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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, setting up his own electronics business and developing an interest in the new entertainment of the time - television.
When not employed on aerials and TV repairs I was also doing electrical installation work.
On one occasion I was working at West Hill cottages, installing power points and working in the bedroom. We had taken up the floorboards and were pulling cables in when we heard a roaring noise.
We thought that some very low flying aircraft were making the noise, but the woman of the house came upstairs, very distraught. 'Quick,' she said, 'the chimney is on fire'.
The cause of the noise was now apparent. We went downstairs and sure enough, flames were roaring up the chimney. The old soot had caught fire. I went outside and got a shovel of earth.
When I put it on the fire, it quickly went out. I then borrowed and old newspaper and held it across the fire opening. This cut out the supply of air to the chimney, and the fire in the flue went out too.
Working on aerials was always very dependent on weather conditions. Rain made the job unpleasant, whereas strong winds made it downright dangerous. Barry and I went to Glynde to erect a BBC plus ITA aerial on one of the chimneys of the row of terraced houses in Spring Gardens.
These are difficult chimneys to work on at the best of times but on this particular day it started to rain as we arrived and when I came to climb onto the roof, when I knelt in the gully the water was coming down that it formed a bow wave round my knee.
By the time we were finished, we were both soaked to the skin. We went straight down to the pub and I treated us both to a glass of rum, even though at the time Barry was under age.
On another occasion, we went to a farm cottage near East Dean to erect a complete aerial. I had fitted the mounting brackets to the chimney, while Barry fitted the aerials together on the ground and wired up the co-axial cables and diplexer unit (The box which combines the two aerial cables to use a single down feeder.)
The strength of the wind had been rising and by the time that Barry brought the aerials up onto the roof, it was very strong indeed. While we were both on the roof there was a sudden gust and the extension ladder from the ground to the gutter blew down.
We were marooned on the roof. Luckily the owner of the house came out and saw our predicament. He was only a short man (I believe he was a jockey) and although the ladder was extended up almost to its full height, he put it in the right position and pushed it up.
A dealer in Westham, who was also an enthusiastic part-time fireman, was also the local radio dealer, with a shop in the village. He was going bankrupt, which left his customers, including about fifty rentals, part of the United Rentals set-up, without service backup.
They had already approached another dealer in Pevensey Bay to take over these rentals, even though they were not United Rentals dealers. We wrote to United Rentals, pointing out that we were already United Rentals dealers, and were close enough to carry out the maintenance contracts on these sets.
In the end after some argument they agreed, and we took over these sets. We then discovered that many of them were as far away as Bexhill, as some of them had been installed at the homes of his old fireman pals.
Most of them, however, were in the neighbouring villages of Hankham, Stone Cross, Pevensey and Westham. In the course of the next two or three years I got to know this area quite well, having to repair most of the sets at some time or another.
We were beginning to obtain more electrical contracting work by contact with more and more builders and architects and local authorities. We took on more electricians and another apprentice.
The firm of Bannisters Builders were constructing estates in Seaford and Newhaven. We got to know Mr. Bannister Senior and his son Christopher and started estimating for work for them.
Eventually we wired a number of estates in Seaford and Newhaven. The Guinness Trust decided to build a small estate at Denton, called the Searchlight Homes, for disabled people. We estimated for, and got this job.
The combination of contracting and TV rentals and sales were complimentary, the profits from contracting providing capital to finance rentals. We had now severed our connection with United Rentals and were self-supporting.
We took a day off and went up to Wembley to the radio show. There we saw a demonstration of colour TV for the first time. I was very impressed with the pictures of an Indian man with brown skin, sitting in the seat of an airliner, with a view of the blue sky through the window.
The colours were very lifelike. It was many years before I saw colour TV again. Transmissions on UHF had just started from Crystal Palace and the first black and white sets built for dual standard were on the market.
The transistors available at the time were not effective for UHF use and the tuners were fitted with special valves, with their attendant noise factor. Consequently the pictures were very snowy unless the set was within a short range of the transmitter.
We bought one set and erected a portable aerial in the garden of Frank's parent's house in Winton Street. We managed to get a picture but it was obvious that we would have to wait until a local UHF transmitter was built.
Ron Levett, 2001
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