AX054_056.pdf

Alan Watling—A Tribute

By Reg Williamson

M y extra career as an audio de-

within a week or so I would have back

a prototype for testing. I acknowledge

without hesitation that the majority of

my work published in Audio Amateur

might not have seen fruition without

Alan’s participation. He, in turn, used

to make occasional contributions with

articles of often dry humor and wit.

He was also a talented painter, spe-

cializing in highly detailed pictures of

flowers, which he called his “botanicals,”

and the occasional landscape. Some of

these grace my own home. Alan was also

a keen speaker designer, pursuing the

ultimate in sound all the time.

In 1997 he asked me whether I would

design a high and low pass filter for an

active system he wanted to make. I had

long been familiar

with the applica-

tion of gyrators in

filter design, cul-

minating in our

last major project

(“A New Con-

trol Preampli-

fier,” TAA 1/92)

so I was able to

meet his request

using the most

advanced audio

analog circuitry.

Not only did I get

back a prototype for testing within a

couple of weeks, but to my amazement,

he’d decided to make it by hand with

surface-mounting components, thus

pushing his construction skills to the

ultimate limit. I can only speculate on

the time and patience involved, using a

magnifying glass and miniature solder-

ing iron.

Sadly, it was to be his last construction

venture since a crippling stroke was a

few months away, paralyzing most of his

right side. For a dedicated painter, that

could have meant the end of a passion.

Not so for Alan. With impressive for-

titude and characteristic determination,

he began painting with his left hand

until ultimately, it became very difficult

to tell the difference.

He was 82 when he passed away after

a short stay in hospital. aX

signer and technical journalist

began in 1953, but it wasn’t until

the transistor started to dominate all

innovative audio design work that it

became really interesting. Most of my

early work was published in the British

magazine HiFi News , which, at that

time, encouraged its readers with fre-

quent construction projects. Not any

more, of course.

I began to get regular letters from

Alan Watling, who clearly shared much

of my thinking and invariably had some

valuable ideas of his own. It was only

later that we discovered we both worked

for the same company, the British tele-

phone utility that eventually became

British Telecom.

Alan was a se-

nior management

executive in our

Regional Head-

quarters; I (at that

time) a junior area

field engineer.

It became ob-

vious Alan had a

range of unique

graphic and con-

struction skills

and was the only

enthusiast I knew

who could draw a printed circuit by

hand. Give Alan a schematic and be-

fore long he could produce a beautifully

constructed prototype. In this respect I

was relatively inexpert so before long it

became obvious that between us was the

makings of an exceptional partnership.

It also became a friendship that ex-

tended over 50 years; but what makes

it unusual is that our personalities were

so disparate. I am sure that at times, he

thought my love of good food and fine

wine somewhat hedonistic. Similarly,

my tastes in music as being question-

able. But, as is so often the case between

friends, such differences could be ac-

cepted with humor and mutual respect.

They never got in the way.

I soon recognized that if I spun off an

idea on Alan, and he thought it viable,

t h en I only had to design the circuit and

Alan Watling

(seated) with

Reg Williamson.

54 audioXpress 4/06

www.audioXpress.com

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