fv1609

Very interesting, I've always felt a pig is something of a pull vehicle:cool2: 03 BK 34 was originally a FV1601 GS Truck in service 23/3/54 Engine No. 6065 Converted into Pig APC ie FV1611 1958-60 by Royal Ordnance Factories Woolwich (as opposed to Nottingham) Around 1965 converted to Ambulance ie FV1613 Struck off 20/8/69 Sold at OSDD Ruddington 8/1/70 Sale No.104 Lot No.1492 for £65 Recovered to 18 Command Workshops (ie Bovington) 30/11/72 converted to FV1611 Uparmoured to Mk 2 1972-73 then converted to Pig Squirt Struck off 7/9/88 to C.J.Evans Ordnance, Sturminster Marshall, Dorset

You could do it. Undo the top screw, then lift off the brass lever which sits on a square shank & refit it 180 degrees around. The trouble is that going along the lever is probably unreachable. Also the lever would not line up with the slot in the floor panel if you needed to lift the floor, although its easy enough to remove the lever. PS Just re-read the post, so the tip of the lever is facing the seat? Then it is the 'wrong' way.

Yes particularly confusing if you are used to driving a military Land Rover. Logic would suggest, just as Land Rovers assumed, that the fuel switch pointing to the left switches fuel from the left hand tank & to the right from the right hand tank. As you have embarrassingly remembered it is the other way round on the Pig. The reason for this is that it was easier on manufacture to have the pipes that way round. But it was not always that way. The real Mk 1 Armoured (for that is what they were originally designated) ie FV1609 had the plumbing arranged as per a Land Rover. But the production Pigs ie FV1611 & FV1612 had the opposite plumbing. My problem was that when my FV1609 re-entered Army service, it was upgraded with new plumbing that conformed to the production arrangement. Unfortunately nobody thought to change the wiring to match. The previous owner revealed that the fuel senders did not work & no doubt the Army operated it in this way. But it meant through the main part of its Army life the fuel indicator was measuring the fuel in the tank that was not being used. The dilemma was whether I should replumb it to the original more logical arrangement or not. But with another Pig & a Hornet with the illogical arrangement I decided to standardise the Fv1609 to match the other two. Yes so it is confusing, particular as the switch knob is sometimes mounted to point left & forwards or centre & forwards. I find I can get confused if the lever is pointing forwards to know if that is as far as it will go left or is it right? So I have to switch it to see which way it will go to get my bearings to then work out which tank I am running on!

As it happens yes. A new delivery has just arrived painted Service Brown BSC499. They are of course more expensive than the black ones, so how many were you thinking of having then? I might even be able to supply one of those purple ones for special customers.

Yes, with loads of Humber bits, British PW metal WATER jericans, carry boxes for SS11 & ENTAC, Ruddington sales catalogues, RUC items etc

I think that "Y" is the VAOS category for Signal Stores - line & visual, whereas "Z" is the VAOS category for Wireless Sets & Stores.

Trailer, 1 Ton, 2 Wheeled, FV2401 from 1956

Probably several types of vehicle. The VAOS prefix LV6/MT1 is a general miscellaneous MT stores item. The item was recodified with a NSN as 5330-99-800-6899 & classed as a "Packing, preformed".

Bit difficult to read the plate. But can make out ROFN2??. Not a Sankey one but made by Royal Ordnance Factories Nottingham. Chassis No. 21741 Entered service 9/3/54 as a FV1601 Truck Date of manufacture is given a 9/3/54 Engine No. 7432 Converted to pig between 1958-60 ie FV1611 Struck off OSDD Ruddington 19/8/70 Sold 18/11/70 Sale No. 108 Lot No. 1181 for £110 Recovered circa 1972 to be made into Mk 2 Struck off to Birds Commercial Metals 5/12/94 EARP = Equipment Anti Riot Projector, you can see the lower part in the passengers window frame, above it would be two clamping knobs. These mountings were later used for conversion to Pig Squirt. Interesting to see that the Generator Panel is in the cab still. The usual procedure was on uparmouring to move it from behind the scuttle armour & mount it in the engine bay at the front on the near side.

What history have you got? Then I'll see if I've got anything else, unless the history from previous owner came from me. Judging by the Gen Panel it now has a 2-speed dynamo, originally it would have had a single speed as it was an APC rather than a FFW. I notice it had EARP fitted once, the scuttle armour is missing & was once a flyer. I wonder what the body serial plate reads ROF/xxx or S/xxx - trying to track makers with the ERMs.

The scheme in June 1939 was the basic colour Khaki Green No.3 with disruptive Dark Green No.4 for average European conditions or for very light backgrounds Light Green No.5. AFAIK the next revision was Nov 1941. I'm afraid I don't know if any corresponded to BS colours of the time as that would have been the 1931 standard & there were only 57 colours at that stage.

Que?

Oh that's interesting. Looking at two sources of info neither identify it as a Flyer. The Asset Code for a Flyer Mk 2 is 1780-2501 But 26 BK 80 Asset Code is 1760-4100 so that doesn't tally. It looks in original condition without any obvious owner's embellishments so may well be genuine. The problem is the EMER for wings was issued in Jan 1976. 30 Pigs were to be winged up & these were completed on 23/7/76. But I have identified 40 pigs that have been winged up. My figure of 30 is from trawling the records of them all, so there must be some under recording. Now of all the Asset Codes for Humbers. I do not know what 1760-4100 is for. Could it be the Code for a solid winged pig? These of course came later as petrol & acid could penetrate the mesh screens. I had assumed they were conversions of existing flyers. So I need to look at the ERMs of the known solid flyer & see if they turn up the same Asset Code, but it all takes time!

It is as described. I know the seller so I assume it is in NI. This must be 31 BK 80 as it is the only flying pig ending BK 80. It was struck off to J.Hirst & Son, St Marybourne, Hants on 17/8/95.

I've just had this from the organiser: "Please be advised due to the huge response to the Southwick Park open day the show will now be opening slightly earlier at 1130. Therefore I have been asked to pass to all exhibitors to please park up by 1100."

Other National Parks are interested in a similar range of ideas & no doubt will spread to the rest of the country in time.:shake:

It's not just London that charges. This is coming soon. http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/3701363.Motorists_face__tolls_just_to_drive_through___New_Forest/ and if you keep a horse: http://forestuprising.org.uk/ and who will be next in the cause of green issues, MVs one day?

I think as you said earlier it was made by Jaybeam. I was tempted to buy one 25 years ago just to pinch the folded dipole & connector block to use on 70cm. The whole thing was more rigid & more waterproof than the stuff they produced for the amateur market & I was just going to transplant the dipole onto the amateur yagi. But I have never yet found out the application for the original yagi.

Yup I've got one somewhere, don't think there is a coil there. As the chosen length is 1/4 wave that is optimum for the RF to be radiated. If the range I quoted corresponds to the appropriate radio there would be no need to add inductance. Just looked up the NSN gives a VAOS of ZA50448

If I've got it right the max length is 83 inches & min is 35 inches. So for a 1/4 wave that gives an adjustable range of 35-82 Mhz.

Sorry I made a complete mess of that. Whilst converting it into proper inches I mistakenly took the measurement as a 1/4 wave but in fact it was a 1/2 wave. So the frequency is double ie 440 Mhz. Just looking at it didn't seem right. Not very good when when you consider I built my first transmitter for that band in 1964. But in those days it was a bigger bit of spectrum 420-450 Mc/s. (yes in those days proper megacycles per second, a measurement that means what it says)

I've assumed the diameter of the driven element is 1/4 inch. So it puts its centre operating frequency as 220 MHz. PS I was just wondering whether that 33cm measurement is more like 32.3 cm? That would then put it at the old lower end of the mil UHF band at 225 MHz. Although that lower end has now shrunk up to 230 MHz. So your little yagi should give you a nice DAB signal :-D http://www.wibble.co.uk/links/ukspectrum/spectrum.html

You may be right. I didn't like their Terms of Service clause 11, especially 11.2 which seems to suggest anything in your emails can be used by them for whatever purpose.

Yes well done Richard again! It is indeed a branding machine made by Weiss of London in about 1850. Branding deserters was known to be done from 1717 with a hot iron on forehead or hand. It later was done on parade by the Drum Sgt Major who pierced the skin with needles. The Drummer boy passed him gunpowder to rub into the bleeding wounds although later various dyes were used. Do remember the brand of Drummerboy dyes? In 1851 it became the responsibility of medical staff to perform with the Weiss machine but was stopped in 1879.

Yes Nope. I doubt that the procedure was of benefit to the patient, although I doubt if a lobotomy was either!