g0ozs

Clive There is a very similar Racal tuner base which has a couple of relays and diodes to select matching networks based on a DC voltage fed up the centre of the coax - from memory the 30-80MHz range is split into 3 bands based on 0, 6 or 12v fed up the coax. Based on experience with the EVHF Clansman antenna which is also a sleeve dipole as this appears to be, but used with a a purely passive matching network (the "pineapple") a non adjustable matching network is (a) too lossy and (b) not very effective on all frequencies across such a wide range, so I'm guessing this tuner will be similar to the Racal one if they have any sense. Iain 73 de G0OZS PS Hopefully Colin (mattblack) can PM me with a price for a complete set so I can investigate further after pay-day ...

Hi Pete Welcome here 73 de G0OZS Iain

I thought I should revive this old thread because last week I went to look at a Dieselised SUMB a few miles from here - this one has been fitted with a Volvo 6 cylinder inline diesel engine and auto box with the drive shaft being adapted to the output of the auto box. I havent driven it yet but the owner's photo album suggests it does work well at least for low speeds off road. He did retain the original compressor and air-over-oil braking system but converted the electrics to 12V to suit the heaters and starter motor of the diesel. Hope this helps anyone else contemplating reviving a SUMB with a new engine Iain

Karl Welcome to HMVF ! I dont think the Wings Wheels & Steam event has continued in the form that you and I remember - much more of the site has been developed sicne the '90s for one reason - see: http://www.roughamairfield.co.uk/Events.html and http://www.rougham.org/events.html Regards Iain

Thanks for posting this Paul !

Jack Gerald's is the one I mentioned earlier in this thread - when I last saw it at W&P 2010 he had the dish stand and petals and was collecting the rest of the bits Gerald Good to see you posting here ! Iain 73 de G0OZS

Dougy The large scale disposals of Clansman via Witham Specialist Vehicles tender sales started in 2008 or early 2009 - as far as I know it was still in wide use until the mid 2000s while Bowman was getting past the "Better off with map and Nokia" stage so would have been used into the early years of Afghanistan as well. Much of my Clansman stuff has/had asset and test labels that are dated early 2000s presumably when it was withdrawn from units Regards Iain

Dougy Thanks very much for these. The proper in focus picture of the LXI disc (part number DB2IDE 12GB) explains a lot ! Iain

Andy 10 Base 2 is the thin coax cable ethernet with BNC connectors. I think Lauren may have identified it - the connector looks like an Amphenol HMFM Hermaphrodite fibre optic connector: http://amphenolafrica.com/cats/HMFM.pdf - whether the protocol is 100BaseFX or something more unusual I have no way to guess. Regards Iain

Rich The large 2 pin connector is marked "LAN" at http://www.thexmod.com/prod_pics/11991-2.jpg which is the back of an IARCCS machine - what kind of LAN I am unsure as I have never seen it in my day job working on Ethernet LANs for most of the last 20 years ! Regards iain

Now found the SSP printer pictures sorry - looks like it has a parallel (Centronics?) interface so need to find a pinout and make a cable to the LXI printer port. Having said that I dimly remember the printer inside those things is a fairly normal commercial mechanism and you may find a more normal connector inside as with the disk drive. Regards Iain

Hi Rich It all makes sense now I can see inside the laptop! Was there meant to be another photo with the rear connector cables ? Do you have any info on the teleprinters ? Or failing that a photo. The Clansman RTTY system operated using Baudot (5 bit code) at 75 bits/s with either +/- 80 volt signal levels for mechanical Siemens T100 printers or +/- 12V levels for more modern electronic machines. I think BATES/BMETS/LACS was ASCII (8 bit code), based on all I have seen (although I believe the actual messages over the air were binary data to a large extent). I did once have a Trend 713 teleprinter (a black electronic machine with separate dot matrix printer and keyboard units bolted to a base board) which had a connector similar to the female one on my LXI - that interface turned out to be RS232 at 300 baud and I do have notes of the pinout somewhere (not seen since moving house). Because the BATES/BMETS messages are handled by the computer and printed off line if at all there is no real need for the printer and over-the-air data rates or character encoding to be the same. Given that the LXI is a fairly normal PC compared with real BATES/BMETS or LACS machines I think the best approach is probably to make an RS232 to whatever-the-teleprinter wants interface and find some software to output messages to it. I havent tried it but I think K7TTY's program will do what you need at least on WinXP and older systems - see http://www.k7tty.com/development/software/RTTYArt.htm - you may also need a current loop interface e.g. http://www.aetherltd.com/connecting.html for an example. If the machines you have are ASCII rather than BAUDOT (8 bit rather than 5 bit code) then the PC will likely drive it directly if we can work out the wiring. We just need to find a RS232 port on the LXI now ... Regards Iain

Charlie GPS receivers themselves are just that - they receive a time signal from multiple satellites and work out your position from time differences between the signals from the different satellites. When embedded in a phone they become a security risk (if such things bother you) when photographs are tagged or location information is supplied to web sites visited by the (smart?) phone. The phone has to be on to take photos (but not necessarily connected to a network) - when accessing websites it must be connected to WiFi if not a mobile data network. Classical mobile location finding is based on information collected by cellular network base stations (towers) which need to know where you are (a) to deliver incoming calls and (b) to tell your phone to switch to the base station with the best signal as you move around. The recent NSA relevations have shown that this can be improved upon by operating a fake base station near to the target phone which can prompt it to transmit. I think the concerns about location of phones that are switched off is really more a question of "how off is off?". If the phone really hasn't got a power source (battery out or fully discharged) this electronic engineer has trouble believing that it can transmit anything harmful. Regards Iain

Hi & Welcome here

Welcome here !

I cant find it now but I remember seeing a photo showing the B47 (Larkspur) or RT353 (Clansman) mounted low down at the left side of the cab - possibly vertically or at an angle so the control panel faced upwards. As to where the TUUAM and ARFAT needed with the 353 went I have no idea. I assume that if the Stalwart was around long enough after 1976 for an official conversion programme from Larkspur to Clansman there will be an EMER available under FOI that documents it in great detail. I see Clive FV1609 and Artistsrifles said they had documentation of the Stalwart radio installation in thread http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/archive/index.php/t-21918.html - hopefully they can advise further Iain PS Congrats to Lowfat on saving at least one Stalwart; When I was young and lived on a farm I always wanted a Stalwart but as an adult I don't really have the space or the HGV license and most of my use would be on hard roads which isn't really their natural habitat

Herzlich Wilkommen in diese Forum, Oliver!

Chris The Ipswich radio club had something similar used for a 50 foot mast at SSB field days in the '80s and '90s - theirs had tapered sections about 12 feet long rather than these which appear to be parallel sided, though. It is interesting to look at the seller's other items - the 30 foot angle iron mast looks like something straight out of the hariggers site ! Regards Iain

Welcome here Iain (near Rattlesden Airfield)

Rich Will reply to PM shortly Unfortunately my funds won't stretch to an RB44 at present - maybe later this year if it's still there (or has resurfaced with a MoT and registration elsewhere ...) Regards Iain

Andy Yes, probably one per gun display, one for Clansman or Ptarmigan interface and one or two I don't understand yet (I think RA batteries are usually four guns? - I am a radio person not an artillery expert!) Regards Iain

Dear All I have now found a Pentax digital camera with shutter priority so I can make shake-free 1/30s exposures of my GEC LACS computer screens. Updated pictures are at http://www.g0ozs.org/misc/LACS/index.html and a summary of my technical findings to date are at http://www.g0ozs.org/misc/LACS/background.html Enjoy ! Iain

Pete I think the file on dumping in coal mines will be of interest to the radio community if you can publish the details. I remember a long running thread on this topic on the vintage and military amateur radio society mailing list some years ago although I doubt even if the locations are found anything can be retrieved in restorable condition Thanks & Regards Iain

Robin You will find the manuals and a breakdown of the components if you need to collect them piecemeal via e-Bay at http://www.radionerds.com/index.php/AN~GRC-7 - I was a little surprised to learn that it was in a CVRT as the manuals are dated 1950 and I would have thought the PRC-25/PRC-77/VRC-12 generation would have been the American radio of choice by the time any CVRT was built ? Regards Iain

Richard The arrival of domestic Wireless in the UK and the accumulator charging business was slightly after 1916 - the first 2MT broadcasts by Marconi at Writtle began on 14th February 1922 under the direction of Captain P.P. Eckersley following a one-off broadcast by Dame Nellie Melba from the Marconi works at Chelmsford in 1920, and the BBC began at Savoy Place in London during 1923 with the same P.P. Eckersley as chief engineer. Regards Iain