My Hombrew Digital Frequency Counter (C 1976!)

[Yorkie]

Thanks for your kind comments Al. Looking back to that time, I'm incredulous that I ever found the time to build such stuff. I was in mid career with a demanding job, our two sons were then aged 8 and 12, so as a father and husband I had a lot of demands on my time, and money was tight. Due to the cost of the components, I got them together bit by bit, making the display boards first, then buying ICs as and when I could afford them. The transformer was the most expensive item. Two years later in 1978, I built the PW Purbeck oscilloscope and again, spread the cost over several months and saved on the project by making my own case, and it gave good service for many years. I etched the PCB to make the matching double beam adaptor and got most of the bits, but never did finish that project.

In 1988 I started making the G3TSO HF transceiver and built most of the PCBs, the VFO and digital display, then that project stalled, other priorities took over, my interest in amateur radio declined, and realistically, that project is never going to get finished, leastways, not by me.

The strange thing is, that nowadays, I'm not strapped for cash - I'm strapped for time. I'd fondly imagined that retirement is all about a life of leisure, where you can just take it easy, saunter through each day, working your down your 'do-list', ticking off all those things you said you'd get around to when you retired, until eventually, you have no backlog. Dream on! trust me, it's never going to happen, well it has yet to do so for me, and I've had 18 years at it, I've metamorphosed into one of those insufferable old buffers who are forever saying 'I don't know how I found time to go to work'.

Funny old world, innit?