenna to be fitted which makes it very convenient to throw a long wire into a tree and massively improve your SWL capabilities.

Needless to say, this old-timer does not offer any digital modes, so if you're looking for some action in the DSTAR/C4FM/DMR fields, dig deeper into your wallet!

The real beauty of this radio to me is its size and durability. It's tiny and it's tough! And that means it's going to go with you much more often than a bigger radio - especially because it's got such a wideband RX. Okay, so it won't win any awards for selectivity or sensitivity, but if you're out and about up in the hills, it's perfectly adequate and more so with a simple wire connected to it. The radio also suffers from some birdies and these are actually mentioned in the manual. But all in all, it's a great little receiver - especially for this amount of money.

I walked the dog the other day and slipped the F7 into my pocket. I also took a small retractable wire antenna. I knew there was a competition going on and once on top of Winter Hill (just a couple of miles from my home), I threw out my wire into a nearby bush and heard scores of loud, clear stations from all over Europe, Asia and even America on SSB. I could also detect weaker signals but it was much harder work deciphering what they were saying, especially with their accents and the pileups and qsb.

The radio benefits from really good construction methods and it feels incredibly tough (MIL-STD 810 C/D/E) - you certainly don't fuss over it like you might do with other radios. It's also showerproof which is a great thing when you're out and about walking. All the buttons have a very positive feel to them and the Multi-Scroll key makes easy work of the menu system. The only negative here is that there's no illumination for the buttons. The internals of this little marvel are regularly applauded by technicians for the very high quality design and manufacture.  "This ain't no Baofeng" 😂

As usual from a Kenwood radio, the audio from the small speaker is pretty darned amazing. I just wish that other manufacturers would learn from Kenwood in this respect. My Elecraft KX3 for example has terrible audio from the loudspeaker and they simply advise you to use a headset instead and to treat the speaker as an emergency backup! That's ridiculous when you see how well Kenwoods sound - even at this diminutive size.

Battery life (1500mAh)?? Well it's pretty good actually. Even though it's not like the modern batteries of today, it really does surprise you how long it lasts, so much so that I'm not even thinking about searching for battery options.

Finally, this radio has over 400 Memories available for programming and with its fast scan-speed and wide coverage, it makes an excellent Scanner too! Scanning the AirBand produced good results but I would say not quite as good as a dedicated AirBand receiver. Still, most people would be using an AirBand scanner at and Air Show or close to an airport and in those circumstances, it performs flawlessly.

I bought my first TH-F7E from eBay for the princely sum of £75 including carriage. It came with all the original bits and bats, manual and even the original box. 

So there you have it. An excellent little radio for the Radio Ham or the SWL.

Specifications

* 144 - 146MHz Tx/Rx: FM 

* 430 - 440MHz Tx/Rx: FM

* 0.1-1300MHz Rx: FM-N, FM-W, CW, SSB, AM

* Memories 434 

* Large Frequency Display

* 5W HI, LOW, EL 

* Internal VOX

* Automatic simplex checker 

* Memory shift

* Time-out Timer & APO

* 16 button key pad plus multi-scroll key

* Internal bar antenna for MW AM broadcasts

* Special charging/operating circuit

* Lithium-ion battery pack 7.4V/1550mAh

* 58 x 87 x 30mm * 250g

UPDATE FEB 2023

I have since sent this transceiver to a special Overseas Appeal 💗

73, Tom, M7MCQ.

Leave a comment below if you have experience of the F7...

IC-7610 WATCH

APPLE WATCH & IC-7610

Wouldn't it be nice if you could control your ICOM IC-7610 from your watch? Well that's unlikely to happen for quite some years, lol, but in the meantime you can kid you mates and have this fabulous animated watch face on your Apple Watch!

It has a swinging s-meter and an animated waterfall. How cool's that??

It comes from an app called CLOCKOLOGY which provides amazing watch faces and allows a high degree of customisation too. Costs £1.79pm. I'm not advertising - I'm just putting the info here that I know I'll be asked for.

73, Tom, M7MCQ.

Click for Video

DIAMOND SS-500 & RSP1A

Connecting your SDRPLAY to your IC-7610

With previous radios, I have shared the antenna with my SDRPLAY device via an MFJ-1708B which has certainly worked, but it's messy and you never feel 100% convinced that it's going to protect the front-end of your external receiver. The best way to protect it is to not put it in harms way in the first place and you can do that if your radio has a suitable connector. Some transceivers (like the FT-DX3000) have a very simple RF-OUT connector which means that you just plug your external receiver into that connector and hey presto, it works.

The Icom IC-7610 has a different arrangement. It has RX-IN/RX-OUT BNC sockets on the back which form an RX loop, allowing you to insert a receiver inline. This means that you are never putting your SDRPLAY (or whichever receiver you use) at risk. I thought originally that I could just plug my SDRPLAY into the 7610's RX out, but when I did, I got nothing!  Apparently, you need to place the external receiver into the loop using a splitter (see the diagram that I sketched above).

Why Icom chose this method over the simpler one employed by Yaesu on the FT-DX3000, I have no idea. Presumably there's a benefit or it's due to the fact that the IC-7610 has Dual Receivers and very comprehensive antenna switching capabilities - I don't know.

By using a high quality splitter such as a Mini-Circuits ZCS-2-2+ or a Diamond SS-500, you can be assured that you are also providing a good degree of isolation between your transceiver's receiver(s) and the external receiver. Typically, you're talking about more than 30dB isolation, so there's very little chance of interference from one receiver to another.

At the time of purchase, the Mini-Circuits splitter wasn't available anywhere in the UK - fresh stock wasn't expected for another 3 months, so I turned to the Diamond SS-500 which is beautifully made but at £80 is horribly expensive. The Mini-Circuits device cost around £60.  As usual in these Covid times, stock shortages pushes prices up to ridiculous levels, and you have to choose between stumping up the cash or waiting months. I chose the former.

Although the price was higher than those retailers who had no stock 😲 RadioWorld were quick to deliver - it arrived the very next morning and was well packaged. 

The Diamond SS-500 is good from 0.5MHz up to 500MHz which falls way short of the SDRPLAY's frequency range, but that's of no consequence to me, since I'm only interested in HF coverage. 

Before I could install the splitter, I needed to make up some BNC-PL259 coax leads and a PL259-SMA lead. Once that was done, I somehow managed to connect them all up without pulling out the IC-7610 from its tight-fitting place on the shelf - miracle!!

I then loaded the latest version of SDRuno along with all the various add-ons and also made sure that OmniRig was running and configured for the IC-7610. 

With everything setup correctly I switched on the radio and ran RSDRuno. The two interfaced perfectly and it was good to see the full layout and tools of SDRuno instead of the very limited EXTIO version which I'd tried previously with limited success.

Version 1.4.1.1 is the latest version of SDRuno at the time of writing and is incredibly rich in features. There are a couple of bugs, but the software writers are fully aware of them and are working hard to sort them out. One of them relates to an issue which I personally experienced when trying to use the IF Output of the 7610 through the USB3 connector. It meant that you were unable to click on SDRuno's Scope to tune - you had to use your mousewheel or direct frequency input. That, ultimately, led me to go down the RF path. Hopefully, the patch isn't too far off for those who want to use SDRuno with the 7610's IF Out without an external receiver.

Anyway, the software ran perfectly and it feels good to have SDRuno back on screen, especially this latest version. Things have changed significantly since the last time I connected an RSP to the radio and I'm looking forward to exploring and experimenting.

Below are a couple of images showing the Diamond SS-500 and RSP1A hidden away under the radio shelf and then there's a screenshot of the software up and running. Conditions are poor at the time of testing, so there's not a great deal going on in terms of signals. I’ll post more when conditions (and activity) improves.

If you don't have an external receiver such as the RSP1A and don't want one, you can, of course, use HDSDR as instructed in the IC-7610 Manual. It provides you with a simple panadapter which works very well.  You don't need anything other than a USB3 lead.

HDSDR
 

Needless to say, SDRuno through an RSP provides you with a staggering range of functions and features to explore and experiment with. You pays your money and make your choice.

I'd be interested to know what you have opted for!

If you have any comments or questions, leave them below. Thanks for visiting the blog. 73, Tom, M7MCQ.

icom ic-7610, sdrplay, sdruno, rsp1a, rspdx, rspduo, diamond ss-500

IC-7610 & SDR SOFTWARE

 HDSDR & SDRUNO

Most modern radios have an External Monitor port allowing you to mirror your radio's screen to a large external monitor - nothing special about that. It looks kinda cool, but it also feels gimmicky too. Unless your eyesight is poor, there's not much point in taking up a computer monitor when it could be used for something much more useful. So I tend not to use the feature much at all - after all, you still have to turn to the radio to make adjustments.

If you have Ham Radio Deluxe (or similar) you can control the radio from the computer screen and it feels more natural to make adjustments on the screen that you're looking at. But HRD (and this is just my opinion) is really quite boring to look at and the scope and waterfall facility is quite poor and not at all easy to setup.

My favourite piece of radio-related software is actually SDRPLAY's SDRUNO but that doesn't integrate directly with the IC-7610 but  HDSDR does!! Thankfully, Icom purposely made it possible to easily integrate HDSDR and they included full instructions in their manual. It's extremely simple and straightforward and I recommend that you do it. 

Please note that in order to keep your transceiver, tune frequency and LO frequency synchronised, you need to got into the ExtIO settings (    ExtIO   onscreen button) and tick the option for synchronising both ways.

SO THAT’S HDSDR RUNNING! You can stop there and enjoy it. 

Many people will be satisfied with HDSDR but personally I think SDRPLAY's SDRUNO is infinitely more sophisticated and offers better control of the radio. And the good news is, once you've got HDSDR up and running, it's then simple to add SDRUNO because HDSDR installs everything that you need.

So the first step is to install HDSDR and get that running, following the very detailed and simple instructions in the IC-7610 manual. PLEASE NOTE that you will need a good quality BLUE USB 3.0 LEAD and a computer with a USB 3.0 socket! If you don't have both, don't bother trying to install any of this software. The IQ output from the IC-7610 comes from that BLUE USB 3.0 socket. 

DO NOT skimp on quality when buying this cable - buy a double-shielded one of good quality!!!  And don't buy one longer than you need to. Use a piece a piece of string between your radio and PC to determine the minimum length of cable you can get away with.

So with HDSDR installed and running, you now need to copy a folder and a file to the "DOCUMENTS FOLDER" of your PC. That folder and file can be seen in the image below. Locate them, copy them and then paste them into your Windows documents folder.

Now you're ready to download the SDRUNO SOFTWARE and install it as normal. If you are asked which SDRPLAY device you will be using with the software, just select RSP1A (it doesn't really matter which because you won't be using one anyway). You only need to download one file - SDR UNO! Don't bother with anything else.

People might wonder what makes SDRuno better than other similar style software and to me, it's not so much the functions and features (although that's very important), it's the efficiency of the software in terms of how slick it is, how fast it operates, how glitch-free it is and how regularly updated it is.

Install the SDRUNO SOFTWARE and you will end up with an SDR UNO icon on your desktop but that is NOT the one you'll be using to open the software. If you double-click that one by mistake, it will go looking for an RSP1A device, won't find one and will close down.

What we need to do to start the software is run a different tool. Go into your Windows Menu by clicking in the bottom left corner of your desktop and in the list of programs, find SDRPLAY and go to the SDR ExtIO icon and right click it so you can run it as Administrator (you can save a copy to your desktop while you're there). 

The software will now run and will start with the initial panel open. From there you can click on the buttons to open the RX window, SP1 & SP2 to open the scope and waterfall. If you're used to SDRuno, you'll very quickly figure it out, but if you're new to it, you'll probably have to watch a few YouTube videos to understand and fully benefit from this fabulous software.

If you try an older version of SDRuno that is already on your PC, you'll need to pay particular attention to the part of the instruction videos relating to separating the tune frequency from LO frequency! It's a minor point which if ignored will cause you much grief. I think the very latest software may have removed the requirement to offset - you'll have to check.

I should point out that my computer had OmniRig pre-installed and I don't think you need it for this application, but just in case you end up needing it - you can find the software HERE.

That's it! You've got some of the best software in the world running on your PC and controlling your IC-7610. Best of all, it's FREE! The only cost is about 20 minutes of your time. I'll explore more and report back on how practical and useful it is.

Please leave any comments below - and thank you for visiting the blog.

73, Tom, M7MCQ.

UPDATE  30 JAN 2022

After installing SDRuno, I'd been using it as an extra receiver but a friend of mine wanted to use it to control his 7610 completely, so I was on the phone with him trying to sort that out. To be honest, I didn't actually think there was a problem, but we learned that SDRuno wasn't keeping the Radio freq, Tuned freq and LO freq synchronised if you clicked on a signal in the scope.

Adjusting frequency with the mouse wheel was fine, but not if you clicked on a signal.

There has to be a way to resolve that issue and I'll update when I find it. I noticed also that opening the SDRuno software with the ExtIO icon meant that there was no SaveWS button to save your workspace, so each time you open the program, you have to lay out the various panels all over again. 

I might end up simply connecting my RSP1A to the RX-OUT of the IC-7610.

Update 3 FEB 2022

Apparently, SDRuno V1.4.1.1  has a bug which is causing this inability to click on the scope to tune when using IF output mode as opposed to using RF. It will be fixed soon.

A SHORT TRIBUTE

UNCLE ROBERT

Bit of a strange post this one and although it's not about amateur radio, it also is about amateur radio. And that's because a lot of what I am today, is (in part) related to what my Uncle Robert did.

When I was a baby, my Dad died from stomach cancer. Back in the 1950's he and his brother left Portadown, Northern Ireland and set off for a new life in nearby England. Bolton to be specific. I've no idea why they chose Bolton, but knowing that their family of 13 were living in a tiny 2-up, 2-down, I can see why they wanted to leave their Irish home and seek new opportunities elsewhere.

I guess that after my father's death, my Uncle Robert felt it was his duty to step forward and donate some of his time to me and most weekends I would walk over to his house half a mile away. 

 

Everyone tells me that my father was a very friendly, outgoing, warm and sociable person, but I don't remember Uncle Robert being like that. To me, he was a little gruff and unsociable. He had a very strong Irish accent which made it very difficult for a young boy to understand and my Aunty Gertie used to shout at him and tell him to speak more slowly. He never wasted words - why use ten words when a hand gesture would do?

Despite his seemingly sharp character, he was in fact a very loving man and although he had no money to speak of, he always made sure that he'd got enough to put petrol in his old Ford Popular to take me for an exciting drive to Southport or Blackpool. He would save up pennies and halfpennies in a bag and then give it to me when I reached the fairground or pleasure beach.

 

It was all like being in heaven, because when I got back home, life was very different, filled with drunken violence and aggression thanks to my wife-beating step-father. If I could have lived with my Uncle Robert, I would have moved in a heartbeat.

More than a provider of rideouts and bags of pennies, my Uncle Robert was also like a teacher of all things exciting. He was a railway engineer and had a passion for anything to do with trains, planes and automobiles. He was keen on learning about mechanics, electronics, radio and TV. Even though he knew it was going way over my head (due to a lack of understanding and a lack of translation), he insisted on showing me how he was going to repair the distributor on his car and maybe adjust the valves. 

As a young boy I had a great interest in radios and reveled in listening to those distant stations fading in and out of earshot with their strange language and odd music. Back then you could listen to boxing matches on the radio! 😲

He collected model cars and model motorcycles and taught me how to build and paint them. Motorbikes were another passion of his and although he never took me for a ride, he would always involve me in the servicing and maintenance of it.

I remember he'd save me his magazines and when I was ready to go home he'd give me a carrier bag with various mags inside. Little did I know how all these things would impact and guide me later. 

 

Sadly, as I got older, I visited less and less. I discovered the value of girls and pretty soon I was married and having kids myself. Occasionally, I would pop over to see him, to maybe show off my new motorbike (which he thought was just one of those new-fangled rubbish Japanese things). He tried to get me interested in his model railway layout that he'd built in the spare room but I was having none of it and I rode off down the street in a plume of 2-stroke smoke.

And before I knew it, he was gone.

Shame on me!!  I always regret being that selfish teenager after he spent so much time providing safe and happy memories for me. He taught me to become curious and he planted countless seeds of interest that would grow into enjoyable hobbies for me later in life.

His influence had led to me serving my time as a car mechanic. I had a passion for cars and motorbikes. I became interested in electronics and used to love making little projects each month from Practical Wireless magazine. I became an avid ShortWave Listener and later an Amateur Radio enthusiast.

I owe a lot to Uncle Robert and although I was the typical selfish teenager, I do remember him and recognise my debt to him. He was a fabulous Uncle - the best! 💖