But of course they can. You are, probably, dear reader; and certainly my friends had their own enthusiasms. They just weren't the same as mine. My enthusiasm was for the 807.

I was introduced to amateur radio by my friend Norman Field. His father had a radio and electronics business in Birmingham, and in about 1958 we got interested in the short wave bands and particularly the amateur bands. He played absolutely first-rate jazz clarinet, too, and the last I heard had a business in Birmingham which produced classic jazz tapes - King Oliver, early Armstrong, that sort of stuff.

Anyway, at that time there was a huge amount of very cheap radio gear available as 'government surplus'; being military gear, it was built to fantastic specifications. The transistor had only just surfaced and VLSI was way in the future. Radios were heavy and big and had valves in them. The bigness was useful; it was simple to dig out a (50 watt) soldering iron and modify the equipment as necessary. The circuits were pretty standard, and you could fry the components without too much of a problem - no heat sinks needed even with a big soldering iron! The biggest I have is 150 watts and looks like a cricket bat.

There was a surplus shop called Bushell's just down the road from Norman's Dad's emporium. It had radio gear from floor to ceiling, and I bought a 'Wireless Set No 19' (photo right) for 5/-. That's 5 shillings, or 25p in today's money (numerically, not value), or about 40 cents. And it was complete with all its valves, despite what the man in the shop said. They were stacked floor-to-ceiling.

The 19 set was designed for use in tanks, and the designer got pretty confused between the two at times. It was - robust. It had three functions. Firstly a short range VHF transceiver which worked around 245 MHz, and which was so simple that you could change its frequency range just by squeezing or separating the turns on the only tuning coil it had. Secondly there was a higher power transceiver covering 2 - 8 MHz; and an intercom amplifier for communication intratank. I hooked this up to the audio output on the main rig so it'd drive a speaker. I then got, cheap, an R208 receiver which was another Army bit of kit, and which covered the higher frequencies.

Then an AR88, the wonderful general-coverage receiver which was built by RCA and which weighed over 100lb, and then my own transmitter.

The 807? That is the final amplifier valve in the 19 set transmitter. I still have the radio and some spares, and the 807 looks - perfect. It has, for me, an aesthetic appeal. It is simple, and it is robust, and it could be used for a whole host of applications and did not mind being over-run so the anode got red-hot. Nominally 80 watts, but you could push it to a hundred with luck. A marvellous, even a classic, design. Lots of amateurs got going with simple crystal controlled transmitters for CW using a single 807 as the final amplifier driving the aerial (antenna).

My amateur radio hero, in a sense, was at that time G2DC. He only used telegraphy, to a T1154 transmitter (but not an 807 final amplifier) out of a Lancaster bomber and its accompanying R1155 receiver. He had contacted every country in the world and was always there to talk to the rare stations. Remarkable. With war-surplus gear.

Which brings me to the final point. If you built a piece of electronics in those days you wired all the stuff up, checked it, and then did two things. You plugged all the valves into their holders - and you switched on. You'd then watch as the valve heaters gently lit up, and then (with luck) the gear started to do what it was supposed to do. Watching the heaters light up for the first time was a real pleasure.

So Hancock had twigged that some of us are nutty enough to wax lyrical over a radio valve. Transistors are great and we couldn't do all this electronic stuff without them - but they don't have the same charisma. Hancock was right - he just got the number wrong.

807!

The three 807's above are all ex-military valves, but only that at the left is labelled 807. For some reason each of the UK military services had their own designation for valves, none of which was the same as the manufacturer's. Perhaps someone might know why. The ceramic bases sported by the pair at right were supposed to reduce losses, but it is very doubtful that this made any difference. Most gear with 807 final amplifiers was used to drive very poor aerials (whips, or wire slung over trees) and this limited performance far more than the material of the base of the valve could possibly do.

The mirror effect is due to the "getter"; it is barium, and the idea is that it  absorbs (would actually be oxidised by) any residual gas that might come out of  the electrodes when the valve was switched on for the first time.

Peter Chadwick G3RZP has written (22nd February 2001) to mention the 8018, which was a selected RCA-manufacture 807 which would give full output at 120MHz. This was used in RAF transceivers. The 807 is an impressively versatile device.

Brian G8GMU has kindly written (February 2005) to tell me that the Hancock valve was called the DS19/87B.

Part of the valve collection at the HMS Collingwood Museum at Fareham, Hants.

Wireless Set No.19 MkIII

Receiver R208

The RCA AR88D

R1155 receiver

T1154 transmitter