BECG Broadcast Engineering Museum open days in 2025

[PaulM]

We are now trying to open more regularly, so we're going to be open on the fist Sunday of the month from April to August, and then again in October and November. We will still have the major, two day 'Heritage Open Days' in September. In summary:

Broadcast Engineering Museum open days 2025

First Sunday of April - August, and October-November

Heritage Open Days: Saturday 20 & Sunday 21 September
11am to 4pm

We look forward to welcoming old and new visitors as we grow in 2025.

Best regards,

Paul M
BECG
www.becg.tv

[PaulM]

Just a few updates on this.

Besides our usual broadcast engineering exhibits which continue to grow in number and amount of kit working, we've been beavering away on the consumer side too. So far, as new for 2025, we have 'Mr Snoddy's Workshop'. Readers of 'Television' magazine will know who we're talking about - the fictional rival to Donald Bullock. Well, he now lives with us and has his own premises including an original huge Radio Rentals work bench kindly donated to us. Lots of period pieces of test gear, 'work in progress' and little personal touches found in such a workshop. With luck (and lots of work . . .), the sister display - 'Mr Snoddy's TV Sales' will be done too, highlighting a lot of classic TV sets.

Later in the year we are planning four period living rooms down the decades showing TVs, radios and tech as found in homes down the years.

All this, alongside our broadcast cameras, Outside Broadcast trucks, telecines, VTRs, transmitters, lighting display gallery, operational CAR (Central Apparatus Room), Yaxley public address collection, video projector display and a working production gallery. The sound area of the gallery should be complete mid-year and we hope that the sound broadcasting side will be more complete too.

Admission charges will be:
Adults (16+): £8
Child (5-15): £4
Child (0-4): free
Carer (accompanying paying disabled visitor): free

For the two day Heritage Open Days event in September, admission will be free.

Car parking is free and teas/coffees available. Several nearby facilities on the next door antiques centre (the largest in Europe) serve meals and snacks.

Keep an eye on our website for more details and updates.
www.becg.tv

Best regards,

Paul Marshall
BECG

[PaulM]

Can I give this a bounce, please?

We're now just a week away from our first open day in 2025 (April 6th) and things will be ready. There's a lot still to do, but after recently hosting a visit from a large party of young visitors from a special needs school, we're in pretty good shape. We look forward to greeting visitors to our growing museum.

https://becg.org.uk/events/

Best regards,

Paul M
BECG
Broadcast Engineering Museum
www.becg.tv

[Reelman]

I attended the open day last year and found it fascinating and well worth going.
Warmly recommended!

Peter

[PaulM]

Thanks, Peter, it's always good to be appreciated after all the work that's gone into this project. It's moved on again since you came, and there's much to see.

Best regards,

Paul M

[PaulM]

One more day of prep, and then we should be ready for our Sunday open day on the 6th!

Unfortunately we have a minor problem in that our card reading machine isn't ready, so many apologies that we can only take cash this time. Cheques would be OK too, but they're so quaint these days!

Apologies again, but this is our first time having to charge entrance and we're still learning.

Hope to see you!
Lots to see.

Best regards,

Paul M
BECG

[PaulM]

Our second open day of the year is about to hove into view!

Sunday May 4 @ 11:00 am - 4:00 pm

Broadcast Engineering Museum 41 Capper Avenue, Hemswell Cliff, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom DN21 5XS

We will be open on Sunday 4th of May from 11am until 4pm. Parking is in our own car park, this is accessed via Capper Avenue off the A631. See the “finding us” page for detailed directions.
https://becg.org.uk/finding-us/

Admission:
Adults (16+): £8,
Child (5-15): £4,
Child (0-4): free,
Carer (accompanying paying disabled visitor): free,
Car parking: free

This time we have a card reader and can take plastic!

As ever, much to see from multiple OB trucks, operational vintage VT, TK and cameras, transmitters, lighting equipment, TV repair workshop, Public Address equipment, working gallery and Central Apparatus Room (CAR) plus lots of odd ball things!

Tea and coffee available with some really good cafes just a few hundred yards away in the adjacent largest antiques centre in Europe.

Best regards,

Paul M
BECG

[PaulM]

Just a quick bump for our next open day this coming Sunday (see above for details). We're almost ready but still two intensive days of work to go, including moving the OB trucks which is always fun!

Whilst posting, can I also report as an advance notice that we're doing the Lincolnshire Show this year. We're taking operational 'Southern' OB truck and display material.
See: https://lincolnshireshow.co.uk/

'Southern' is here: https://becg.org.uk/projects/southern-television/

This is a really BIG show, and we're very pleased to be able to promote our Broadcast Engineering Museum there. Two days, 18th and 19th June at the Lincolnshire Showground.

Meanwhile, the count-down is on for this Sunday's open day . . .

Best regards,

Paul M
BECG
Broadcast Engineering Museum

[PaulM]

Stop press update on travel for our Sunday 4th event at our museum.

It's worth noting that for people coming up from the south, the A15 north of Lincoln could be very busy - it's the enormous Truckfest Show at the Lincolnshire Showground this weekend. Might be worth heading up the A1133 and heading east to us across country.

Also please note that there should be a fly-over of us on Sunday by one of the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Spitfires as it transits between appearances at nearby former RAFs Scampton and Hibaldstow. We're at the former RAF Hemswell and they always seem to give us a nod! It should be between about 1 and 1.30 pm.

Best regards,

Paul M

[PaulM]

Just a bounce on our open days - first Sunday in the month tomorrow, 1st June, so open.

It's 'as you find us', so always things going on!

Details: https://becg.org.uk/events/

Best regards,

Paul M

[PaulM]

The Lincolnshire Show is almost upon us! For the next two days (Wednesday and Thursday) we will be showing 'Southern' and more in what promises to be two very hot days. Hope all the vintage kit holds together . . .

See:
https://becg.org.uk/event/lincolnshire-show-2025/

It's always a great show and this is our first attendance as BECG. 60K+ people over the two days and so much to see.

Best regards,

Paul M

[PaulM]

Whew! What a scorcher, but a great event to have attended. Many thanks go to our local trustees, Dave, Craig and Peter plus our usual trustees coming from far away.

It wasn't without its problems! Being on the outer edge of the Lincolnshire showground we found that our 63A single phase mains feed was down at 205V, sometimes dipping even lower. That put our AVRs (Automatic Voltage Regulators) at the limit of their range. On top of that, given the relatively high source impedance, the mains sine wave was very flat-topped. Most of the time we were OK, but we did have to take out our new whizzy PEN box (as required these days for mobile vehicle supplies). It cut out as 'low volts' at 207V! We also only had enough power for just one of our air-con units. It just about coped.

Hey ho, nothing died and we made some good pictures with the cameras. The public much appreciated the displays - especially our Marconi MkII camera from the late Queen's Coronation. The Princess Royal was at the show but we never had the chance to show her the camera!

On the next door stand our friends from the Museum of RAF Firefighting had an impressive display of their vintage fire engines. We work together as one charity assisting another. The vehicles were good 'targets' for our cameras!

It's the first time that we've been out on the road in this way since 2019. Covid, and then acquiring our building took all the time and resources. We're back on the circuit, but we can't do too many big shows as they really are time vampires.

A good show, but one heck of a lot of work, especially as it was so hot.

Best regards,

Paul M

[PaulM]

Could I just give our August 3rd open day a bounce?
We will be open from 11 am.

See: https://becg.org.uk/events/

We will be pleased to show you around our museum - there's lots to see.

Best regards,

Paul M