Greetings. I’m a retired laboratory technician (university biological / medical sciences), and an old pal of Mike Grahn (also of this parish…) I slithered in under the back door a few years ago, so should now do this ‘profile’. I’ve been interested in electronics since I could peer into the ‘magic eye’ of the family radio, and wonder how that worked.

My working life involved designing and fixing electronic stuff, and lashing up experimental setups of all kinds, and make do and mend is a watchword. I studied geology and botany at University, and like many others wondered at the unsustainable consumption and disposal of practically everything. My first projects were all ‘valve era’ since there was a ready supply of old radios from the village ‘jumble sales’. I am self-taught, and therefore occasionally self-deluded. I volunteer at a Hospice Shop ‘vintage and collectible’ in Colchester fixing and pricing stuff, and occasionally sneak into the Tooting restart sessions.