Chris Suslowicz

Foam must have been an option, as that was the standard military fire engine, and you would definitely need foam for POL fires. Chris.

The original cables were "Leads, Aerial, No.1" for the 'A' set to variometer, later renamed (Connector, Coaxial, No.10), Leads, Aerial, No.2 (Connector Coaxial No.11), and leads, Aerial, No.3 (Conn. Coaxial, No.11A) for the 'B' set. The last two have one elbow and one straight socket fitted and a sleeve warning "TUNED LENGTH, DO NOT CUT". The No.2 (11) is for general vehicle use, and the No.3 (11A) for use with the clamp-on Aerial Base No.9A or where you need a longer cable. Connector, Coaxial, No.10 later appeared in a number of different lengths (each with its own suffix letter) for different applications. (I suspect the wireless fitters also shortened the cables in order to reduce clutter (e.g. in the Daimler Scout Car, where you really only need about 18" to get from the set to the variometer). Hence the warning on the 'B' set aerial leads, where the length is critical.) Note to Simon: I'm still moving house :wow: and will get the odd bits off to you when I get a spare moment. (I have a hard deadline of the end of this month, courtesy of my (characterisation omitted) brothers and a possession order.) The Quench adjusters have been found, and I have a spare one if Nick needs it. The 'B' set aerial connector is not the same as the 'A' set one - it has a perspex (plexiglas) insulator for reduced losses at VHF - but you won't spot that if there's a cable plugged into it.:-D Chris.

It varies with the vehicle (and also depends on the wireless set(s) fitted. 1) "Through the roof" mounting uses Aerial Lead-in No.16 (which is Aerial Base No.3 on top of a large ceramic insulator, the rubber part of Base No.3 is bypassed using four braid straps) and the lead from the variometer output goes to the bolt in the center of the ceramic insulator. 2) Bracket on the front of the "house type" body. There are two aerial bases and a "blackout box" fitted. (The box is to prevent light showing through the glass feed-through insulator on the front of the body. An angle bracket holds Aerial Base No.9 (on Mounting No.1) for the 'B' set above the lead-in insulator, and the 'A' set uses the same Aerial Lead-in No.16 insulator (with an extension rod) on Plate, Adapter, No.5, and the feed cable from that goes to the glass insulator (Aerial Lead-in No.12) on the front of the body. Wireless for the Warrior Volume 2 Page W.S.19-73 and 74 have some drawings of the arrangement. Chris.

Very sneaky. The restored cab looks superb, as though it's just come from the factory.

They may be perfectly OK with the existing setup. The standard radio battery was the UK6TN (4 of them to give 24 volts nominal), and the radio kit of the period used a voltage control relay to allow it to be operated with the alternator charging the batteries. The average alternator output may well say it's 28 volts, but it's rectified AC (3 phase, I think), so the peak voltage will be higher than that. The UK6TN batteries were replaced by the UK6TNMF which is an advanced glass mat type (as far as I'm aware), and should be a 'drop-in' (not on your foot) replacement. I'd be very wary about trying to increase the alternator output voltage. The whole system was designed to operate on 24 to 28 volts, and an overvoltage would not do the electronic equipment any good at all. Chris.

Thanks. That is a weird arrangement and must have been difficult to set up in a hurry with two pickets at 14 feet from the base and the third at 32 feet! So much easier with the modern "piece of string" to set the picket spacing.:-D (Mind you, I'm going to have fun trying out my SP48 masts in due course. I may have to make up a "cats cradle" of string with all the relevant peg positions and alignments marked for when setting it out - it doesn't help that the mast is erected at 45 degrees to the intended line of the antenna either.) Chris.

The fabric-covered leads are the originals, and the all-rubber ones came later with the "tropicalised" equipment. Initially the rubber dropleads were assembled from component parts (snatch socket, cable, and grommet/strain relief) with Bostic[TM] to glue the rubber parts together and keep water out, but later production were factory assembled and then vulcanized. The rubber ones are better from a waterproof (and decontamination) point of view, so a lot of the earlier kit with fabric cables stayed in stores and survived. Some of the rubber compounds used (Flexo, I'm looking at you in particular) are horrible when it comes to perishing, but the sockets can probably be reclaimed and the grommet end re-made. Alternatively, leads can be scavenged from the "Junction Distribution No.3" intercom boxes which have survived in vast quantities and should be cheap (because they're useless unless you are restoring a tank). Chris.

Hmmm... all the images seem to have vanished without trace. :??? (Not that I have one of these masts, I was just interested (but not enough to ferret through the archives).) Chris.

You need the page with Fig 27 on it, because that's the critical bit that shows the ground plan and where to position the stay pickets. Can you scan that one, please?

Interesting that it has asymmetric stays! Working out the erection instructions should be fairly easy, you just need to find the peg spacing by trial and error. (Guessing at about 12 feet for the 'inward facing' stays and 18 feet for the two ends as a first cut.) 1) pin the bases to the ground to suit your long-wire aerial (length of aerial + a few feet apart). 1a) measure around 12 feet at 60 degrees from the base either side of the aerial direction and drive a peg in 2) lay the poles out facing inwards, sockets downwards (towards base plate) 3) place halyard cleat over end of first pole, add two (or three) poles, then one stayplate. 4) clip the two short stays (24-ft) to the outer pair of the "group of three" holes in the stayplate. 5) run the stays out at 60 degrees to the line of the aerial and attach to pegs (leave slack!). 6) clip the shorter of the single stay to the single hole in the stayplate. 7) run that stay out towards the base of the mast (and beyond). 8) add the remaining poles to the mast and the stayplate to the top. 9) connect the two longer stays to the outer pair of the "group of three" holes in the stayplate and to the two pegs. 10) connect the halyard pulley block to the third hole. 11) attach the remaining (50-ft?) stay to the single hole in the stayplate and extend it past the base of the mast. Now the fun part, the first go at erecting it (for which you need 4 or 5 people). One person holds the long stays at the rear of the mast, a second person holds the top of the mast, two more hold the short stays (one at each peg), and the last one keeps the base of the mast in position while it is being raised. 12) lift the top of the mast and slowly "walk it up". tension should be applied to the back stays to assist the lift, and the two front stay people should keep it centred. (Do this carefully - it may be worth starting with "half a mast" to get the peg spacing sorted. 13) once vertical (-ish), decide on the rear peg position, drive that in, and attach the two long stays to that. 14) Adjust stays all-round to get the mast vertical, do not over-tighten the stays. 15) Repeat for second mast (but you now know the peg spacings required). 16) attach wire aerial to halyards and hoist. 17) Sorted! (I hope.) (It may be that only one mast was intended to be used, with a sloping wire, but this will do you for a dipole.) Good luck, Chris.

This is true, but the bag is custom made for the mast and if you're lucky plugging the NSN into Google will get you one of the 'parts' websites that give a cross-reference to the manufacturer and their product code. (I did this with my MA-675 9 metre mast to get most of the parts list). Once you've got that much information you can expand the search a bit. The canvas case points to it being Larkspur, and stayplate with an extra hole for a halyard points to HF, so the SR A14 (aka BCC 30) is a very likely candidate. A look in the user handbook should confirm that. Chris.

Hmm.. if the 27A 2087 is an Air Ministry stores code then: 27A Aircraft Wheel Equipment 21H 0798 may be another stores code... Er, no: 21H is apparently "Hairdressing equipment", so unless it smells of Brylcreem it's not that.:-D Chris.

My work here is done. :-D Chris. (Actually, that price seems rather steep for something most owners would remove and throw away.)

Or with this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/British-Military-Motorcycle-Plastic-SA80-Rifle-Gun-Carrying-Box-Harley-Davidson-/321621388846 (Found by accident.)

Andy's suggestion of (I assume) a one-piece die block sounds good: drill the punch hole straight through then slot the side of the block (wide enough to accommodate your piece of spring steel and deep enough to get the hole in the right position) position spring, drop punch into hole, apply suitable force: sorted! I have a"Nu-cleve" bench punch somewhere, but it only does small holes and rivet setting so wouldn't be up to the job. Chris

LV9/ASC seems to be vehicle parts (Fox and Ferret are listed in a quick google search but it's probably a very wide category). FVnnnnn is also "Fighting Vehicle", which sometimes does appear on radio mounts by I think is just the metalwork. May well be light AFV parts. Chris.

When you spend a vast amount of time and effort in finding, buying, scanning cleaning and uploading manuals and some little scrote comes along and downloads the lot to sell CDs of on eBay or to pass off as his own work, people understandably get a little peevish. All the rules (and hoop-jumping) are there for historically good reasons, unfortunately.:cry: (As is the permanent block on .cn after some comedian repeatedly downloaded the whole archive, blew the download limit, and cost the gnomes several hundred dollars in hosting fees.):mad: Chris. (Junior Password Gnome.)

That really is rather splendid! Well done. Chris.

Again, I think they're C11/R210 parts. The escutcheon is the bit in the middle of the front panel with the windows for the frequency scale. The index mechanism is probably off the band changing mechanism (maybe in the aerial tuning unit or the R210). Chris.

Try a magnet on it, I think you'll find it's heavily copper-plated steel. (A lot of the US/Canadian aerial parts were copper plated to reduce the surface resistance and improve performance at radio frequencies.) Be warned that if water gets under the plating it corrodes like crazy and you get a horrible bubbled finish that is difficult to do anything about. Chris.

The manual can be requested from the WS19 website as Doc 740: Lyon "Alco Featherweight" Charging Set 360 Watts Description, Working Instructions and List of Spare Parts, Undated Chris. (I don't think I've still got the original that it was scanned from though.)

Thereby demonstrating that every correction must contain it's own error. :-D Chris. (Just hanging around - and yes, that was a deliberate apostrophe.) -- It's is not, it isn't ain't, and it's it's, not its, if you mean it is. If you don't, it's its. Then too, it's hers. It isn't her's. It isn't our's either. It's ours, and likewise yours and theirs. -- Oxford University Press, Edpress News

Rectifier? (Possibly mercury vapour type with the screw-in part having the heater coil to get it started and the not-shown other end being the anode connection.) Could also be a thyratron or ignitron, I suppose.

Think "Cromwell" the WW2 destroyer and an anti-aircraft mounting (Pom-Pom or 20mm Oerlikon). http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/equipment-field-gear/ross-binocular-gunsight-301665/ Chris.