Founder
James "Jim" MacDonald (1927 - 1988) was born and brought up on South Ronaldsay. He was locally educated and served his apprenticeship as an electrician and radio repairman. During his boyhood, wireless was rapidly developing and he started to gather old, interesting sets which were becoming redundant. This became the nucleus for his collection which includes such rare and interesting examples as "Kit Sets" and the very, very expensive models by such famous names as Marconi, Cossor, MacMichael, K.B., Lowe and Amplion.
With the outbreak of war in 1939, he was listed as in a reserved occupation, and worked for the War Office as a civilian in the great Naval Base at Lyness. He was also employed at other RAF sites such as Netherbutton, with one of the world's first active operational Radar installations. (This was actually the prototype, modified, which was shipped from England, as the one being built for Orkney was not nearly ready. When Orkney's was finished, it was sent to Dover where it was to play such a vital role in the Battle of Britain).
After the war, Jim collected as many examples of relevant equipment as he could; many operations were still classified as Top Secret. Another problem to collection was that equipment was deliberately destroyed in order to prevent flooding the market with surplus goods (as had happened after the First World War). The collected equipment had played a vital part in the Battle of the North Atlantic and North Sea, and has all seen active service.
Read more about this topic: Orkney Wireless Museum
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