CALL BOOK 1920 - 1930 - Highfields Amateur Radio Club

In 1952 G5UM was elected to the RSGB Council in an office (long since abolished) called
Hon. Editor. In the company of others, notably the late G2UJ, he attempted to install some
recognition of the "very highs" into the then hierarchy of the national society. Thus was born the
VHF National. Field Day, the new VHF Committee, and the concept of amateur band beacons
to provide indications of conditions.
After eight years on the RSGB Council, Jack stepped down at the end of 1959 and looked
forward to a few years of freedom to get on with a bit more constructional work. However, this
was a short-lived hope: in 1966 he was invited to take over the MetreWave Column in the
national society's journal, and this he wrote until he was compelled for health reasons to relinquish
in 1975. He gave up the secretaryship of VHF/UHF Awards Manager, which was
passed on to him by G3GMY in 1966.
Another significant and fascinating development, which involved the society's VHF
committee in the early Seventies, was to get the repeater concept "off the ground." Tentative at
first, with just the one GB3PI repeater at Cambridge, the repeater movement now covers the UK,
It was, Jack exclaimed at the time, the biggest collective movement and the Leicestershire
Repeater Group represents one of its most shining examples.
It was in 1966 when Jack left Murphy Radio headquarters and came to Leicester to join
Rank Taylor Hobson as their Technical Journalist. He and his wife Grace wisely chose a house
on the highest and best VHF location in the county at Houghton-on-the-hill.
In 1974 G5UM was one of three members to be presented with Vice Presidents' badges at
the RSGB Annual General Meeting of that year. This was for services rendered to VHF.
In Leicestershire Jack was very proud of two honours bestowed on him. In 1985 he was
elected Honorary Life President of the Leicestershire Repeater Group and was also President of
the Leicester Radio Society. The walls of his shack were lined with certificates and awards that
he had gained in his hobby. In all this he was supported by his wife, Grace, who survives him.
Many people have described Jack Hum as the "great gentleman of the airwaves" and he
was too and nobody will ever take his place. The standards he set us will be forever remembered
by the amateurs who knew him. He was at his happiest when he was in the company of amateurs
or in a net on six metres, four metres, two metres or seventy centimetres.
On the day he died his logbook was open on his operating table, meticulously made up,
with the last contact dated the day before.
Jack kept detailed records of all his contacts, including hand-written textbooks listing all
the owners of pre-war callsigns, something the RSGB Library had been searching for. Over five
thousand callsigns with names and addresses were listed. After his death these records were put
on a computer disk and are now known as the 'Jack Hum Call book'.
Deryk Wills G3XKX.
Reproduced from: http://homepages.stayfree.co.uk/lrg/index.html, the Leicestershire Repeater
Group Website, whom I contacted twice for permission to use but received no reply. If there is
a problem with my use of this article please contact me at brian.mw0gkx@ntlworld.com and I
will remove it.
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