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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 1st Jan 2007, 11:21 pm   #1
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Default Pye Bantam Glider Radio

Can anyone point me in the direction of a source of information for Pye transmit / receive equipment as used in gliders and light aircraft from around the 1950's? Does anyone have a set to dispose of?

Thanks,
Robert
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Old 2nd Jan 2007, 8:33 pm   #2
Ed_Dinning
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Default Re: Pye Bantam Glider Radio

Hi Robert, I believe Pye Bantams were used by the police and others in the 60's/70's. The ones I knew were about the size of a cigar box and mounted in a leather case with shoulder strap. I believe there were both low and high band versions. Perhaps Biggles may know more about these as he works in comms.

Ed
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Old 2nd Jan 2007, 9:09 pm   #3
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Default Re: Pye Bantam Glider Radio

Have you tried the Pye Museum at http://www.pyetelecomhistory.org/index.html

Their contact details are at the bottom of the web page. I'm sure they'll be able to advise if you can't find what you're looking for on their website.

If you still draw a blank, please PM me. I know a local radio amateur, G8EPR, who is an acknowledged Pye expert and runs a small private museum/collection of his own.

Regards,

Phil
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Old 2nd Jan 2007, 11:39 pm   #4
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Default Re: Pye Bantam Glider Radio

Hello Robert
I think I have one or two sets and I know that I have a service manual too.
mvh
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Old 8th Jan 2007, 4:21 pm   #5
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Default Re: Pye Bantam Glider Radio

I've got a few of these in various states of decay but they are low band AM and would not be easy to convert to airband frequencies. I think I may have some service info around also but I haven't seen it for a while. Saying that I never throw anything away so it'll probably be in a safe corner somewhere. If you could get hold of a set I may be able to find you some parts. These sets were used by the Police and Mountain Rescue etc, and use germanium technology.

Biggles.
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Old 10th Jan 2007, 9:32 pm   #6
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Default Re: Pye Bantam Glider Radio

Were these by any chance named "Pocket-phones"?
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Old 10th Jan 2007, 10:17 pm   #7
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Default Re: Pye Bantam Glider Radio

No. The PF1 pocket phones were compact transmitters and receivers which could be fitted in the pocket.

Bantams were much larger. About 8" x 6" x 2" and had to be carried in a shoulder strap. I don't recollect the police using them.
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Old 10th Jan 2007, 11:33 pm   #8
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Default Re: Pye Bantam Glider Radio

I think Zulu is thinking of the PF3 and PF70 series, which were body worn. The police had lots of them (first of the lapel handset type).

The Bantam was quite popular, and saw a lot of use with public bodies. There is a true airband version, as opposed to most of the glider sets, which were retuned from other bands (I still occasional get request for Westminster bits from glider pilots, though I think that these are only used on the ground now).

Jim.
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Old 11th Jan 2007, 12:28 am   #9
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Default Re: Pye Bantam Glider Radio

No the one's I am talking about were around 9" X 4" X 2". The aerial was a wire that ran up the shoulder strap and they had a hand held mic/speaker attached. The had a detachable Ni-Cad battery but the stupid charger base did not do a discharge/charge cycle just a straight charge as soon as the battery was plugged into the unit. This resulted in lots of battery "memory" problems with these set. I can remember walking around with two spare batteries in my pockets to get me through to my meal break!
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Old 11th Jan 2007, 1:26 pm   #10
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Default Re: Pye Bantam Glider Radio

The name Pocketfone was used more than once for personal radios. I think the PF70's which we used were bigger than PF1's, which were the first "pocketfone" I just missed the PF1 era, but recollect that they had a blue case, were two seperate units, a transmitter and a receiver, and if I can remember correctly were about 6"x1"x2". They used the yellow PP3 rechargeable nicads. The next sets we had were Burndept BE470's, but now I'm going off topic a bit so I'll stop..

Biggles.
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Old 11th Jan 2007, 8:42 pm   #11
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Default Re: Pye Bantam Glider Radio

Memory flash! The one I remember was a "Dymar (SP?) Pocket Phone".
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Old 15th Jan 2007, 1:42 pm   #12
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Default Re: Pye Bantam Glider Radio

The only Dymars we had were used by mountain rescue. These were quite a long handportable, black in colour, with a remote speaker mic. I can't remember what the model was, but I found them quite difficult to repair.

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Old 15th Jan 2007, 5:22 pm   #13
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Default Re: Pye Bantam Glider Radio

Are we getting away from the original posters request here
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