Geoffrey Sims interviewed by Frank Paterson

Oral history interview with Geoffrey (Geoff) Sims conducted and recorded by Frank Paterson on 21 March 2019 at the National Railway Museum in York. Duration: 50 minutes. Childhood Peak district, school, family background, father worked on the railway as gangman; interest in electronics, start of railway career 1959, junior porter, range of tasks; [00:03:30] District Relief at Chapel le Frith, Beeching cuts; [00:04:20] work in yard sidings, interview with Division of telecom engineers Manchester, interest in electronics and radio from childhood, self-taught electronic knowledge, radio amateur, 1975 amateur radio course at college, technical job application and interview;, building radios as a teen, starting transmitting, morse code test Hull, no qualifications; [00:09:00] 1975 S&T technician role, work in telephone exchanges Manchester rail house, tasks, maintenance and repairs, challenges, worked across the country, telecom work only, occasional support to signalling engineers; [00:12:50] age of telecom equipment; signal post telephones; relationship with team, benefits of having previous traffic experience in technical role; 1977 transmission licence in personal capacity, process of obtaining licence, self-motivation, interest in transmission; amateur radio group in Glossop did public demonstration; [00:18:30] using transmission licence, learning morse code on single needle telegraph, description of using telegraph to send daily time signals in morse code 1960, what was daily time signal; [00:21:45] starting to transmit, building own equipment, morse code key; 1978 Railnews article looking out for radio amateurs, John Tuckfield Chief Personnel Officer Eastern Region; [00:24:00] BR Amateur Radio Society, people in the society, what they talked about, rules of the society, origin of BR Amateur Radio Society 1966, Ronny Hooper, Tavistock Stationmaster early member of society; met John Tuckfield at BR Amateur Radio Society annual general meeting, society still active now (2019), current membership information, GS current president of society, congress in Blackpool with FIRAC; [00:32:15] FIRAC (International Federation of Railway Radio Amateurs), GS vice-president of FIRAC, FIRAC origins, 19 countries involved, annual international meeting, organising FIRAC congress in Blackpool, link with FISAIC (Fédération Internationale des Sociétés Artistiques et Intellectuelles de Cheminots, an international social and cultural railway organisation); [00:38:15] topics covered at annual FIRAC conference, multi-language translations, communication between attendees, relationship with FIRAC members, communication with members in USA, Australia; [00:42:00] radio transmission competitions, how competitions work and points are made, what competitors do; what members talk about together, equipment; confident in the future of the amateur radio society and FIRAC [00:50:07] [end of interview]

Oral history recording made in continuation of the NAROH project (National Archive of Railway Oral History), recording stories of people who worked on the railways