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Vintage Amateur and Military Radio Amateur/military receivers and transmitters, morse, and any other related vintage comms equipment.

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Old 26th Sep 2022, 11:00 am   #1
greenstar
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Default Please ID modified military unit

Hi, I found this wonderful thing yesterday at BVWS Biggleswade, a great event.
At first sight a homebrew sig gen or wavemeter. But it is superbly built and engineered - the fitting of the case is unbelievably precise. Looks like a modified military item. Maybe it is unchanged, but the sticky label panel labels suggest it has, and there is no manufacturer or services badge I can see.
I'd like to know what it was/is if anyone knows.
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Old 26th Sep 2022, 1:40 pm   #2
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Default Re: Please ID modified military unit

That tuning scale/drive was used in some wavemeters, the most common being the W1191, so maybe another type or some ancillary unit.

Lawrence.
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Old 26th Sep 2022, 2:14 pm   #3
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Default Re: Please ID modified military unit

Meter is the type used on some army sets such as the WS18 transceiver.
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Old 26th Sep 2022, 2:49 pm   #4
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Default Re: Please ID modified military unit

The meter is definitely intrinsic to the unit. The cut out for it is amazingly exact! The box is aluminium, so perhaps RAF? When I first saw this under the B&B table I thought, a bodge job. But the more I look, the more I appreciate the level of careful construction. For example, the case is of ally panels held by 'L' shaped brackets. The back of the case is held on with 20 small ba screws. The holes for the screws are the exact size, no wriggle room, yet they all pop into place perfectly!
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Old 26th Sep 2022, 4:49 pm   #5
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Default Re: Please ID modified military unit

I can not believe that this is anything other than a well constructed bit of home brew. If it was military kit, I would have expected engraved os silk-screen ledgends for the controls and a plate giving part number/mod record, etc.
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Old 26th Sep 2022, 5:49 pm   #6
its ur aerial
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Default Re: Please ID modified military unit

I think I am also of the opinion its very well made Home Brew, of some years ago.

Ken G6HZG.
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Old 26th Sep 2022, 8:32 pm   #7
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Default Re: Please ID modified military unit

I find it hard to believe somebody can be so fanatical about accuracy of construction for a one off. The case is plate aluminium, the edges at 45 degrees meet exactly, the screws, six top and bottom of the panel, and similarly on the sides, far more than needed, where they have countersunk heads, exactly countersunk, dead flat to the surface. Yet it has sticky labels crudely written and odd knobs. VR 65's inside. I imagine there was a huge range of kit made for the military, so perhaps not possible to tie it in with anything, but I still feel it likely started off as something manufactured and had some mods later on. I will make up some decent panel labels at least.

Last edited by greenstar; 26th Sep 2022 at 8:40 pm.
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Old 26th Sep 2022, 11:14 pm   #8
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Default Re: Please ID modified military unit

I have met a " few auld English gentlemen " that built kit exactly using those perhaps OTT measuremets and accuracy. They all hailed from the area of wales. It must be one of their things.

It is a delight to see meticulously engineered stuff, which just seemed to have fitted with their general construction practices, something that today is fading away fast. PK screws, or worst of all, rivets in a front panel , meter holes cut witha blunt broadaxe.

VERY nice bit of "junk " to add to the pile

Joe
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Old 27th Sep 2022, 9:16 am   #9
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Default Re: Please ID modified military unit

I wonder if it was a 'trade test' piece made by a RAF technician? Base workshops typically had things like guillotines, flypresses, folding machines and the things used to notch corners before folding a chassis. To qualify as a technician you had to do trade tests which typically involved fault finding, soldering, and metalwork. Some of the things made as test pieces were of amazing quality, indistinguishable from commercial stuff. And it was not unknown for such things to leak out from Base workshops and into the ham radio world.... As my late father could testify.
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Old 27th Sep 2022, 10:08 am   #10
lesmw0sec
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Default Re: Please ID modified military unit

Quote:
Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
I wonder if it was a 'trade test' piece made by a RAF technician? Base workshops typically had things like guillotines, flypresses, folding machines and the things used to notch corners before folding a chassis. To qualify as a technician you had to do trade tests which typically involved fault finding, soldering, and metalwork. Some of the things made as test pieces were of amazing quality, indistinguishable from commercial stuff. And it was not unknown for such things to leak out from Base workshops and into the ham radio world.... As my late father could testify.
Indeed - there used to be quite a bit of such 'leakage' particularly in the region of HiFi kit which emanated from our instrument workshops at UKAEA in the 60's! You can make a first class front panel with access to an engraving machine...
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Old 27th Sep 2022, 11:11 am   #11
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Default Re: Please ID modified military unit

I doubt G6Tanuki, if it was a trade test piece by a wartime or post-war RAF Wireless/Radio technician. The ally chassis & cabinet work is certainly of a high standard, but sticky paper labels would be a definite no-no. Proper lettering punches would've been used. This is what we were still being taught in the early 60's at RAF Cosford, & I continued to teach when I became an instructor in 1970. We were still teaching the use of guillotines & folding presses, etc. back then.
Radio trades training during the war, and since, was not done in "Base Workshops" but initially at RAF Halton & also at a temp. training base near Blackpool. After the war, Boy Entrant training moved from Halton to Cosford, and Apprentice training moved to Locking. RAF Yatesbury did NS & fitter's courses. Eventually, by the mid 60's, all Avionics training was shoehorned into Cosford, & remains so today.
If AM &/or WD reference numbers cannot be traced to a specific item, then it might just be a jolly well-made homebrew wavemeter from the 1950's.

Regards, David
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Old 27th Sep 2022, 11:16 am   #12
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Default Re: Please ID modified military unit

Wavemeter converted into a signal generator, perhaps?

THe dial scales are high quality. So the wavemeter coils could preserve scale accuracy.

David
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Old 27th Sep 2022, 10:31 pm   #13
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Default Re: Please ID modified military unit

The items which caught my eye were the "Wearite" coils . I used to get mine from "E & D's" Radio shop , in Watergate St. ,,when still at school -- in the mid 1950's .

Happy days !

Laurie .
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Old 28th Sep 2022, 9:59 am   #14
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Default Re: Please ID modified military unit

Indeed Domestic radio coils, have a box full here out of scrap radios.
It's nicely made but probably re-purposed ex military equipment.
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Old 28th Sep 2022, 11:07 am   #15
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Default Re: Please ID modified military unit

The trade piece idea sounds good. Whever made it didn't label the panel, whch is interesting, so the idea of a high quality one off sounds likely. Then perhaps a new owner added sticky paper labels. There seems nothing under them. The lack of engraved labeling does seem to discount military production items. Unless it had labels that have been removed for repurposing.
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