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About me...
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My name is Wammes Witkop - I am a Dutchman, born and bred in Amsterdam. Professionally I am the publisher of a couple of Dutch computer magazines. The little time that the job leaves me is filled with a lot of hobbies - one of them spending as much time as I can in Ireland, a country I fell in love with over twenty years ago. Apart from all that, I like green radios, especially older ones. I do not particularly care for the military uses they are put to, having been a pacifist all of my life - but I am fascinated by the technology used in them. Engineering where money is not the primary motive. The newest generations are just over sturdy built boxes of digital electronics, like most modern apparatus. But as you go back in time, you'll find amazing engineering in a lot of unseemly looking green boxes. And not only radios - field telephones and their exchanges show the same feats! So I started collecting the beasts when I was much younger, around 1965. I was thirteen at the time and we had great fun with our field telephones - actually Canadian remote control sets for the WS-19 - connected by wires on the roofs. When I got to be eighteen, I bought my first 19 set. But shortly after the hobby petered off. Other interests, when I started studying biology. Only in 1997 the flame rekindled. And this time, money was not as limiting as it was in the old days. It started with memories of a German VRC-13 a former friend of mine bought in a Dutch Surplus store, around 1984 - only to have it impounded by the police within the month. Chances were, I borrowed the manual just before the uniforms took the rest. And I came across that manual again, cleaning out a cupboard. When shortly after the same system was offered for sale in a local free advertising rag, the cruel deed was done. I got hooked again... A the moment I am working on a variety of sets. Trying to get all parts together, finding manuals, restoring where needed. And trying to document all the different versions, in HTML. That's the prime reason for setting up this site - so I can share some of that information with other collectors. The first one to document is a rather rare beast, when it comes to finding information: the German SEM 25 and SEM 35 family. I'll try to share all information available to me, either from the various manuals - I still am looking for a lot of those! - and studying those parts I do own. Other pages seeing the light of day now give information on the Dutch RT-3600 family and older NATO radios. Sets I am working on - but not yet publishing about - are the German SEM 52A, the English 19 Set, the Dutch GRC 3030 and many field telephones. As well as the usual suspects, the GRC-9 and the whole early VRC family. Another quirk: I like radiation measuring equipment. You'll find some info from the main menu on the home page... For those who feel it matters: I am not a licensed ham. Operating these sets on the air does not interest me in the least. I am a collector and restorer. And when I would have time, I might just bone up, take the exams and become licensed - in order to be able to actually test them on the air. Until then I'll use a dummy load. For actual communication I do really prefer e-mail or cell phone... |
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Last updated:
24-09-2003 00:04 +0200 |