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Ron Levett, born in Alfriston, East Sussex, enlisted in 1943, and whilst posted to the British Liberation Army, took part in the liberation of Germany. He then returned to England, working in electronics and developing an interest in the new entertainment of the time - television.
In March 1957 my Decree Nisi of Divorce was granted and Frieda and I were married in Hailsham Registry Office.
Although this did not at the time legitimise the two children we had, an Act of Parliament was passed soon after this which could be applied retroactively. This said that children of parents, who subsequently married after the birth of children, would make the children legitimate.
We were having problems in our relationship at this time but I wanted to make sure that the children were legally mine, so we went ahead with the marriage.
When the King died in 1952 and people started to talk about a Coronation the following year the BBC decided to install a new transmitter in Brighton.
This would transmit on Channel 4 in order to avoid clashing with the existing transmission on Channel 1. This was a VHF Channel and nothing to do with the present day Channel 4.
'The Wireless World' published a circuit and layout diagram for a converter unit to allow people with single channel sets to use the new station, which would give a much-improved picture in parts of the Brighton area.
At Goodsell's, where I worked, we all realised that here was an opportunity to make some money. Sid went round to most of the local radio shops to sound out the market and found a huge demand.
We built a pilot model in the workshop and tested it as soon as test transmissions started. Stan Goodsell suggested that he would provide the materials if we would provide the labour. We would then share the profits.
We worked in the evenings, building the units on a production line basis, turning out about five units per day. As soon as they were built and tested, Sid went out delivering them. All in all we made a very good addition to our salary.
There was such a demand for new television sets built with the then new 5-Channel tuners that retailers were stacking sets at home, anywhere they could find and installing them at a terrific rate.
Ron Levett, 2001
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