Chris Suslowicz

I think "Mine Detector". :-D It's possibly for the "Detector, Mine, No.3 [Polish]" or something similar, and may have been renumbered from an earlier 'WA" piece of webbing. Maybe a back pad, or something to make the detector head a little more comfortable to use? Interesting item anyway, is it for sale? Chris (inveterate hoarder of signals stuff). p.s. At ZA.227... it's earlier than Satchel, Signals, No.6 for the Detector, Mine, No.4, which was ZA.24242.

That happened to a hell of a lot of stuff. At least the remote control units were produced in large quantities and a lot of them have survived to this day. Someone on the WS19 group owned up to dismantling suitcase sets for the components.:wow: All the stuff that has gone forever because it didn't cover any amateur bands and/or there were no manuals available. I could have had complete 'S' phones and Wireless Sets 1 & 14 from the Radio Centre in Hurst Street, Birmingham, for pocket money. (If only we'd known then what we know now!) (Sigh) Even the nostalgia isn't what it used to be. Chris.

Nope! That's a British Wireless Remote Control Unit 'E' Mk.II for the WS19 (and, I think, the WS52). The Mk.1 had a wooden case, and a lot of Remote Control Unit 'B's were converted into 'E's by changing the set cable (from two jack and one banana plug to a 5-pt snatch plug and a jack plug with a flat filed on the sleeve so it wouldn't trip the WS19 "send" contact on the key jack) and adding the switchbox at top right plus an attenuator to match the high-output carbon microphone to the WS19 (which expected a low output moving-coil insert). The Mk.II was effectively the same unit in a steel case. I think mine cost me £3.50 each from West End Radio, but that was much later (probably 15 - 20 years). :wow: Chris. (The Canadian remote control units were wooden-cased and somewhat larger front-to-back as they had a space to store the hand microphone (C3) and headset behind the actual RCU gubbins.)

The WS19 remote control was "Wireless Remote Control Unit 'E'", which was a modification (the extra key switch at the top right hand side of the case) of the earlier WRCU 'B' used with the Wireless Sets 2, 3 and 9. Most of the "B" units appear to have been converted in this way. Chris.

It's Wireless Remote Control Unit 'A', and the first of a fairly long line of such units (they eventually got to 'Q', possibly further). It was originally produced for Wireless Set No.1 (replacing a rather more limited control unit) and carried forward to the replacement Wireless Set No.11. The complete setup requires two of those units, and various cables - a "fan out" cable that connects to the set (this has three plugs for microphone, headphones, and morse key on one end and a 4-pin "Plug No.406" (as used on various field telephone handsets) on the other), and a "Coupler No.2" which is a quick connect adapter for the remote control link. (The cables are carried in a pouch stitched to the carrying strap for the control unit - these appear on eBay occasionally and are mis-described as being for signal pistol cartridges!) Interconnect between the units was a 100 yard reel of twin cable with matching "Coupler No.2" on each end. The outfit allowed remote operation of the wireless set, although it required an operator at the set to perform the send/receive switching. It also provided telephone communication between the operators, or to a standard field switchboard - so it was possible for a remote telephone user to access the radio (with the set operator doing the send/receive switching, of course). Chris.

Pietro Noto <pietronoto@tiscali.it> is the gentleman you're looking for. Purveyor of fine inverters to the military radio fraternity. :-D (I haven't got around to buying any from him yet, but intend to get some for the WS18, WS38 and WS46 at some point.) Chris.

I was just thinking "the rifles ought to be OK" until I realised that they probably all have detachable magazines, so even the "prison guard" Lee Enfields in .410 Musket will be Section 1 unless the magazine has been restricted and welded in place. Assume the worst: anything manually operated originally will most likely be back in Section 1, everything else is almost certainly Section 5. (All the ridiculous pistol conversions are definitely s.5 - they seemed to be tailor made for criminal conversion with a hacksaw and file.) Chris.

Is that a record, nearly 4.1/2 years between question & answer and a reply from the original poster? :rolleyes: (Or did the reply get stuck in the system, somehow?) Chris.

Presumably the other 25 to 49% is un-natural cheese? :shocking: Chris. (Remembering a couple of "San Marco Margherita pizza" that contained no cheese whatsoever. They were so revolting that the second one was used as a muzzle cover for an 8" firework mortar - and not removed prior to firing it.) :-D

Ether injection (or possibly some other chemical method - hydrogen peroxide would probably be far too dangerous)? Chris.

The vendor equivalent of a timewaster. :-D Chris.

Bear in mind you'll also need the backshell and cable clamp to suit - the RS part is probably just the connector. (Though you can probably scavenge the other parts from a scrap cable.) Chris. (All my Amphenol radio connectors tend to be fine threaded rather than the quick disconnect type.)

Smoke out of the (glowing) choke cable tends to be a bit alarming (plus you sometimes can't get it off choke after that happens). :wow: The starter motor current can easily be in the hundreds of amps range, and you need a good (substantial and low resistance) return path to the battery in order to avoid problems. Hence the substantial braid strap. Braid straps are cheap, replacing a smoked wiring harness is rather less so.:-D Chris.

Would a magnetometer survey be better? Big lumps of iron shouldn't be that hard to locate and something the size of a tank is certain to distort the earth's magnetic field. Chris.

As far as I'm aware, the cone part should be interchangeable, it's just a matter of extracting the contact assembly and swapping them over. (This does assume that they were simply glued in with 'Bostik' and not assembled in the 'soft' state and then vulcanised.) Note that the strain relief on the rear of the contact assembly should have the individual wires displaced by one position in order for it to work as a strain relief. They go on the outside of the box, same as the rubber sleeve type with a retaining plate and two screws. :-D Regards, Chris. (Drat! I hadn't realised it was the Malvern thing yesterday - that explains why the piggybank is smiling smugly.)

[TABLE=class: tborder, width: 100%, align: center] [TR] [TD=class: alt1, bgcolor: #F1F1F1]This one doesn't look right, and I suspect it's a fake. The metalwork is too clean and the welding too neat, but the actual aerial base No.9 doesn't look right. It should be a rubber moulding with stamped metal end pieces (plated steel or brass at the top end), but this looks like aluminium. Also the bottom section of the insulator looks like painted metal and I suspect the whole thing may have been turned on a lathe. Caution advised if you were thinking of bidding on it. (No, of course it's not mine!) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/military-r...k/112200349043 Chris. [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

It's just a bigger version of a case tumbler, using sand instead of walnut shell as the cleaning media. Most cement mixers are too small to fit an MV in. :-D Chris.

Er, I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. The panel mounted connectors are identical, except for the insulation material (Tufnol/SRBF for HF or Perspex/Plexiglas for VHF). The standard clip is intended to take a right-angled connector. (There were 'T' conectors - plug one side, socket on the other, cable in the middle - but they had a lug on the top (opposite the cable entry) to take the retaining clip.) The original straight socket required a spring retaining clip shaped like a horseshoe to clip into a groove in the socket body. These were used on the WS19 aerial bases. (Replacement bases shipped with standard clips which had to be changed!) There's a much later 'straight' socket that has a plate fitted (a thick washer with a tab) to allow the standard clip to be used, but those were not for the WS19. Chris.

The truck and trailer are definitely Signals, having the white over blue tac sign. The truck has racked telegraph poles and a ladder plus one of the large Apparatus Cable Laying visible behind the tailboard. Definitely a Line section. :-D Chris.

Quite possibly an RAF vehicle then, probably with a VHF set fitted for aircraft communications and an HF set for ground use. (I wonder if I can find my "Wireless Diagrams" pamphlet set. That might have a vehicle listed for a liaison role.) Everything is still in boxes! Chris.

I have not seen the the block type before, but that looks to be only for a receiver aerial. The glass insulator with the metal mounting is RAF, I think, and has a metal pipe on the back, and a knurled nut on the aerial end. They were used on aerial junction boxes (Co-axial cable to wire aerial, etc., for ground stations but probably had other uses.) The two glass bowls... are for the 'blackout box' on the front wall of a radio box. They fit into two Tufnol or Paxolin squares about 0.25" (5mm) thick, and have butterfly (wing) nuts on the end to attach wire feeders (to variometer inside and aerial base outside). There is a complete unit on eBay, but I will make no comment regarding the price! :wow: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WW2-British-Insulators-W-T-Aerial-Lead-In-No-12-ZA-0891-WS19-WS22-WS52-WS53-/151588268923 It does have useful photographs of the assembly. Regards, Chris.

Yes, please! (Any Signals stuff, in fact.) Chris.

Ditto, here. The actual trials dates of the wireless equipment is something of an eye-opener. (e.g. The Wireless Set No.1 being issued for trials in 1931, and officially adopted in 1933 - I have the 1933 and 1938 versions of the manual.) Chris.

There is a book by a Korean War National Service veteran (Ron Larby) that has a character (name changed) called Kitchener whose aim was to wear something from every different countries uniform. What the Navy would call "A Character". The book itself is well worth reading, and freely available still. Chris. Signals To The Right Armoured Corps To The Left Ron Larby Published by Korvet Publishers (1993) ISBN 10: 0951775022 ISBN 13: 9780951775028

Well, that's me told, then.:cry: I still think foam would be a standard option for any general-purpose fire appliance - otherwise what would the crew do if faced with a large flammable liquid fire, run away? :wow: Chris.