Chris Suslowicz

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.

If that's for an R210 Iain is definitely not kidding: I've got one of the receivers where the film scale has ripped and been removed, and the previous owner just closed the case up an sold it on. (Not only is the film scale missing, but so are the covers for it.) :mad: They're a nice receiver but tend to get hacked around in civilian hands: holes drilled in case to use an external power unit, internal power unit butchered and converted to AC mains, etc. Vandals! :mad::mad::mad: Chris.

In other news I have found you a Quench coil with the adjustment knob still fitted, and the 'B' set shield that takes the tuning capacitor - this will make it much easier to fit a dummy tuning dial to the set. Haven't found the dial itself yet, though. It will probably turn up while I'm packing the junk pile for the move. Chris.

and Heh. I will attempt to find my notes. It is possible to wangle the flick mechanism such that the holes line up again without stripping the thing down, but it's a bit of a fiddle. Basically, there are three clamping rings and a couple of notched disks. The notch in the disk allows the flick mechanism to lower the flag into the window and indicate that you're on (or close to) the preset frequency. The front clamping disk has no threads in the four holes, the middle one has two threaded and two plain holes, and the rear one has two threaded holes only (from memory). The rear disk holes are for the 'blue' flick, and the front ones for the 'Red' flick screws. (The red screws stick out further because they are clamping the front disk using the tapped holes in the middle one. the blue screws should go through the plain holes in the middle disk and screw into the rear one.) (Note: the colours are dots on the square knob on each dial.) You will be unsurprised to learn that replacement tuning capacitors were supplied with the drive unit already fitted. Chris. (Busy moving house this week, updates will be delayed.)

Ah! A.G.I. = Aeronautical & General Instrument Co. (Still going strong today, mainly in the Defence market.) Incidentally, you may be on the other side of the planet from me, but if you'd like a watch holder to cover up the three screw holes in the set, I can pop one in the post to you. :-) Chris.

It's a tank-cosy to stop the tea getting cold.

:-D I once had a box of Kynoch .38 S&W from Weller & Dufty's auction. Putting that through the 'tanker' Enfield was an interesting experience, and one which reduced everyone present to fits of laughter. "Click" pause "Phut" (bullet passes cylinder to barrel gap) pause "Pop!" (bullet leaves barrel, large yellow candle flame appears from cordite in barrel burning) long pause "Dink" (bullet finally reaches end of range somehow) The muzzle velocity was about 10 m/s, and the entire box behaved like this. Pulling one round showed the cordite (and it was cordite) to look a bit greasy/sticky, and firing the primer got a "Click, hissss" sound like a match being struck. It would definitely have been worth filming as a comedy (actually lighting a cigarette from the barrel flame) apart from the risk of there being one round in the box that hadn't deteriorated and the obvious safety hazard. Chris.

Right, so you've got a surplussed one that's been 'civilianised' as a small backpack. The leather patch is covering the hole where the junction box fits which allowed the battery cable to pass through into the backpack, and the removed straps and buckles which were to retain the cables from the junction box - a droplead for the headset/mike assembly at the bottom, another one at the top, (one for officer, one for operator), and the cable to the actual set. Chris. The pocket in the lid with the press-stud is for storing the aerial adapter.

Wireless Set No.46, Carriers, Battery. But... It's composed of various parts and may have been stripped out before you got it, so: If it's got a wooden board inside and a junction box with various cables on the outside screwed to the board (with the battery cable passing through the hole in the pack and board) then it's the proper ZA14892. If it's not got the box and board, and the hole in the side has a metal blanking plate with central screw, then it's really ZA14869 Satchel, Signals, No.3. If it's missing the plate then it's one that has been stripped down. The full WS46 webbing set consists of that backpack with fitted junction box, two Attachments, Brace (L straps), a Brace Hook (as used with the WS38 Mk.II, etc.), the set carrier (hangs off the Hooks, Brace), and a pair of Belt Attachments that clip onto the standard waistbelt and hold the set (in its carrier) against the operator's body. Chris.

Lead underwear advised: all those dials appear to be plastered with radium luminous paint. Chris.

Cheese, Possessed was very much sought after by an acquaintance. He was a keen angler and had discovered it was irresistible to carp. (I suspect it was promptly banned from use in competitions.)

Or possibly the pump on a resuscitator kit? Chris.

More specific than that, the "NEW" label indicates it was rebuilt by the REME at Newark workshops in the late 1950s/early 1960s.:-D Chris.

The supply unit fits on top of the set (rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise) and that puts the output connector in the correct position for the standard "dogbone" to fit (though you will almost certainly have to reorient the connectors - easier with the later fabric covered cable type). It's fastened to the top of the set using two pieces of steel angle, and a slightly longer (than the normal PSU) securing strap. The steel angle pieces are fixed to the set case with 2BA screws - the 12 tapped holes (4 groups of 3) in the top of the set case, and the strap passes underneath. Parts turn up on eBay, various militaria fairs, amateur radio rallies, etc. Prices vary from "ridiculously cheap", through various stages of "reasonable" and then past "outrageous" to "this has to be a joke, right?". (I have seen the WW2 British R107 receiver on sale from £25 all the way up to £250 - the £250 one was at Beltring one year and had been left face-up in the rain for some days and was probably full of water. They're a nice receiver if you don't have to move it anywhere since it weighs 99lb/40+kg, but £25 - £60 is a more sensible price. Back to the WS19: you need to know fairly exactly which parts you need, especially mounting hardware (there are 9 different aerial feeder adapters for the back of the variometer, for instance), and also know what to avoid. (Any supply unit with a 12mm hole drilled in the top right of the front panel is junk, as it's been butchered postwar to make it a caravan power supply and is not easily restorable. Chris.

(sigh) The local Indian supermarket by my young lady's house once had cases of tinned Oatmeal Block, presumably bulk supply to the company that assembled the 10-man ration packs. I think I must have bought an entire case of 24 tins. Lovely stuff, ideal for dunking in tea when camping. All good things come to an end, though, and these ran out before Y2K was upon us. :-( I wish they were still available, far superior to HobNobs.

Ah, the book says "e.g. aluminium/iron oxide" for the "priming composition" - i.e. a thermite mix. That in itself is fairly hard to ignite, and the combination could be quite unfriendly. Your book is probably being economical with the truth, and my copy of Davis(1) is currently boxed up for a move so I can't provide a definite answer. Also bear in mind that burning magnesium produces a lot of ultraviolet light, so goggles and gloves (+ sunblock) are advisable too. I think it's more trouble (and not inconsiderable risk) than it's worth, to be honest. Chris. (Channelling the Elves who drink Safe Tea again, I suspect.) (1) Tenney L. Davis: The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - an interesting book as long as you don't try any of it out, because the safety precautions and working practices are from the 1930/40s.(Actually, I may be thinking of Weingart's "Pyrotechnics" - both of these are of historical interest only and definitely not to be put into practice.)

Expense & challenge: very probably. OK, so you have the "Piece, Packing", you need the "Plate, Seating". It's mostly bent tinplate, apart from the aerial socket which is more complicated. I suspect the "variometer fitted to the top of the PSU involved holes being drilled in the latter rather than the correct seating plate for that. I'll have a look through the scrap pile for suitable bits. I can certainly find you a 'B' set aerial connector, possibly the (edgewise) tuning knob and maybe a Quench adjuster. Another problem may be matching the actual set to the "portrayal date" of the vehicle, of course. :whistle: Where are you based? Chris.

Hmmm.... where to start? The 3B control unit is a late tropicalised one (the /1) with rubber cabling, Earlier WW2 ones used mostly fabric covered cable. The webbing for the "Straps, Clamping" existed in a wide variety of shades etc, from plain white, white with thin blue (1 or 3) stripes, thin canvas sheet folded over to thicken it, and the postwar green. How bad are your straps? Variometer window is vacuum formed plastic, I think. Might be easier to swap the front assembly if you can find one the correct colour. The windows can discolour and distort with age, as well as being broken. Mounting plate is occasionally seen on eBay (from Italy or NL), but some dealers have taken to stripping all the fittings off (!) and selling them separately. You will also need the packing piece (wood, plastic or rubber) that goes between the plate and the variometer. Decals have been reproduced recently, but I'm not sure if anyone is still doing them. If you need decals then you have a US (Mk.II) or Canadian (Mk.II or Mk.III) set. The British ones were silk screened/stencilled on the panel, I think. Colour? Yes, well... panel colours varied by maker (a variety of shades of grey, plus at least a couple of blues); case colours can be black (early British production), a variety of greens (US and Canada also used wrinkle finish as well as gloss and matt), and brown. Post-WW2 sets can be refinished in gloss grey. I've also seen (British) sets with front panels in Eau de Nil - may be refurbished - for use in radio trucks. Chris.

Ha! The 6A is special forces (well, Combined Operations, so small and lightweight for paratroops and fully waterproof for the marines) and I've seen several of those. I think the Polish 5A is an improved Polish 3A, with waterproof connectors and using commonly available parts instead of the expensive (and custom) brass connectors on the 3A. There was a war on, if something worked and was needed it would be rushed into production and issued. I wonder if the Poles used odd numbers for their mine detectors and the British used even numbers, just to avoid confusion? The manual page in that historical article is clearly British, and the change of stores code is a hint that it was under rapid revision/development - being switched from "Electric light and power" (Section W) to "Radio & Electronic equipment" (Section Z) - though it may have been a post-WW2 tidyup (I somehow doubt this). The on/off switch is on the hand control box, of course. I am an idiot. I'm now wondering what the flap-covered-hole in the backpack lines up with; Headphone socket? Does your No.3A have a custom backpack? If so: number, please? (As the Operator used to say.) Chris.

Okay, ZA.22756 it is. The cables come out of the top of the pack, and I assume the flap on the side is to cover an on/off switch or something. Chris.

Hmm... Pack looks like ZA.22756 (or possibly 86) in the photograph. Amplifier uses ARP12 valves, with 4 x 'X' cells in series-parallel for the filament supply and a 60 volt brick for HT. I assume there are holes in the side and/or bottom of the pack for the cables to fit through? The 5-point "snatch plug" will be to connect the search coil to the amplifier, and I think they had a small (hand held) search coil for close work, and a larger (pole mounted with counterbalance weight) for area sweeping. 1943/1944 sounds about right for age. Chris. p.s. the illustration is almost certainly from the user handbook! http://polishscottishheritage.co.uk/?heritage_item=scotland-the-country-of-the-inventors

Many thanks. (I'm trying to track down the various "Satchel Signals", which went up to at least No.12 by the end of WW2, and identify what equipment they were used with. (Obviously the original "Satchel Signals" ZA.6292 is a "multi-purpose part" as it replaced "Bags, Telephone Receiver" and "Cases, Message Book, Mark IV" sometime before 1940. It eventually turned into "Haversacks, No.1", and probably ceased production in the late 1980s.) No.1 is the original Satchel Signals No.2 is the spare battery bag for the WS18 and WS38, etc. No.3 is the backpack (without the wiring harness fitted) for the WS46. No.4 ? No.5 ? No.6 is for the Detector, Mine, No.4 and 4A No.7 is the toolkit for the 60 watt pedal generator used with the WS62 No.8 ? No.9 ? No.10 is the backpack for WS38 Mk.3 No.11 ? No.12 is for the Detector, Mine, No.6A ...did they carry on with special purpose webbing packs after this? Trying to fill the gaps. Chris.

Is there a stores code on the backpack? I've got the British No.4A and 6A but never seen any of the Polish ones. Chris.

WS88 is a (dry) battery powered infantry set. It's 4-channel crystal controlled FM in the 38-42 MHz range and does not cover any usable frequencies. SR C42 is also FM and covers 36 - 60 MHz . It's fully tunable, though rather wideband by modern amateur radio standards. It can be used on the 10 metre amateur radio band (50 - 52 MHz) if you hold a suitable (Intermediate or Full) licence. Chris

The "protrusion" on the side of the mask is circular and is there to permit a microphone to be fitted for use by wireless or switchboard operators. Basically the end of the protrusion is sliced off and a metal clamp (like a Jubilee clip) fitted. There are then the options of: 1) a plastic bung for when the microphone is not fitted. 2) Microphone, Respirator, No.1 with a 2 pin plug that accepts the socket from a telephone operator's headset and replaces the "Transmitter, Breast" (without the on/off switch facility of the latter), or a cable with No.10 plug on the end for remote control units. 3) Microphone, Respirator, No.2 with a lead and No.10 plug fitted - for use with WS18 series. (In connection with the standard Microphone Hand No.4 or 4A which is still required for Tx/Rx switching. 4) Microphone, Respirator, Power for Telephone, Loudspeaking No.2 & No.3, etc. The Civilian Duty Respirator would have a permanently fitted microphone and single earpiece headset with plaited cord and Plug No.406 or the large (1/2") GPO jack plug according to switchboard type in use. The microphone elements used are gas-tight ones and supplied with a sealing ring to ensure a good seal between the element and the front face of the microphone housing. Chris.