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25 Years and It's Still Going!

Jerry Kelk G4JMP, IT Manager of Herne Bay based radio communication distributor, Icom (UK) Ltd, has recently celebrated 25 years of service with the company. Speaking to the company's Marketing Manager, Ian Lockyer, Jerry talked about his time with the company and the changes he has seen over the last three decades.

Icom put on a party for Jerry to celebrate his 25 years of service. Commenting, Jerry said,’ It was nice to have a celebratory nibble with my chums. We have come a long way since our original premises in Reculver Road and my original computer room known as the 'smoking cupboard'. We had an antiquated Seed System/19 computer which came complete with visits from several engineers forever trying to make it do what it was advertised to do.' 'I have worked in most departments at Icom. For example, my first sale was at an Amateur Radio rally one minute past 9 in the morning, to an Irishman fresh off the boat. He bought an IC-2E, and paid for it with a duffle bag full of biscuit tins and Tupperware containing 10p pieces. I had to count 1,690 of the buggers.’

'When my cupboard at Reculver Road got too small, we moved to our present premises in Sea Street where I cabled the place for the Seed computer system. Eventually we cabled it in twinax for the IBM System/36 and migrated all the data between the systems. That was difficult! Since then, we have changed to an AS/400, the passing of which is still lamented by our Commercial Dealer Manager, Barry Vane G4SEJ.'

'Then came the IBM PC. We had to have one, several, even loads. More than one each and the data had to be moved again, to, yes, our current operating system. And here we are - the present day. Has it affected me? No! I've still got my hair, sanity and control of all my bodily functions, though not all in the most desirable measures'.

Dave Stockley G4ELP, Chairman and Founder of Icom UK Ltd said, ‘Jerry has been a great asset to Icom UK LTD. As a modern company, wishing to keep up with changes in IT, this brings considerable challenges. In other words things do not always work first time. To have someone who has the tenacity to keep at it until it works properly is a real asset. Sometimes he has broken things just to find out how to fix it! (Sorry Jerry). Without him, we would still be using paper ledgers or some awful 'off the shelf proprietary' software off the shelf and we would be perhaps 10 years behind the times. Thanks Jerry!’

Icom UK Marketing - marketing@icomuk.co.uk