g0ozs

Armoured Jeep at Landguard Fort Felixstowe yesterday

Welcome here ! Would be nice to see a radio equipped GAZ sometime soon ! Iain 73 de G0OZS

Early in my career I remember coming back to the office from the lab before lunch to find a message pad on my desk "Please call Mr. C. Lyon on 01 xxx yyyy". I duly called and spoke to a very nice telephonist at London Zoo who gently explained I had been the victim of a practical joke ......

Tony The Russian 7.62 x 54mm Maxim - usually on the Solokov wheeled carriage - remained in use and production until the end of WW2 - see Wikipedia article for "PM M1910" - the PM M1910 shares the fluted pressed steel water jacket with the Vickers, probably because it was introduced lafter the British converted to that design. The ones pictured are early, consistent with the 1941 picture date - after production resumed for WW2 the water jacket gained a filler cap on the top. The mount is not unique - there is at least one in a museum (I found it in an advert infested Imageshack page for which you can google at your own risk!) Regards Iain

The photo names translate as "Russian Quad Mount on LKW" and the date is 1941 Oct/Nov - I guess the remaining question is what kind of truck the LKW was - LKW is I think an abbreviation for "Lastkraftwagen" which translates as a motor truck with rigid frame. The sight looks like it was intended for AA use - the Germans also used the term "Vierling" for their quad 20mm AA mount.

AndyFowler It looks remarkably like a Carden-Lloyd Tankette see: http://www.milweb.net/webverts/49853/ for some good photos by Mr. Grundy

The tubular gin pole mast in Tony's picture looks very like the Ipswich Radio Club 60 foot one. We didn't have a nice truck to go with it though - just a leaky caravan Iain

I don't think I've seen a real Canadian one for sale in years. The Larkspur ones still turn up on e-Bay fairly often - I sold my last one in January. You need to search for "telescopic mast" as they are often mis-described as Clansman or not identified at all. Unlike the RACAL Clansman 8m and 12m masts they have cylindrical locks rather than levers, are made of steel rather than aluminium, and have a large bare metal "spike" about 30mm diameter at the bottom - the top is also much smaller about 1/2 inch rather than 25mm with a prominent flat disc for attaching guy ropes and wire antennas. They often have green end caps both ends if in as-released-from-service condition. Three things to be aware of is that they jam easily with side loads, there is no pneumatic braking on the way down, and the locks are unpredictable - be careful not to get fingers between them !

Actually Yesterday (16th June) - a Humber Pig heading north on the A137 at Tattingstone just before 12:30 no photo sorry !

Hi I was going to say the same as Monty2 - the Canadian telescopic mast (20 and 34 foot variants) was the prototype for the 27 foot Larkspur which is much more common. Most of the other portable masts were sectional with equal-diameter sections that plugged or screwed together end to end. I remember in my youth the Ipswich radio club had a sectional mast of that kind erected with the aid of a gin pole - similar to but not RAF type 35. You can see the rack of mast tubes on the side of many WW2 and 1950s wireless trucks. The really big masts were mostly lattice constructions see: http://www.hariggers.co.uk/odds.htm (sorry about formatting issues since using IE10 btw)

Hi I am not aware of any "Clansman Radio X into RB44 GS" EMERs having emerged into the open yet so you probably need to find someone who used a similar vehicle in service to advise. A couple of questions 1) is the GS RB44 24V or 12V ? 2) is the truck in your avatar photo the one in question - if so does the antenna base have a cylindrical metal part under the rubber ? There are two VHF setups that can be used in a vehicle with the No.31 base and cylindrical VHF adapter 1) UK/PRC-351 (or 352) with DCCU 14V (for 12v vehicles) or 28V (for 24v Vehicles) as a float charger, initiate box and TUUAM 2) UK/VRC-353 with 24v vehicle supply, ARFAT, and TUUAM But in GS 12V landrovers only the first is possible because the 353 needs a 24V supply. I dont know if that was also true for the RB44. I am fairly sure that the box body RB44s for BATES and BMETS used a 353 with DMU (encryption device) in the back. Without the photo I cant help much more - if the mounts were for a base plate approx 14 x 10 inches it was for a 353, and there will be separate locations for the ARFAT (4 x 3 inch box) and TUUAM (6 x 8 inch box approx). If the mounts were on a vertical surface and look like a pair of horizontal bars it was probably a "clip in" 351/2, In that case there will be holes for a DCCU (roughly 6 x 6 inch square), Initiate Box (approx 3" square), and the TUUAM. In either case the TUUAM should be very close to the antenna base. I can probably help you with a dead 351 with a dead battery, and an initiate box which are the visible parts of the system if you decide that's what's needed. I don't have a dead DCCU but the 14v ones in particular die often and I am sure someone will have one in "spares repair or display" condition Regards Iain 73 de G0OZS

Mark Lane has assembled an article on the "Larkspur II" harness at: http://www.royalsignals.org.uk/articles/Larkspur_manual.pdf‎ I hope this refreshes memories ! Iain

Now had a look at EMER L772 for Larkspur A harness. Para 93 gives audio socket pins on CU31 and JD8 boxes as A Audio In from Microphone B Microphone Earth C Pressel (ground to TX) D Headphone Earth E Voltage control (CU 31 Only) F Audio out to Headphone According to L772 Para 13 the microphone was 300 ohm dynamic and the headphones were 2 x 300 ohm in parallel so the radio or harness saw a load of 150 ohms. Also note that Larkspur crew boxes and commanders personal units had a volume control "Gain" which may allow some optimisation. I'd expect Clansman headgear to work OK if re-wired or connected via a home made "personal unit" in place of the Clansman pressel box. Good luck! Iain

Hi The Larkspur and Clansman Harness boxes and cabling are described at: http://wftw.nl/harnessb/harness.html (Larkspur) and http://www.ferret-afv.org/manuals/clansman_wiring_harness_and_control_boxes_description.pdf (Clansman). I assume you want to adapt a Clansman headset to fit a C or D Box. The Clansman headset has 7 pins and the connections are at: http://www.g0ozs.org/clansman/audio.shtml The microphone impedance is around 600 ohms and the headphone impedance is around 60 ohms from memory. Larkspur headsets had a 6 pin connector. I am not sure they are all the same but the EMER for station radio A13 gives A MIC B A13HP (special to that radio) not connected on headset C PRESSEL D EARTH E BATTERY (not connected on headset) F PHONES For the radio headgear connector. This is confirmed by inspection of the Station Radio A43R circuit diagram. What I don't know is the impedance of the Larkspur headphones and microphone - if very different from Clansman you may have problems with audio levels even if correctly wired. If the A13 headgear was compatible with the harness boxes I'd expect to connect the Clansman headphones in series between Larkspur F and D, and the Clansman microphone between A and ground. You will need a PTT switch between C and ground to transmit. Probably the best thing is to make up a pressel box with a clansman socket one end and a Larkspur audio cable the other. The picture at http://www.armyradio.com/arsc/customer/product.php?productid=1452&cat=84&page=1 may also be of interest. I'm not sure it is still in stock (no price) but would have been what you needed to get intercom in the Saracen. Hope this helps Iain

Hi It's a wireless set C12 - transitional from the wartime WS19/62 family to Larkspur. When was the Ferret last used as I thought these were gone from active service by the mid 1970s ? Good pictures and some info may be found at: http://www.duxfordradiosociety.org/restoration/equip/c12/ws-c12.html and you can find the manuals at: http://www.vmarsmanuals.co.uk/archive/1874_C12_User_Manual.pdf http://www.vmarsmanuals.co.uk/archive/659_C12_EMER_H142_Part1.pdf http://www.vmarsmanuals.co.uk/archive/660_C12_EMER_H142_Part2.pdf I am sure you will find someone local to you who can refurbish it if required - VMARS (the Vintage & Military Amateur Radio Society) or the WS No.19 Yahoo group would be good places to start. As an HF receiver it should still work adequately - you would need an Amateur Radio license to use it as a 2 way radio and I suspect it would really need to be used for morse code as modern short wave speech transmissions arent really compatible. Regards Iain

Baz No problem I'll read up on the GRC-9 (my knowledge is more the TR-PP-13 / PRC-77 type French radios and UK Clansman) and bring some test kit and manuals. Do you have any ID on the intercom boxes so I can research them ? Ideally I'd want to power up the GRC-9 on the bench first to wind up the HT in stages rather than hit it with full output of the dynamotor from the start - some components do need to be "re formed" gently after an extended period of storage to avoid expensive noises and smells ... you may want to find someone locally who can help with that in advance of W&P ? Regards Iain

The Suffolk Show this week was £20 for adults and an extra £5 to park, my neighbours told me. Much smaller and much less fun than W&P so I will be happy to pay £18.50. I just hope I can get there and back in a day and see everything I want to (my daughter's holiday club opens at 8 and closes at 6 so the extra 30 miles each way is an hour less on site .... ) Iain

Hi If you can wait til W&P Mike Buckley M1CCF and Carol Spicer G4??? (http://www.combatradio.org.uk/) usually have a pitch near the M0VOG HF radio station. It used to be beside the main road at Beltring - where they will be at the new place I don't yet know. Worth contacting Carol to see what she has or what Mike can bring - usually no shortage of Larkspur boxes, cables and antennas but I think they are low on radios now. Mike really is worth talking to about how to plumb it together anyway. Regards Iain

Congratulations on completing the restoration - it looks really great - hopefully I will find you at Beltring this year Iain

Alien The combinations were 353 - ARFAT - TUAAM - VHF base - Base No 31 - 2m rod 352 - initiate - TUAAM - VHF base - base No 31 - 2m rod 321 - TURF25W - base No. 31 - 2 to 4m of rods 321 - Amp 250W - TURF 250w - various antennas The ARFAT is only used with the 353 - it is a switched power attenuator used to protect the 353 and TUAAM from a mismatched antenna in high power transmit following a frequency change until after the TUAAM has had time to match. It is needed because the TUAAM was originally part of the Racal product family that includes the 351/352 but the 353 can produce much more power. I expect that there was a Marconi tuner intended for the 353 that never made it into service leading to the use of the ARFAT to enable 353 to work with TUAAM but I have never seen documentary proof of that. The 321 never had an auto tuner in the Clansman range - MEL did make one intended for the 321 although I was less than impressed with the one I tested and I wouldn't have bought it either! Regards Iain

Arnie I have a lifetimes supply of untested ARFATs - PM me off list to sort something. I can probably do the 12 way cable let me know what length you need Regards Iain

I'm not sure it is necessarily how it was done (I don't have a military background) but the 6-battery slow charger for the 349 could easily have been mounted alongside the DCCU in this photo elsewhere on the forum: http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/attachment.php?attachmentid=57594&d=1329576885&thumb=1 The charger itself can be seen at http://www.armyradio.com/arsc/customer/product.php?productid=1591&cat=121&page=1 Alternatively you could (rather excessively for just a 349) mount an IBMS smart charger with the combined 349/350/351 battery charging plate on top as seen in this photo http://www.armyradio.com/arsc/skin1/images/LR-RadDemo.jpg Hope this helps Iain

Hi The "correct" way to do it is the 6 way 349 battery slow charger plate powered from a 12V (GS Vehicles) or 24V (FFR and heavy vehicles) DCCU - normally in a FFR the DCCU was fitted to the dexion above the bulkhead and the charger plate fitted to the bench. I think you could mount the 349 slow charger plate on the dexion as the batteries are secured to it while charging. Photos to follow later ... Regards Iain 73 de G0OZS

What length replacement do you need ? I probably have something I can let you have for postage. Iain (Trying to decode "RBJ")

E-Bay item 251002797394 is more like it (although physically too big). Linear PSUs tend to be costly