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WANTED: British WW2 34 foot free standind radio aerial parts


matchlesswdg3

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Whatever you have got to make up the standard 34 foot aerial......full kit, parts, eg ground spike and base. Guy ropes?

 

Hi,

 

I have Canadian 34' aerial with ground spike, guys, pegs and leather bag. When you say "British" did we have another version?

 

Some photos:

attachment.php?attachmentid=129438&stc=1attachment.php?attachmentid=129437&stc=1attachment.php?attachmentid=129436&stc=1

IMG_1944 (1024x768).jpg

IMG_1938 (1024x768).jpg

IMG_1949 (1024x768).jpg

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Hi,

 

I have Canadian 34' aerial with ground spike, guys, pegs and leather bag. When you say "British" did we have another version?

 

Some photos:

attachment.php?attachmentid=129436&stc=1

 

(That ground spike does not look original - more an example of the welder's art, the originals were cast/forged.)

 

The British mast was the "34-ft steel vertical aerial" and came in a big canvas bag with shoulder strap. It's made up of 3-ft Aerial Rods 'D', an adapter and some Aerial Rods 'F'. Somewhat flimsy and tricky to erect without bending/breaking the rods. Also (apparently) prone to falling down if any of the guy ropes got shot away. :-D

 

There's a 'kit layout' of that mast on Keith's WS22 page, here:

 

http://www.royalsignals.org.uk/photos/ws22/index.htm

 

It remained in service into the 'Larkspur' era before being replaced by the 27-ft telescopic mast (very obviously based on the Canadian 20-ft and 34-ft mast kit that you have part of).

 

The kit later became the 32-ft vertical aerial with the replacement of the 'F' rods by the 14-ft sectional whip aerial from the WS62 - this allowed everything to fit in the 'golf bag' carrier (Bags, Aerial Gear, No.2, Mk.II) instead of requiring an additional carrier tube for the 'F' rods that are too long to fit in the bag.

 

Parts of the kit remained in service for a very long time, the pins for the guy ropes are "Pegs, Aerial, 'A' from the early 1930s, the ground spike likewise, and those (excuse pun) soldiered on into the larkspur era, the pegs being used to anchor the flat mast baseplate on soft/sandy soil, and the spike as a mount for the C42 and C45 aerial tuning units when dismounted from the land rover wing as a remote aerial.

 

Parts of the kit turn up fairly regularly in the usual places, but finding a complete kit is almost impossible - the 8-oz ball-pein hammer is almost always missing! (Also missing are likely to be some of the 'D' rods due to breakages, and guy assemblies (due to rot).)

 

Chris.

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