Nostalgia section.
All photos copyright John Mills, last updated 29 Dec 2009
Welcome to my nostalgia section. I don't really have a lot to put here at present, I hope to write some anecdotes about the more
humorous side of my working life, some hair-raising stories from my PPL flying days and perhaps show a few items of bygone
years. Having been born in 1951, I have seen amazing advances in the world of technology, although I may not agree with all of
them !!
Back in the early 70's a new company appeared on the radio scene, Ambit International. Started by William Poel, who was a
keen ham radio operator holding a G8 call, the company was founded based on a huge market then appearing for home made
projects, linked with the dawning of early IC's and associated goodies. Some of the data I have put on these pages comes
directly from the catalogues published by Ambit. I was fortunate to work at Ambit from the early days in Gresham Rd, Brentwood
right through to the move to larger new premises in North Service Rd, Brentwood. Here a vast range of projects were conceived,
both for the ham market and the HiFi / Radio enthusiast market. In house PCB design, photography and data sheet printing
made the company self contained.
Ambit moved into publishing it's own hobbyist magazine, Radio & Electronics World, which competed with the likes of Practical Wireless, Elektor etc. Eventually
the company attracted the attention of AF Bulgin PLC, who acquired it, then moved the operation to Broxbourne where the company was renamed to Cirkit
Holdings. I left as the company was changing to Cirkit, and I must admit that the years I spent there were great fun, it's not often you can play with electronics
all day and get paid as well ! I have a few catalogues remaining and they are shown here. Click the pictures to see a larger version.
My thanks go to Sam, G4DDK and John, KC0G who helped with the scans of Teck 3 & Teck 4 respectively. It seems that many copies of "Tecknowledgey" are
still alive and well, and still being used for data even after nearly 30 years. Sadly, today the halcyon years of home construction have all but gone, overtaken by
what we used to call "black boxes".
An original advert for Electroniques (Felixstowe) Ltd, circa 1963
The Ambit Rogues Gallery Autumn 1982.