The history of the bite alarm (from what I can remember !)

Many moons ago, anglers where quite content with watching a float or waiting for the tip of their rod to bend around to indicate a bite.
As carp fishing took off in the 60’s, anglers started to experiment with various ways of allowing the angler to sit back out of the way of the fish to avoid spooking wary fish. it also aided the angler to have a break from watching the tip of the rod or float.
One of the first bite alarms where made from a piece of silver foil hanging from the line on front of the reel. This evolved into a bell operated from movement of the line to give an audible signal that a fish was hooked. The bell is still used today by sea anglers, but not so much in the carp scene!
Time moved on with technology and the silver foil was replaced with washing up liquid bottle tops to some of the first “monkey climbers” that were used was aerosol can tops, cut out to a fashion that could hold line and move up a piece of wire pushed into the ground. It was very primitive but worked.
Eventually the first bite alarm was born, giving a visual indication via a bulb and audible sound. There were many attempts of early bite alarms but the main alarm on the market was the well known heron.


(my very collectable heron)

The heron bite alarm was manufactured from plastic, had a universal thread for bank sticks but with the added bonus of been able to remove the heron from the bank stick easily by just pulling it off the adaptor making it easy to pack away. Operated by a set of GPO contacts on the heron head connecting to a battery pack with buzzer/ bulb and battery was a brilliant design.
To operate the heron the main line of the rod had to be positioned around a thin wire that was attached to one leg of the gpo contacts, this was also adjustable for sensitivity via a small bolt, screwing it clockwise for more sensitivity and anticlockwise for less.
The main problem for the heron was it had no room for a battery in the main head of the alarm; hence it had to have the external battery box.
The white heron stood as the bite alarm only available for a very long time. Then in the later part of the 70’s a flurry of activity in bite alarms emerged thanks to smaller batteries and newer technology came a modified heron bite alarm converted by del romag (delkim).
The alarm was sprayed black, had upgraded parts, yet still had to utilise a battery pack as this was only a conversion of an already well made alarm just made it even better.



below,,me with hair ! notice, no unhooking mat (what was that then ???) and using 2 heron alarms


Technology had advanced a fair bit by now. The led had been born allowing a small yet bright “light” to be fitted by
C.B. angling products who brought out a similar small head bite alarm in the early 80s that housed a pp3 battery and still utilised GPO contacts.

(above the middle alarm was my old C.B alarm between 2 delkim conversions)


Not far away was the bj bite alarm, very similar in design. yet both had broken away from wires and sounder boxes.


and here a beacon bite indicator f3



a rare hand made delkim alarm, one of a very few !

also the magno bite alarm(another rare alarm owned by yours truly!)


nearly forgot this one ! the Rolon bite alarm was produced from around 1980 to 1984. shockingly i recently managed to get hold of 2 rolon alarms and was supprised how big they are,,and how rare they are !


what amazes me is how in the instructions it tells you "some banksticks do not have very good threads and need re-tapping, if you do not have a 3/8 bsf tap, ask an engineering friend to do it for you before screwing the alarm into a bankstick"

i have a few more here that i have acuired over the years. not sure on the date of this one, its a linetek bite alarm made by cruz products here in the uk. this alarm is quite unique as the line rests on a thin wire inside the groove,,and when pulled the vibration of the line on the wire bleeps the alarm either backwards or forwards,,it also has a tone control. in effect, it works on the same principal of a new delkim alarm.


Around the same time the (efgeeco) Sundridge compact bite alarm came along. first with a sounder box housing a gpo speaker pack, but not long later boasted the ability to do away with wires and extension lead packs. A tiny piezo buzzer and pp3battery where now fitted into the head. The old adjustable wire/gpo contacts where no longer there and efgeeco had manufactured a light sensitive break beam sensor inside the compact head making it very sensitive and more reliable.
below,,an early sundrige,dellareed optonic with speaker in the sounder box only



(above, my pritsine as new 1982 hi tone optonic)
below,,optonics in use


Hiding in the arches was del romag again, with a passion to improve the compact alarm he adapted the compact head, fitting it with better sounder (gpo speaker) volume and tone controls, and a marvellous thing called a latching led.




It was an instant hit, the delkim conversion was a brilliant alarm. Anglers where buying the older shape alarm and sending it to Del romag to be converted by the droves.

below,,my fisrt set of delkims,,just back from been converted from delkim in the early 1990's

below,,my delk's in use on a wet day at willesley lake,,notice i still had my old sundridge alarm as i could'nt afford the 3rd optonic to send away and convert



my recently restored delkims (late 2008) minus the new stickers,opti-polos and speaker covers

note :- if you are restoring or repairing your old delkim conversions please follow this link below.
http://www.blackcountrycarpers.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=138

yet Another convertor came along, utilising the same alarm as delkim, came the bamford conversion. This time only a volume control was fitted to the back of the alarm, not the front, and still using a gpo speaker from old telephones seemed the way to go.
below,,bamford alarms



Yet efgeeco/ Sundridge hit back with a super and special compact alarm incorporating a latching led, volume and tone controls to the super compact made it very difficult for del romag and bamford to convert.

Del romag eventually had to stop converting the alarms, I believe Sundridge took legal action and Mr. Delkim lost big time. Not hearing from delkim for many years later.

Behind all this battling where 2 bite alarm makers that where quite happily plodding along going from strength to strength, Steve Neville and graham parson.
They both had the same type of alarm, with little difference between them. Operated by a magnetic roller and reed switch design made the alarms very reliable unlike some of the optonics.they where loud, strong and small, ideal for anglers but never seemed to get into the limelight till about 15 years ago, they both seemed to be very underground, with only a few carpers in the know.

(the parsons alarm)

(my nevilles i use today)
By the early 1990’s all sorts of alarms appeared on the scene.
The stunning ava alarm made here in the uk was so small I once laughed at it, yet it just looked stunning. supporting a stainless steel backplate/ rod rest,,volume,tone and a choice of led colours, including a latching led made them a thing of beauty yet ava only lasted a few years have been told it was just too expensive to make the alarms and sadly they ceased trading after only a few years of making the alarm.

(my set of collectable ava's)

my alarms in use


also around the late 80's early 90's where the bitech viper bite alarm. Quite "boxy" to look at and where very robust with tone and volume. I never owned a set but a friend did and he never had any problems with them but they did have a reputation of being as waterproof as the mary rose and eat pp3 batteries !


The bitech viper extension box was a worthwhile investment for optonic owners as it worked on the same voltage and was quite cheap.

Efgeeco/ Sundridge was back with a new alarm, still with the same casing as the super/special compact, but listened to the customers and fitted a gpo speaker, brighter latching leds,better volume and tone controls to the rear of the alarm, this was the optonic xl, wind/ storm ears where fitted as standard. And they looked the part but it was too late,,del romag was back,,,,, and also a new company called fox.

(my old xl alarms next to a les bamford conversion, i think ?)

the earlyer type of fox alarm

Fox was a new company, but had some very nice products,,, including the new micron bite alarm. Very well thought out, but had tried and tested technology & good improvements,,, but again in the background
Delkim had gone away and designed a totally new alarm, new line sensor, and new state of the art electronics. the delkim was a brilliant seller allowing different tones for drop back bites, it was a fantastic alarm and for a while the market seemed to be divided by fox and delkim.

Each year fox where making an option of a different model, but delkim standing strong with his model not needing to change a well thought out alarm.

around this time,Gardner brought out an alarm,very roust and virtually water proof and still sold today, the TLB.


Anglers started to look around,, the nev and the parson took off, more the nev than the parson,, with the tlb alarm following close behind. All 3 alarms strong, well made, fool proof, reliable and with cult looks.

steve neville gave kevin nash some of the rights to build a stainless steel version of the nev alarm. some liked it,,some didnt and it never really took off, hampered by different electronics that become quite unreliable.

(nash s/s nev alarms)

as time went on,fox bought out the romote txr system to enable the angler to have a "wireless" remote, yet still had to plug in a box to the alarms. delkim bought out an "add on" remote system enabling the use of a tx2000 transmitter to be plugged into the base of the alarm

but shortly afterwards bought out the new txi alarm which has a remote contol sounderbox if needed.
the all singing all dancing delkim txi alarm



the bottom of the range fox warrior alarm


the small fox micron m


the top of the range fox micron Rx digital




martin lock the solar MD bought out the elegant v10 alarm in around 2005/7,using change over clip on covers like mobile phones,,and also using sim cards for the receiver ,,but suffered to many electronic problems.


with a torch reciever !


there is so much choice nowadays, i have resorted to sticking to my nevs as they are tried and tested. after all,,all they need to do is bleep and show some visual sign via an led,,what else would you need !!

updated......2008/9...
the new atts bite alarm sold by gardner, but made by attackle. this little gem is tiny,,has no sound and is totally submersible in water,,it has to rely on a reciever (the attx) and has been added to my armoury of alarms already !!

just look how small it is compared to as steve neville alarm,,its tiny !

and a side view againsed a delkim

the attx(v2) reciever

the v1 attx with pouch


steve neville has at long last made the neville alarm with remote control in 2009
same size small alarm but with a built in transmitter


(edited, added too and tidyed up 18/1/2010)

(i may have missed bits out but this is more or less the history of the bite alarm)

all the best

roy

Roy old chap you missed the penny over the steel hub cap??
an the viper alarms ??
solar alarms
an them german little things that run off a sounder box??
getting old mate

god damn it !
i knew i had forgot something ,,i will put them in ,,cheers kieth

still got my bitech vipers from when i was a kid, dam they were sensitive - you had to change the battery every session

top write up brings back the good old days

also roy why didnt the latch l.e.d light up on optonics super compacts ? so ive been told

I've got one of those rare magno-bite alarms still boxed never used in mint condition, nearly gave it away to a young lad who lives over the road only last week!! you reckon this would be worth selling? if so approx how much?? money tight at the mo so every little helps and all that.

Great article btw, brought back many happy memories i owned in order
basic optonics
bi tec vipers
magnetonics 1xhi tone 1xlow tone(the ones that sounded like ducks )
super xls
bamford conversions
fox mini microns
then i splashed out on delkims in blue, i still have them to this day love em to bits, fancy some stevie nevs now might try and swap???

i payed only about £5 for each of my magno alarms (i suppose i was lucky)
put it on ebay bud, you never know

oh the mrs was just about to order a new car aswell .. i'll stick it on ebay with a reserve rather keep it than sell for a bluey.

roy im now a proud owner of 3 mint new super compacts im after some isotopes for the ears wot size do they take ? thanks simon