Wessie control box

[sentinel040]

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

[CambridgeWorks]

Many years since I did it as well. I thought they were just a push on fit?
Maybe someone has used glue!
Rob

[Jon_G4MDC]

Think it has a detent on the pot slider which engages a spring clip in the knob. Long time ago as you both say.

[sentinel040]

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

[sentinel040]

Unreasonable force suceeded.

Thank you.

Ian

[CambridgeWorks]

Iŕrestible force meets an immovable object just came in my head!
The force was with you.....this time.
Rob

[Jon_G4MDC]

Obi-wan...

This has been haunting me this week. I reckon it's the hanging bracket for one.

[Graham G3ZVT]

Curiosity has got the better of me.

What's a Wessie?

[Jon_G4MDC]

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...

[g8jzyian]

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

[Cruisin Marine]

Originally Posted by Jon_G4MDC

Obi-wan...

This has been haunting me this week. I reckon it's the hanging bracket for one.

Either a Westminster or a Reporter I would guess. Maybe fits others too like Olympic, Europa and Motaphone.

[CambridgeWorks]

#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

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by Jon_G4MDC

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...

Thanks, I had an AM10B (Cambridge) on 2m in my first car. I thought you were talking about some piece of avionics on a Wessex!!

[G6Tanuki]

Originally Posted by Jon_G4MDC

Obi-wan...

This has been haunting me this week. I reckon it's the hanging bracket for one.

It's a slide-plate for the control-box.

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.

[CambridgeWorks]

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

[CambridgeWorks]

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

[Jon_G4MDC]

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)

[G6Tanuki]

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.

[Jon_G4MDC]

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.

[G6Tanuki]

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.