Chris Suslowicz

Heh. On the radio/wireless front it is extremely unwise to search for vibrator without including the words Mallory or Plessey (a third manufacturer, Oak can give surprising results too). Including the words radio or wireless tends not to help much, but synchronous or non-synchronous (or the number of pins) can keep the noise down. Excuse me while I go and find the brain bleach. Again.

I think the "You cannot tax a vehicle without an insurance certificate listing that particular vehicle" was introduced to specifically stop the uninsured drivers from getting their impounded vehicles back - apparently the usual trick was to send a relative to the pound with an "any vehicle" policy, they would pay the fine/fees, collect the vehicle and hand it straight back to the uninsured owner. Lather, rinse, repeat. Refusing to release the vehicle without proof of ownership, insurance, MOT and tax was intended to stop that. Dunno how successful it is. I.m also not sure how it works with little brother's motorcycle accumulation (nearly all on nil-value tax discs and a rider policy). I don't drive, so have no personal experience. (Keep death off the roads, that's my motto!) Chris.

I found the other link: http://www.royalsignals.org.uk/battery/ This has actual dimensions, as well as the photographs. Note: these are all Signals batteries (i.e: for radio^Wwireless kit), not automotive types. Never ever use a cell discharge tester on a radio battery - it will seriously damage it. There's also our copy of the Defence Standards battery specifications (trawled off their website after I joked that "we ought to mirror this to reduce our load on their server"), and which promptly got all the interesting stuff (WS18 and WS38, etc.) specifications removed in a cleanup. http://www.royalsignals.org.uk/links.htm#battery

Um, I thought we'd got more battery photographs, but there's this one: http://www.royalsignals.org.uk/photos/battery-box.htm The wooden battery boxes are the same dimensions as the postwar pressed steel cases, since they had to be interchangeable without modifying the racks and clamps. Another possibly useful source is the REME battery shop EMER: http://www.royalsignals.org.uk/refEMERs/PwrJ330.pdf And the wartime version (which you'll need to request in the usual way): Doc: 5222 Maintenance, Testing & Repair of Lead Acid Batteries, 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th Line REME Workshops, August 1944 Hope this is some help.

Yup! The spring clamp is the same as the type used on Aerial Base No.8, and prone to work-hardening as the base flexes on a moving vehicle and the rod sways about. Eventually the spring breaks and has to be replaced. The clamp type bases are far better but came in later on. Chris.

Right, the No.9 base is for the 'B' (VHF) set only and takes the 24" aerial. The 'A' (HF or short wave) set uses (usually) a No.8 or No.10 base with a variable number of 4-ft 'F' rods to make anything up to 16 feet, but 8 feet is the practical limit for operating on the move. It's not possible to tune a short aerial on the lower frequencies, and this was fixed using a "Laport" adapter [http://www.royalsignals.org.uk/photos/v.htm] which takes two aerial rods arranged as a shallow 'V'. There's also "Adaptor, Aerial, No.1" sold under a multitude of names on eBay, which is two circular metal blocks held together by a bolt and wing nut with a pin that fits the aerial base, a hole that takes the Laport adapter (or an aerial rod), and this has a serrated joint in the middle so the nut can be slackened, the blocks rotated to the desired angle, aerial inserted and tightened up, and you have a sloping rod or sloping V aerial. This was used well into the Larkspur and possibly the Clansman era. Radio trucks used Aerial Base No.16, which is the pre-WW2 Aerial Base No.3 mated to a huge ceramic insulator and the actual rubber base bypassed with copper straps, for high power transmitters: the WS19HP, WS52 and WS53. This base would take Aerial Rods 'D', which form the 34-ft vertical aerial, or a large copper block & clamp (Antenna Rod 'F' Adapter No.5) which gave a very rigid twin 16-ft "Sloping Vee" aerial for use on the move. I need to photograph all this stuff! Minor footnote on Aerial Base No.9 - these come from the factory with the wrong retaining clip (the one for a Pye elbow socket) fitted. The correct clip (for a Pye inline socket) has to be fitted before installation on the vehicle or you'll not be able to connect the feeder cable. (This happens because the connectors are RAF kit and they almost always used elbow sockets on their equipment.) Best, Chris.

That is indeed the one. Chris.

Aerial Base No.9 is the standard AFV base, and will be fitted to a tubular mounting of suitable length to clear any "clutter" on the vehicle. Later on in WW2 a "protector" was fitted - steel halo affair - to the mounting to prevent the flexible base being ripped off if the aerial snagged on a tree or similar. Aerial Base No.9A is fitted to a big spring clamp so it can be attached to a stake or jeep canvas hoop. Both of these require a precise length of co-axial feeder, which was available in two lengths: Leads, Aerial No.2 (ZA.3142), later renamed to Connector, Coaxial No.11, which is the shorter one, and Leads, Aerial No.3 (ZA.3143) or Conn., Coax., No.11A which is the longer of the two. (Leads, Aerial, No.1 (ZA.3141) is the WS19 A set to variometer cable.) There's another apparent variant of Aerial Base No.9 - fitted to a flat disc with a rubber gasket and captive nuts. This is a post-ww2 civilian effort for vehicle radio, apparently. Aerial Base No.9 (and 9A) is specific to the WS19 'B' set for inter-vehicle communication at short ranges. It takes a single "Aerial Rod 'G' (ZA.1771)" which measures 24" x 1/4" diameter. It's thin-wall copper plated steel, either a straight tube with a metal plug at the top to keep water out, or a tapered version. The bottom end terminated in an inserted plug threaded 2BA, I think. (Can't find my thread gauge.) This screws directly into the base. (The aerial base and rod was also used with the CN348 (Burndept?) VHF set for Air Support cooperation.) The WS19 'A' set uses aerial bases No.8, 10 Mk.1 or 10 Mk.2, all of which take Aerial Rods "F", and allow the use of up to 16 feet of aerial (though never more than 8 feet on the move to prevent damage to the rods and/or base). The 'F' rods are 4 feet long (not counting a few odd ones for special purposes) and are push-fit (original British design) or push-fit then screw together (rolled threads on all sections) (Later US/Canadian production subsequently adopted by everyone). Base No.8 is fragile and the rods are retained by a wraparound spring clamp (which breaks or goes soft) and was replaced by Base No.10 this has a better clamp (with butterfly nut) but the rubber part was prone to shearing off the baseplate. The Mk.2 version had an improved shape for better bonding to the plate, and an improved clamp (with separate clamping and terminal nuts). I must do some photographs at some point! Other aerials: various long wire aerials were issued with the Truck & Ground Station, pre-cut to length for the frequency range in use. The standard lot were: 70-ft, 90-ft, 110-ft, 150-ft, 185-ft and 250-ft. Aerial Masts: the Canadians produced 20-ft and 34-ft telescopic masts that could be used as vertical aerials or as supports for wire aerials. The British had the pre-WW2 34-ft sectional mast, made up of 3-ft Aerial Rods 'D', an adapter, and 12-ft of 'F rods on top. The masts could be used on the ground or mounted on a roof insulator (Aerial Base No.3 or No.16 (which is a modified No.3 for high power) for the 34-ft British mast) on a radio truck. Hope this is some help, or at least interesting. Chris.

Correct. It will _always_ be the case. The radio systems may be sold off, but the actual frequency band (radio spectrum) remains in the hands of the military or otherwise licenced user. Some ex-military radio kit can be legally used on-air. A lot of the HF and VHF kit covers bands that licenced radio amateurs have legitimate access to. (The PRC349 is a specific exception to this, as none of the frequency range that it covers includes any amateur allocation.) I believe the sole exception may be the PRR sets which operate in a specific licence-free frequency range that you can also buy commercial kit for, but I'd have to verify that before I would consider using one. Chris.

Artillery related, I think. O.S. is "Optical Sights" as far as I'm aware - found on gunsights, binoculars, etc. A "Director" is a sort of small (portable and less accurate) theodolite. The coloured sleeves as so that the different beacons in a battery can be told apart at night. See: http://nigelef.tripod.com/fc_laying.htm Best, Chris.

There are a fair selection of SLIDEX cards and associated docs in the WS19 group archive. See: http://www.royalsignals.org.uk/misc.html (Declaration of interest: they're mostly scans of my collection, and I'm one of the moderators of that group.) There were two designs of wallet: the original "oiled cloth over strawboard" which had a very short life under jungle conditions: the whole thing went floppy as the strawboard got wet, all the metalwork corroded like crazy as they'd used aluminium and steel fastened together with brass rivets(!) and the code cards were just what mould spores had been waiting for. The later one was paxolin sheet, an oilcloth "wallet", and the metalwork was designed with rather more care taken over its electrochemical properties. They also found a high grade card stock and an anti-fungal varnish that mostly solved the water adsorption and mould growth problems. Sliding cursors (3 sets in case you need multiple keys for different radio nets) are double sided (so you can retain yesterday's key for unbuttoning late-arriving messages) and made of _celluloid_ (cellulose nitrate) for ease of destruction if capture is imminent. KEEP AWAY FROM FIRE!!! SLIDEX replaced CODEX & SHEETEX in late 1943/early 1944 and (if you'll excuse the unavoidable pun) soldiered on until it was clearly obvious to be useless against an enemy with computer assistance (during the Falklands war). GCHQ were requested to provide something better, and developed BATCO (which is virtually unbreakable when used correctly). All SLIDEX cards in service prior to 1973 were downgraded to UNCLASSIFIED in the early 1980s, by the way. Hope this is some help, or at least interesting. Chris. (On the look out for SLIDEX cards that are not on that webpage - so that they can be scanned and put up there.)

(FX: looks on ePay) Yikes! It's not worth that much... Okay: you need the aerial base, a desiccator to replace that red light (and hope the previous owner didn't bore the thread out), and another fuseholder to replace the white knob (ditto about the hole, but I reckon the fuseholder is much bigger than whatever is on the end of the knob). I suspect you'll get a "display only" refurb out of it, because I reckon the RF section has been stripped out - there should be a diecast box behind the aerial base,and I think it had gone in the ePay photographs. Chris.

The fitting is for the vertical rod aerial. The set was for Light Anti-Aircraft (40mm Bofors) fire control, and is VHF AM with different receive and transmit frequencies, crystal controlled. Two aerial types were used - a two section screw-together whip and a dipole aerial with mounting for a tree or wooden post which connected to the set via a coaxial cable to the socket on the RHS of the set below the missing piece. The set was powered from a pair of standard 6V 40AH in series for 12V and sat on top of a tripod so it could be positioned next to the gun. After they went out of service they were used to provide communications in Cyprus during the civil war there. I am currently gutting a B44 Mk.3 which uses the same ceramic fitting, so it's yours if you want it. (The white knob on the front panel looks suspiciously unoriginal.) The WS19 group has a full set of documentation for this set,if you need that, but if it's the one off ePay I think it's too far gone to restore to original function. Chris. Feetnote: the set is usually found fitted "upside down" in the case, as the tripod mounting prevents it from sitting flat on a table. The mount _should_ be on the underside.

Further info, following a spot of research: DM was used in training, and people were only required/supposed to be exposed to it once, so that would explain the entry in the paybook. Probably too much information follows: From http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/02707318-7543-48F5-BB1A-3A4F50630575/0/part_ii.pdf Page 49 onwards. CAUTION! 6.2 MB document! 7.2. Chemical warfare training 7.2.1. Gas chamber training The use of the gas chamber to test if Service personnel could fit their respirators properly dates back to 1918 [1]. Servicemen fitted their respirators, entered the chamber and walked round for 5 minutes in an atmosphere of tear gas. After leaving the chamber, respirators were worn for a few more minutes to allow gas to dissipate from clothing. Special capsules of CAP, an early tear gas, were issued for this training [2]. This routine was augmented in 1935 [3]. After going through the procedure to check respirators had been fitted properly, each man briefly re-entered the chamber without protection as a demonstration of the protection afforded by the respirator. By 1941 all Service personnel went through this respirator test and unprotected exposure every three months [4]. Personnel were also required to experience a nose gas, DM [5, 6], so that they might be able to recognise the gas and appreciate its delayed action effects [7]. Personnel were exposed to DM for two minutes: no-one was required to experience DM more than once [7]. These arrangements continued after World War II [8]. The requirement to experience DM ceased in 1963 [9]. CAP, or CN as it was also called, remained in use as a riot control agent until the late 1950s, when it was replaced by CS. By 1964 CS was being used instead of CAP [10] in what became known as the "CS chamber" test [11]. Every member of the Armed Services was required to undergo the test. The test continued through the 1980s [12], by which time most permanent military stations and training camps had a CS chamber. References: 1. "Defence Against Gas" issued by the War Office in Mar 18 and revised at Nov 18; "Training in Anti-Gas Measures" (Jul 19). 2. "Defence Against Gas: Individual Protection", issued by the War Office 8 Jun 25. 3. "Defence Against Gas (1935)" 31 Oct 35. 4. "Protection Against Gas and Air Raids". Pamphlet 2. Respirators (1939) Amendments (No. 2), May 1941. 5. "Protection Against Gas and Air Raids". Pamphlet 1. Protection Against Gas in the Field (1939). 6. "Special Weapons and Types of Warfare: Volume 1 - Gas Warfare". War Office Monograph Second World War 1939-45, Army 1951. 7. "Gas Training 1942", issued by War Office 17 Jun 42. 8. "Gas Training (1951)", issued by War Office 6 Feb 51. 9. The Gas Officer's Handbook (1951), issued by War Office 28 May 51 amendment Nov 63. 10. Training Notes on "Pellets, Irritant, Smoke Respirator Testing" Oct 64. 11. "Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence Training", Pamphlet No. 8: Training and Training Equipment, issued by MOD Nov 71. 12. "Manual of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence Training on Land" Pamphlet No. 4, issued by MOD Nov 85 ----------- Chris.

Probably Chemical Warfare training. DM is the two letter code for "Adamsite", a nonlethal riot control agent (later replaced by CN (Mace) and later still by CS). It was almost certainly used in gasmask training drills. Chris. (This was going to be a much longer post but my session timed out and the original message was lost.)

T26E1 with 90mm gun. My excuse? At least I've got the complete radio fit for that one. Chris.

Without digging _too_ far into the document pile, I think the roof aerials were only used with the very early "number" sets, WS.2, WS.3 and WS.9. I suspect the sets are rather more scarce than the Gin Palaces, these days. There's a whole supplement to Signal Training Volume III Pamphlet No.25 that deals with the WS.9 in a vehicle. There's also an Installation Print from March 1942 detailing how you fit a WS19 Mk.II Truck & Ground station to a 15cwt truck, and it has all the necessary parts listed on the diagram. Chris.

Yes, it's 44-pattern webbing for the Wireless Set No.88. ZA.33126 is the set carrier with the hole in the top for the aerial. ZA.33127 is the battery carrier (for a large 90V/1.5V brick). Chris.

You would. (I don't speak Polish though.) (You can blame Josef and Adolf (in that order) for that.) Chris.

I fall off bicycles! And don't get me started on horses: they sit down in the middle of a ford when I'm on them. Bah! Chris.

It's not that bad. Most of the hoop-jumping is because some little scrote was trying to download the entire archive, presumably to flog "collections" of manuals off on eBay and elsewhere. That's what introduced the "no webmal/free email accounts" and the "6 docs in any 14 days" limits. We don't bite (much) unless Gnome Central is having a particularly bad day. 8-)> Chris (Junior Password Gnome)

Ah! There's a carefully-concealed Installation Print for 15cwt Truck & Ground station on the WS19 group files section. This will probably solve your "how/where it all goes" problem, merely leaving you with the "simple" problem of accumulating all the mounting hardware(!). You need File 1811 (which calls itself "WS19 Mk 1, Various diagrams" for some bizarre reason). Hope this is some help, Chris.

...nor do I drive. (FX: cries of "Burn the Heretic" as pitchfork wielding crowd assembles) "Keep death off the road" is basically my motto, as I don't think I'd be safe behind the wheel. Anyway, I'm in Birmingham/Solihull, and mainly interested in WW2 Signals kit. I joined mostly to be able to drop the occasional bit of information into discussions. Best, Chris.