Twenty Years Before the Antenna Mast

To sail as "A Shell man", I required a radar certificate. A Board of Trade Certificate took 6 months, and cost the company a lot of money. Shell were more than happy if I did a course within Marconi (6 weeks) on one of their Radar's. As the Argus-Hermes radar's were fitted to quite a few of the Shell fleet, I was given the shorter course. It was rather good actually. The Argus-Hermes radar's were perhaps not the newest technology, but incorporated some interesting features and circuitry. They were powerful and quite complex. We were only a small group and I could stay at home during the course as the Marconi training school was not far away from where I lived in Chelmsford. Just across the road was a pub where we went for lunch and met up for considerable after-hours drinking at night! The instructor was good, and knew his stuff. Despite the "cheapo" nature of the course, I came away with a lot of information, and a new respect for alcohol!