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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 met and married his German wife, Ruth, while stationed in Münster then returned to England.
Television was just becoming the new means of entertainment at this time and I was very interested in it, but unfortunately the price of a commercial receiver was beyond my pocket. There were, luckily, large stocks of ex-government radio and radar equipment on sale at knock down prices.
Magazines such as 'Practical Television' were publishing details of conversion of military equipment to civilian use. In Eastbourne there was a shop in Junction Road, (now part of the Arndale Centre), known as Jackson Electrical.
The owner obtained a large quantity of ex-govt stock, including some of the type mentioned in the magazine. I bought two R1355 RAF receivers, complete with tuner units, which only needed the tuning coils rewinding to convert them to Band 1 TV frequency.
I also bought a Navy 6B indicator unit, a Radar set with a 6 inch green Cathode Ray Tube. With quite a lot of conversion I then had the basis for a television set.
I had to buy a mains transformer and the remainder of the parts to build a power supply but I was soon experimenting on my first TV set. At the time the transmissions were coming from Alexander Palace, with an output of only 17 watts. This meant that the signal was very weak by the time it arrived in Alfriston.
I had to buy a rather expensive 3-element aerial to pick it up, and erect it on the chimney. I managed to get pictures, although they were rather snowy except on the rare occasions when reception was extra good.
I had problems with synchronising; the picture was inclined to lose vertical hold at times. Freddie said, 'Put a wedge under it!'
We had a gale one night and discovered that the chimney was starting to disintegrate. Uncle Jesse got Wilson's the builders in and they had to put scaffolding up and re-build the chimney.
Ron Levett, 2001
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