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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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26th Feb 2023, 1:04 pm | #1 |
Hexode
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Near Lichfield, Staffordshire, UK, most of the time and Crystal Palace, S London, some of the time..
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Wessie control box
Old age and senility is creaping up on me.
How do you remove the "knob" from the slider type volume control, so as to release the plastic front panel? I have done this in the (very) distant past but for the life of me I cannot remember.... I have tried to apply "reasonable" force! Thank you. Ian |
26th Feb 2023, 1:05 pm | #2 |
Nonode
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Spalding, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK.
Posts: 2,859
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Re: Wessie control box
Many years since I did it as well. I thought they were just a push on fit?
Maybe someone has used glue! Rob
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26th Feb 2023, 1:09 pm | #3 |
Nonode
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, UK.
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Re: Wessie control box
Think it has a detent on the pot slider which engages a spring clip in the knob. Long time ago as you both say.
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26th Feb 2023, 2:17 pm | #4 |
Hexode
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Near Lichfield, Staffordshire, UK, most of the time and Crystal Palace, S London, some of the time..
Posts: 330
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Re: Wessie control box
Aye, thats what my forgettery told me, but I have tried reasonable force, hence wondering what I had forgotten in the intervening years; so, perhaps unreasonable force is required!
My fear is pulling the slider type volume pot apart.... Cheers Ian |
26th Feb 2023, 9:50 pm | #5 |
Hexode
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Near Lichfield, Staffordshire, UK, most of the time and Crystal Palace, S London, some of the time..
Posts: 330
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Re: Wessie control box
Unreasonable force suceeded.
Thank you. Ian |
26th Feb 2023, 10:00 pm | #6 |
Nonode
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Spalding, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK.
Posts: 2,859
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Re: Wessie control box
Iŕrestible force meets an immovable object just came in my head!
The force was with you.....this time. Rob
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26th Feb 2023, 10:05 pm | #7 |
Nonode
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, UK.
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Re: Wessie control box
Obi-wan...
This has been haunting me this week. I reckon it's the hanging bracket for one. Last edited by Jon_G4MDC; 26th Feb 2023 at 10:13 pm. |
26th Feb 2023, 10:29 pm | #8 |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Greater Manchester, UK.
Posts: 18,725
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Re: Wessie control box
Curiosity has got the better of me.
What's a Wessie?
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26th Feb 2023, 11:04 pm | #9 |
Nonode
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, UK.
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Re: Wessie control box
A very fair question!
It's a Pye Westminster Radio Telephone. Made in Dash mount (with a normal front panel -as usual) but also in boot mount with a multi-way cable between the main set mounted in the boot to a much smaller control box mounted in the passenger space. Echoes of Parker, get out the Rolls, we are going for a little drive... |
26th Feb 2023, 11:05 pm | #10 |
Pentode
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Liverpool, Merseyside, UK.
Posts: 149
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Re: Wessie control box
PYE Westminster radio tranceiver they came in many frequency ranges and if memory serves 5W and 30W transmit power. generally the works were installed in a car boot and the control head under the dashboard.
Happy days Ian |
26th Feb 2023, 11:28 pm | #11 |
Octode
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: Worthing, West Sussex, UK.
Posts: 1,005
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Re: Wessie control box
Either a Westminster or a Reporter I would guess. Maybe fits others too like Olympic, Europa and Motaphone.
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27th Feb 2023, 12:05 am | #12 |
Nonode
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Spalding, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK.
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Re: Wessie control box
#7, Jon. That will fit the miniature (MC1??) Control box the Op refers to.
Also. The MH1 module housings. #11 Cruisin Marine. The radios you refer to had a rectangular slide mount, same sort of clips, but approx 150mm X 100mm with 6 fixing holes. Europa and Motafone each had a unique but much larger bracket. As well as the post #1 small control box, which was the last design, slider volume and edgewise squelch, there was a larger original rectangular control box approx 150mm X 95mm with a U shaped hanging bracket and the same control knobs as the dash mount Westminster. BTW, in my days at Pye, I never heard them called anything other than Westminster by those I worked with. The term "Wessie" I first saw referred to was I think in Practical Wireless magazine. Rob
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27th Feb 2023, 2:55 am | #13 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Greater Manchester, UK.
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Re: Wessie control box
Quote:
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27th Feb 2023, 10:33 am | #14 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: Wessie control box
Quote:
Usually mounted on the underside of a car dashboard, or the steering column shroud,the other half mounts to the control box and then it just slides together.
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27th Feb 2023, 12:07 pm | #15 |
Nonode
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Spalding, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK.
Posts: 2,859
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Re: Wessie control box
Picture here-
https://images.app.goo.gl/NwUSHNkNsNE1Dcm18 This black one is the same size as MC1 (Westminster) control box, but wired different inside and has no mute control and is fitted with a multiway connector for the remote cable. Also, note the extra yellow bulb indicator. These Radiophone were black. The boot mount Radiophone part is same size as a boot mount UHF Westminster. Model is LW15 FM However, the early version MC1 "ordinary"Westminster control boxes were blue, later ones black. The non-radiophone box had the thick control cable connected directly internally. Rob
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27th Feb 2023, 6:03 pm | #16 |
Nonode
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Spalding, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK.
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Re: Wessie control box
In that link I gave, the bottom left picture shows a pile of 4 control units.
The one on top is the original Westminster type, the one shown is multichannel. It is a "special" with TT button added to send a tone burst to enable talk through at the base station. The MC1 box is at the side. Strange that it has a blue outer fitted to the black front. I guess the black outer was damaged at some time, removed by sliding over the long cable then being replaced maybe. The edgewise mute control is visible (SQuelch) and just beyond that appears to be the spiked edge of a 10 channel rotary edgewise switch. The red and green were filament bulbs sealed in coloured plastic. Red for TX. Green for power on. The green one didn't last long! On our own van radios, most of us engineers changed the bulbs to LED. The other 2 big control boxes are a type for special system functions on large schemes, such as public transport. Quite a variation of those back in the day, each system being custom designed. Rob
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27th Feb 2023, 11:18 pm | #17 |
Nonode
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, UK.
Posts: 2,015
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Re: Wessie control box
You have kicked off a memory which was in danger of becoming submerged.
Once upon a time I did have one of those selective calling system control boxes. It has not been seen for a long time so I wonder what happened to it. I think it came from the Lea Valley Water Company. If I recall the upper half received and sent a two tone sequence which would either wake it up or register a call to control. Rather a pity that the one pictured has no knobs. I think that the channel switch was numbered and the sel-call one was lettered. I have not seen mine in very many years. (and yes the blinkin' bulbs did not last more than a few months even though I think they had 10 Ohm series resistors for inrush current suppression) Last edited by Jon_G4MDC; 27th Feb 2023 at 11:43 pm. |
28th Feb 2023, 7:00 pm | #18 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 14,009
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Re: Wessie control box
As well as the 'little box' with sliders, and the more-normal long-rectangular control-box with volume/squelch/channel and forward-facing socket for a fist-mic, there was another version: It had volume/channel/squelch but it was smaller than the usual 'PMR' Wessie control-box and was styled rather more like an early-70s car-radio. The front-plate was brushed-chrome and the knobs were matt-finished anodized aluminium.
I fitted a few of these in distinctly upmarket cars [Rolls-Royce/Bentley/Range-Rover] along with telephone-style black handsets on the tunnel-space between the driver and passenger. The handset had a cutout in the handle where a Neon bulb was fitted; there was a circuit which repeatedly flashed this if you had a missed call. The cradle had a switch so even though a 'first call' went to the loudspeaker [which I generally fitted under the passenger seat] once you lifted the handset the speaker was muted and conversation continues in privacy via the handset. I've never seen a photo of this setup, but it was an official Pye option.
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2nd Mar 2023, 11:32 am | #19 |
Nonode
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, UK.
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Re: Wessie control box
It would be good to find a photo of that one. I don't recall it.
In my time at North London Service there were plenty such coming in for Radiophone installs but by then they were System 4 and based on the FM900. It was a bit late for LW15s by then. I do have a BT Sapphire handset for my 4m FM900 though. Had to sculpt a hole in it to add a PTT button. Last edited by Jon_G4MDC; 2nd Mar 2023 at 11:55 am. |
2nd Mar 2023, 1:39 pm | #20 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 14,009
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Re: Wessie control box
The 'chrome facia' ones I remember were for the private repeaters we had, not the BT service.
[We had a high-band repeater on top of a grain-silo about 20 miles south of Oxford, and another up on the Chilterns near High Wycombe; one of our big customers was a sand/gravel business involved in building the Western side of M25 and the M40 - clearly it was a lucrative business given the amount the owner spent on prestige cars [and got me to install the radios] every year.
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