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Dear All I have for sale a set of top and bottom clamps for the RACAL 8 and 11m light duty (3 inch base tube) masts. This set are in fairly good cosmetic condition and are complete except for the small (and easily fabricated) block that holds the upper clamp to a flat surface. As I have a defender rather than series landrover these aren't what I need and are therefore offered for sale. I have seen one (that didn't sell) on E-Bay at £250 BiN recently - as I recall I paid around £50 and will be happy to get that back plus postage. I think they will cost around £15 to send by Parcelforce to the UK mainland. Buyers can also collect from me in IP14 or I can deliver in Suffolk or nearby. If there are no offers I will list it for a wider audience on E-Bay after 14th May. More pictures at http://www.moffatig.com/forsale/2017-04/racal-clamp-full/ Iain

Dear All I have for sale a used RACAL 8M rigging kit for the 8m mast. This kit comprises Bag 3 each upper lower and middle ropes Radius Line Base Plate 2 Base plate pins 3 angle guy stakes Hammer Adapter for Clansman rods Base insulator Photocopied instructions I am happy to offer these for £60 plus postage (which will be £24 via Parcelforce to the UK mainland) - buyers can also collect from me in IP14 or I can deliver in Suffolk, North Essex, South Norfolk, or east of Cambridge. Please see http://www.moffatig.com/forsale/2017-04/racal-kit-2/ for pictures Please contact me by PM here in the first instance. If not sold by 14th May they will be offered to a wider audience on e-Bay Iain

Dear All I have for sale a used RACAL 8M rigging kit for the 8m mast. This kit comprises Bag 3 each upper lower and middle ropes Radius Line Base Plate 2 Base plate pins 3 angle guy stakes Hammer Adapter for Clansman rods Base insulator Photocopied instructions I am happy to offer these for £60 plus postage (which will be £24 via Parcelforce to the UK mainland) - buyers can also collect from me in IP14 or I can deliver in Suffolk, North Essex, South Norfolk, or east of Cambridge. Please see http://www.moffatig.com/forsale/2017-04/racal-kit-1/ for pictures Please contact me by PM here in the first instance. If not sold by 14th May they will be offered to a wider audience on e-Bay Iain

Re-adding the image with a thumbnail sorry

This listing is for a RACAL 716 light duty Clansman 8m mast with a top cover that was intended for something bigger and a base spike. No rigging is included but kits are offered as separate listings. Please see http://www.moffatig.com/forsale/2017...al-716-mast-2/ for photos. Based on recent listings on e-Bay that sold the going rate there is about £180 - I am happy to offer this one here for £160 due to lesser fees (even after a contribution to forum costs). This one is in slightly worse condition with some scuffing at the bottom of one section but it still slides OK. I can deliver locally in Suffolk, North Essex, or South Norfolk or post within the UK using Parcelforce - the collapsed length is 146cm so just under the limit for standard Parcelforce 48. Based on a packed weight under 15KG I think it will be £24 for the UK mainland. This example is in fair condition and collapses and extends smoothly but has been scuffed on the . I will include a photocopy of the erection instructions that was found in one of the rigging kits. I will offer it on e-Bay if not sold here by the 14th May, and add the e-Bay number to this message if that happens. Please contact me by PM to make an offer or arrange a viewing Iain 73 de G0OZS

Dear All I have for sale a RACAL 8M telescopic mast type 716 with an original top cover and a bottom spike. No rigging is included but kits are offered as separate listings. Please see http://www.moffatig.com/forsale/2017-04/racal-716-mast-1/ for photos. Based on recent listings on e-Bay that sold the going rate there is about £180 - I am happy to offer them here for £170 due to lesser fees (even after a contribution to forum costs). I can deliver locally in Suffolk, North Essex, or South Norfolk or post within the UK using Parcelforce - the collapsed length is 146cm so just under the limit for standard Parcelforce 48. Based on a packed weight under 15KG I think it will be £24 for the UK mainland. This example is in good condition and collapses and extends smoothly. I will include a photocopy of the erection instructions that was found in one of the rigging kits. I will offer it on e-Bay if not sold here by the 14th May, and add the e-Bay number to this message if that happens. Please contact me by PM to make an offer or arrange a viewing Iain 73 de G0OZS

Nick Welcome here ! Iain

The same chap has a ULS-16 16 way analogue telephone exchange - although he has started the auction at about twice what mine sold for in 2013 ! All I know of the VRQ301 is the VMARS article at http://www.vmarsmanuals.co.uk/newsletter_articles/prc351pt2.pdf Regards Iain

Bob I have never seen the BID 300 - two of my 351M sets came with the holder for it which is a metal clamp that would have held an object about the size of a VHS cassette on the back of the radio. The audio bandwidth through the radio on socket 2 is expanded from 300Hz-3KHz to about 150Hz - 8500Hz (I have measured it on the bench) so would be enough for 16Kbits/s CVSD. Regards Iain 73 de G0OZS

Bob Different application - the BID-250 (and the less well documented BID300 for the UK/PRC-351M) was used for secure speech on VHF nets using 16KBits/s CVSD digital encoding followed by non-trivial encryption (and requires 8KHz bandwidth in a UK/VRC-353 using "wide data" mode or a UK/PRC-351M using audio socket 2) - the HF UK/PRC-320 and 319 are always limited to 3 KHz or so could not support encrypted digital speech using 1970s technology so they use data terminals for encrypted "text message" communications - initially the RACAL TDED or the Cossor DMHD - later the 319 EMU. I only have practical experience of the EMU which is not itself encrypted - the message needs to be encrypted and then encoded into numeric form by "pencil and paper" methods before it is keyed in. The main reason for using them - especially if deployed in hazardous locations - is to reduce time on air compared with sending the same hand-encrypted message using morse - the EMU sends at 75, 150 and 300 Baud - up to 45 Baudot (5 bit) characters per second or 9 5 digit groups per second, whereas a good CW operator will send 30 5-character groups per minute by hand. This was sufficient to defeat swept-tuned scanning receivers and manually coordinated direction finding in the 1960s and 1970s - by the late 1980s I doubt it would have been safe in the presence of near-instantaneous FFT spectrum analysers with automatic handoff to a DF system, so modern (RACAL Panther, Marconi Scimitar and more modern sets like Bowman) frequency hop many times per second to avoid detection. See: http://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/uk/bid250/index.htm http://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/racal/ma4450/index.htm Regards Iain

Welcome here !

See last page of http://static.premiersite.co.uk/66117/docs/6368193_2.pdf (not mine) for diagram

Bob It is the first time I have ever seen one properly - there is a line drawing of the "Digital Message Handling Device" in the UK/PRC-319 AESP which looks the same size and shape with only the RH keyboard installed - the 1984 date on the label of this item is about 5 years before the 319 so a very interesting item to fill the gap between UK/PRC-316 with the clockwork AN/GRA-71 burst sender and the 319. I suppose the 2nd keyboard was a factory option - because of tooling costs it would make sense for a low volume product to use a common casting for the case in all variants but not cut the keyboard aperture(s) on variants that don't need it. The keyboard shown is sufficient to match the early versions of the 319 EMU and I suppose the 2nd keyboard was either alphabetic or application specific (e.g. for artillery use) if fitted Cossor were already a Raytheon subsidiary by 1984 so I suppose it is one of the last things branded as such. Iain

Robin If you have the original URL and it was a public website the wayback machine (http://www.archive.org) may have archived some of it Iain

Dean Welcome here. Hopefully work you on 4 or 6 from here when the time comes ! Iain 73 de G0OZS

Neil Yes - formally EVHF informally a Pineapple. Clansman Green was Matt Deep Bronze Green See: http://www.hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?10293-Paint-any-colour-BS-or-RAL Having said that the links on the page are both defunct - deep Bronze Green is BS381 No. 224 at http://www.e-paint.co.uk/BS381%20Colourchart.asp - it should be distinctly less "grey" than the NATO green BS 381 No. 285 and distinctly less "yellow" than Olive Green No. 220 - having said that on my LCD screen viewing angle makes more difference to the colours - certainly more than there is difference between them at some angles - than I would like so you really need a printed colour chart from a paint store to be sure of a match. Regards Iain

Hi ISAF was the International Security Assistance Force - the NATO mission to Afghanistan, so the label may be more to do with where it was used. Clarks generally used a 6mm braided nylon rope - paracord will do the job but doesn't "look right" as it is of different construction Regards Iain

It was a simple mechanical implementation of a substitution cipher table see: http://chris-intel-corner.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/the-british-syko-cipher-device.html, http://jproc.ca/crypto/syko_sd2.html and http://jproc.ca/crypto/syko_manual.pdf - it was used by the RAF - on the same level of (in) security as Army SLIDEX I think Hope this helps Iain

Welcome here from another radio operator who came to military vehicles through field day radio Iain 73 de G0OZS

Gareth 10 Bar is good - my best SUMB achieved that. The manual seems to be now available as a PDF at: http://armytrucks.free.fr/cariboost_files/tm/MAT4155.pdf - Brakes ("Freins") start from PDF page 114 / original page 118 onwards. The version I had was JPEG scans of individual pages but I can't find it six or seven years on ! Also the drivers manual http://armytrucks.free.fr/cariboost_files/tm/MAT2719%20.pdf The site I remembered is http://r2087.free.fr/new/pages.php3?num=138 but I cant find the manuals there now Sorry Iain

You shouldn't need to run the engine as the hydraulic system is isolated from the air system and works as a pure oil system with the engine off. If you have a pressure bleeder I think it is enough to hold the pedal down - if you are working by keeping the reservoir topped up and pumping via the pedal (as I had to) it may make the work of pressurising the pipes to the wheel cylinders easier if there is air assist though! I've been going back through my files. There is a list of Bendix Air-Pak type numbers at: http://precisionrebuilders.com/pdf_catalogs/VacCatalogPHB-0398.pdf page 80 I think the SUMB uses the same Bendix parts as the American M35 2.5 ton truck in the main although the air-pak (SUMB looks more like the 5 ton US Army one) and master cylinder (the M35 one has an integrated reservoir) are not identical the operating principle of the single circuit air over hydraulic brakes is the same ! If you can identify the Bendix part number for the Air-Pak then it is quite likely that you can still get a rebuild kit for the equivalent US Army part (and a decent drawing from their technical manual!) from American e-bay sellers. The very similar M35 Reo system is described from page 304 onwards of http://www.jatonkam35s.com/DeuceTechnicalManuals/TB-9-2300-426-20.pdf - they suggest that the air-pak (and implicitly the pipework from the reservoir through the master cylinder to the air pak) is bled first followed by the wheels, starting with the one furthest (in terms of pipe length) from the Air-Pak which will be Right rear I think. A couple of things to test 1) There are pressure relief valves under the air cylinders which should release air if pushed in from below (use a metal tool not a finger!) - looking at Fig. 58 I think the rear air tank feeds the diff lock and the trailer air brakes, whereas the front air tank feeds the air pak cylinder. So I would expect the diff lock lever air leak to only affect the rear tank and not the brakes if the non-return valve (No. 20 in the diagram) is OK. 2) If you press the brake pedal after the engine is turned off you should hear and feel the air cylinder firing after the pedal is depressed by 20%-30% - if the original brake switch was intermittent then there may be a lack of fluid at the brake end of the slave hydraulic cylinder of the air pak - this may be helped by bleeding. If I remember correctly the brakepipes to the wheels come off the end of the piston tube near the switch so you may be able to disconnect and check hydraulic pressure there, It is a single circuit system so it is necessary to be very careful as a leak can affect all four wheels and the hand brake is not strong enough to stop the vehicle (one of mine was so worn that it rolled off the transporter with the handbrake on!). Iain

Gareth I think the French automotive vocabulary is a separate subject to GCSE French ! I got the pages from a public French website many years ago (r2087.free.fr I think) and had some help from a then colleague who was French and had done national service - any copyright probably belongs to the French Government (their MATs are equivalent to our EMERs and AESPs) so I think it would be safe to post a translation Regards Iain

Diagrams from MAT4155 (the French Army service manual) attached PS I don't speak French - Google Translate is not great at technical translations so you would be best to find a native speaker !

I am aware of at least one other 320/2 setup still active in Lincolnshire. I don't think they were ever adopted by British forces but were made for export - I'm not sure whether there were ever any large orders. Both Plessey and RACAL marketed Clansman derived and more advanced sets commercially in the 1980s - the 320/2 competes more with the RT321/322 in the vehicle and fixed station role. I have once seen a partial chassis that had been stripped for spares - I believe that the set is electronically similar to but not the same as the standard 320 - it sacrifices the 100Hz decade switch to make room for an extra (LSB) IF filter inside. Hope this helps Iain 73 de G0OZS

Gareth I'll see if I can convert the diagram from the manual into a form I can post here. The way it works is that it is basically a hydraulic system with master and slave cylinders so if the engine is off and you depress the brake pedal it operates the master cylinder in the engine compartment which in turn operates the slave cylinder below and behind the driver's seat - the slave cylinder in turn forces oil into the wheel cylinders, but it is very very heavy to operate in that mode (there must actually be a bypass of the slave cylinder as the system can be filled only from the reservoir above the master cylinder). If the engine is running the compressor charges the air tank to 6-8 atmospheres pressure in around 40 to 60 seconds, and when the air system is pressurised there is a valve operated by movement of the slave cylinder which releases air into a piston above the slave cylinder which assists the brake application. If working properly light pressure on the brake pedal is sufficient to trigger the air and the brakes are then applied fully and immediately. The air tank should hold enough pressure for 2 or 3 applications of the brakes for at least a fortnight after the engine is switched off. The main issue I had with mine was leaking seals in the wheel cylinders which aren't very apparent until the brake drums are removed and the fluid traces are visible - fortunately they appear to be a common Bendix type (the SUMB replaced american vehicles in French service and I guess they wanted common spares) and they appear to be the same (from memory 34.5mm diameter) ones used in some American vehicles - seal kits and spare wheel cylinders for the M35 REO 2.5 ton truck are the same size. Two other things to note from my experience 1) the brake lights are operated by a pressure switch on the back end of the slave cylinder which is badly exposed to mud, water and salt from the road. If it fails (mine did) you can't replace it except by letting fluid out when it is removed. I fitted a microswitch on the pedal rather than do that ! It also only operates if the slave cylinder achieves full travel (which only happens when air assisted unless you stand on the pedal) so is very much a signal of success in braking rather than the intention to brake! 2) The hand brake is not very effective and it is very easy to drive off with it applied. The hand brake is a rod operated drum brake on the back of the transfer box. If this happens it will both wear the brake shoes and get the drum very hot - this produces enough heat to boil the oil in the transfer box and blow it past the seals on the input shaft to the transfer box after a few miles - this is very messy and needs the drive shaft disconnecting to replace the seal. I think you may find it helps with filling to cycle the slave cylinder by repeated applications of the brake pedal - I had to move one that had drained out its fluid via a wheel cylinder seal over 2 years of abandonment and I was able to get enough fluid into the cylinders that way to move and drive it on a recovery vehicle after topping up the reservoir and pressing the pedal a lot of times. Hope this helps Iain