Subject: MAI 50 Post

Date: Tue, 1 May 2001

Dear Keith,

Like your site! The section on MAI50 brings back memories of happy times. I was an observer on this post for 10 years up until stand-down. Before that I served at Pluckley and Hoo posts, and the Group Controls at Maidstone and Aberdeen (and with a spell at Region then under Dover Castle.) It was a very happy post with quite an eclectic mix of members - teachers, an undertaker, a housewife, ferry bar steward, a car salesman, two East Kent drivers and myself a policeman. Happy days...

It was a bit sad to see the state of the post, we always maintained in a tidy condition inside and out. Folkestone or MAI 50 was considered the most efficient post in the Metropolitan Sector of the ROC having won the Spencer Brown Trophy for four years in succession. This was a yearly test for each post in the sector - the post received a visit from an inspecting officer from sector who went through the post with a fine tooth comb and then grilled all the members on various duties and watched and marked them as they set up the various instruments and radio mast etc.

Missing from your picture are the rack inside the monitoring room door which had four shelves of batteries for post lighting and to operate the lighting. The white cupboard held our 'post pack' which contained all the bits and pieces needed to operate the post in wartime - photo paper, dosimeters, charging unit, paper work etc. The seat contained odds and sods. We tried to not keep paper down the post as it went mouldy in no time. On top of the batteries were stored the post instruments - fixed survey meter, survey meter, BPI (Bomb Power Indicator) baffle and the GZI (Ground Zero Indicator). The tools to set these up were hung on the back of the door under the foul weather gear. On the monitoring room table were the post log, gzi forms etc. Over the white cupboard was the radio (a model by Burndept) in a steel case. Between the table and battery rack was the mast pump (if you look on the floor you can probably still see the studs to which it was attached. The bunks are missing too (one set up and the other in bits behind.) Under the bunk were numerous jerry cans for water. The shaft is now quite clear when we used it was cluttered up with an inflatable mast and the dipole to catch out the unwary.

The toilet contained an elsan loo - never used (bushes around the compound were used instead!) on the shelf over the loo was our generator. We were lucky to have a Yamaha generator, most posts still had a generator that dated back to the early 60's. The new generator weighed twice as much as the old machine however and was a bastard to haul up and down the shaft.

The radio mast was interesting because it was held upright by guy ropes attached to steel rings mounted in concrete. These were in turn covered by a flap. Unfortunately the rings were in a recess and filled up with water. This meant that in winter we were sometimes unable to put up our mast as the water around the rings had frozen solid! This was a common occurrence given the height of the post. The other problem was with the dipole, it had a defect. For many years the only post we could contact was Stonegate in East Sussex. Eventually the radio engineers tracked down the problem and we were able to talk to other posts in the group.

Folkestone was the master post for two others - Dymchurch and Dungeness. We didn't always meet at the post, most training was carried out first at the United Reform Church by the Central Station in Folkestone and later at the Junior Leaders Camp at Shornecliffe. Cluster meetings were held either at the Southcliffe Hotel in Folkestone or a pub in Greatstone (the name of which I forget.)

It was a very happy post and I miss the company of all my ex colleagues.

Dave