Jim Watt GM3PFY (on right) at NFD about 1963 at Daniel Stewart's Inverleith
sports ground with Vic Stewart GM3OWU and Jim "Nick" Nicholson GM3FJF / VU2JP.
From notes by Vic Stewart,GM3OWU:Jim Watt obtained his Amateur Radio licence GM3PFY while at school - Daniel Stewart's College, Edinburgh, in 1961. He was active on the LF bands from an actual wooden shack in the garden of his parents' home in Currie, with the Water of Leith at the bottom of the sloping garden. His antenna was a G5RV whose feeder of 34ft of open wire plus a short section of coax dropped down vertically into the shack. His AM rig ran 40 watts input to an 807 PA, a classic set-up at the time. Vic who lived nearby recalls that the rig had open wiring with no protective case and that Jim got a 300V "nip" from it from time to time, likely from the anode top-cap of the 807! Fortunately the shack had an (insulating) wooden floor.After leaving school Jim joined the RAF and spent the rest of his life in the south of England, operating as G3PFY. Vic also recalls that Jim was concerned that his hearing might suffer in the long-term because the RAF cockpit radios used headphones with no volume control.Jim died at the age of 70 on 7th June 2016 in hospital at Kings Lynn, Norfolk.Click for Fenland Citizen obituary.