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In Memory of Graham S Maynard
Engineer, Inventor, Scientist, Philosopher and Friend
Graham Maynard sadly passed away at his home on 6th October 2014.
Graham had not been well for some years after a chiropractor injury in the 1990's.
In August this year Graham suffered a seizure, and it was during his time in hospital that a MRI scan revealed multiple aggressive glioma tumor which was too late to treat. Graham chose to spend the last days of his life at home, with his family, however the last week he was transferred to the McMillan Cancer Unit in the Antrim Area Hospital.
Some of you will know Graham from his regular contributors and articles here on Circuit Exchange.
Many will know Graham from his work with radio and the radio club "Medium Wave Circle" (MWC). Some of you will know
Graham from various audio forums and his GEM amplifier site.
Personally, I have known Graham since 1985 when I also was a member of the MWC. I have letters and correspondence dating back to July 1985 (I had no Internet at this time). At this time Graham was an avid MW DX'er and also wrote many articles about the Collins R390A a thermionic valve receiver (ex-Navy apparatus). Graham also constructed many home made Antennas which he sold as kits via the MWC. Graham's love of the Medium Wave Band led him to some esoteric AM antennas, the WQ Loop (published in Practical Wireless Magazine), the ALN-1, the AT1, NN1, and a notch and phasing mixer called the NPW1. Every antenna was ultra low noise, and easily capable of DX (Distance Unknown) reception.
The ALN1 antenna was aperiodic with noise nulling controls. This was the first serious antenna I had ever used. One early morning in November 1985, I had received a weak signal on 1400kHz AM, the program was definitely English with Religious Hymns and prayers. The signal contained some static and slight fading but heard it long enough to hear a station ID, "Harbour Lights" there was also frequent mentions of "Carriacou". The next day it took me about 2 hours looking through an Atlas to find the tiny Carriacou Island in the South East Caribbean off Grenada. What was more surprising is that this was heard with the ALN loop antenna with just a loop size of about 4 square feet, hung around nails on the back of my garage! My Receiver then was a Sony ICF 2001D (no longer made now). I wrote a letter to Graham the following day to say how impressed I was with his loop, and this was the start of a long lasting friendship.
Over the years Graham's loop designs became more complex with even better performance. The "Triax" antenna used 3 loops and had all controls in a single box. This was a tuned design, but also included noise nulling. Two vertical loops were placed at 90 degrees apart and the third loop was placed horizontal, on the ceiling of a garage. The 3 loops worked together and could also null sky waves. (Sky waves are when a long distance medium wave signal bounces off the ionosphere and arrives "skewed" or slightly off its vertical axis.) A quick tweak of the controls it was possible to counter some fading, an incredible antenna still today.
Graham's final antenna was the "Ferrite Spin" FS Loop antenna. This antenna was the result of hundreds of hours of research into magnetic and electromagnetic theory. In fact Graham has uncovered a fundamental mistake in physics that goes back to the early days of radio. While it is true that a changing magnetic field can induce a voltage in a conductor, and a current flowing in a wire can create a magnetic field, a radiated electromagnetic wave contains no magnetic properties whatsoever. You can read all about it on the link below:
This article is no less than a massive 42 A4 pages long, and really is worthy of a University Dissertation. It is a great pity that this work has not been recognised as a general contribution to Science.
In 2005 Graham's attention turned to Audio and after re-investigating studies of the John Linsey-Hood Amplifier of the late 1960's Graham came up with the GEM amplifier. This amplifier had quite a following and Daniel Bosch kindly hosted a website featuring Graham's GEM amplifier and other circuits:
Earlier this year, Graham had been involved with the "Over-Unity" Project, which aims to harness free energy. I am not sure what progress Graham made, but one can only imagine the wonders he may have achieved if he was still alive today.
This is a terrible tragedy and untimely death from a man who shared so much knowledge. Graham's innovative designs have and AM antennas have provided the radio DX'er with unparalleled performance. On a personal level Graham's loss is still one I am coming to terms with. Graham will surely be missed, but I will maintain all his work and circuits on my site. Although I will never be as great or as talented as Graham I will reply to any questions regarding Grahams work on my site.
Cancer Research
A collection was made at Graham's funeral for Cancer Research. This is always a worthy cause. If anyone would like to donate to Cancer Research in appreciation of Graham's work then the link is below: Thank you for reading.