[SteveCG]

This post came about after reading the .pdfs attached to post no. 2227 in the AvoMultimeter Survey item in the forum's test equipment section. These give dates for Avominors and possibly more interestingly Universal Avominors.

It can be seen that there are quite a few dated to 1941 and 1942 - yet elsewhere it has been said that whilst AVO advertised their meters during the war they really were only available to folk and organisations involved in Government's war work.

I was wondering whether the number of these meters in civilian marking may indicate that they were issued to people whose work was such that they could not go to normal radio shops to get radios that had developed a fault repaired?

Now, we know about the secret listeners from various books that have been published over the last 20 to 30 years. They were civilians working from home with Government supplied radios listening out for possible a couple of hours each night on frequencies they were given. They were listening for morse signals from enemy agents etc. Since they were at home this work had to be kept 'hush-hush' from nosey neighbours as well as friends. So what did they do if their receiver developed a problem. A repair van turning up at their door would arouse suspicions, as would strange visitors. So after they reported the problem were they sent a repair kit is a small parcel? This parcel could easily have a small test meter in it along with parts and instructions - such as a Universal Avominor. This would be a far less conspicuous way of proving assistance to the many thousands of listeners.

Perhaps somebody may know what actually happened...