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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.
Frequency Modulation (FM) was the latest innovation in the radio trade. As usual Wireless World had published an article on how to build one. The firm provided the parts, which I took home and built over the weekend. I managed to pick up a signal using a temporary aerial.
The problem was that transmissions were limited to once an hour, when an announcer said 'This is Wrotham, testing'. This gave very little time for testing. Manufacturers started producing parts for FM radios, such as IF transformers and the valves for VHF use.
We started making a model using coils, which one of the chaps in the workshop wound at home, with the help of his wife. Later on Philips started making an RF tuner unit including variable inductive tuning coils and the first IF transformer. Fitted to a chassis with the remainder of the circuit, a dial and pointer at the front, it made a very nice unit.
The schools radios were modified to VHF by fitting these tuner units, which meant that we had to install VHF aerials on the schools roofs.
It was becoming obvious that Television was the future for our trade. Frank and I had been thinking for some time of starting up on our own. One lunchtime we went for a walk along to the Clock Tower in Brighton where we bought a second-hand typewriter.
We found a small printing firm nearby where we ordered some stationary. We had, after some deliberation found a name for the firm by adding our names together. Leman didn't sound right but Norvett seemed a lot better. We decided that Electronics would cover any future developments and a name was born.
When we looked for premises in Alfriston we found a small two-room addition at the rear of Alfriston Motors. John Lower agreed to rent it to us at a small rent and we were in business.
To start with we only worked part time on our own business, still working for Goodsell. We called on the local wholesalers to open accounts. Some of them didn't want to know but we had a visit one Sunday morning with the rep from Brown Bros. in Eastbourne. After a chat over the garden gate, he agreed to open an account.
We also managed to open one with Electrical Components Ltd, who had their premises in the next road down from Gardner Street. To start with Frank left Goodsells while I carried on. Stan Goodsell was very good and we sub-contacted work from him, carrying out more school installations and producing the FM radios in our new premises.
We had had enquiries about television from one or two people in the village, including Mr. Brown of Milton Street. When he ordered a set we bought one, an Invicta made by Pye Ltd, from Electrical Components.
We installed an aerial on his chimney and our first TV sale was completed. We also sold two Marconi TV's in the village and started to make our first profit. Our first week's taking were 2/9d
To receive ITA when it first went on the air, the TV sets in use at the time were 5-Channel models and needed an external converter to pick up the Ch. 9 transmitter at Christal Palace.
We installed an aerial on Frank's roof, both a Belling Lee 3-element for BBC and a double 5 Ch 9 aerial for ITV. We bought a converter and fitted it on top of the set and we saw the first transmission of ITA with its first advert.
We found the next morning that the next-door neighbour had also picked it up as the converter was so badly screened that it radiated far enough for them to pick it up as well.
Ron Levett, 2001
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