Awa fs6
 

Think this is a AWA FS6.

Hi Mike.

That set you posted looks a little more robust than this FS6 at the RAAF Museum in Townsville.

David

Cil Fletcher
 

It was interesting to see the cutting about Col. In my early days with a Z call I used to do a lot of listening on 40 meters. Col was often on the air from Eden N. S. W.. He used to put a very strong signal into my QTH .His 40M antenna was 3 half waves in phase which possiply accountd for his massive signal.
.RIP Col John VK2KZS ex VK2ZDM.

Thanks
 

Thanks John

Looking closer at Colin's set it could be a WS101, the FS6 set is just a upgraded 101 set. The FS6 has the bump on the valve cover, next to the key. The receiver in these sets performs well, I recall listening many times to the Telecom outback HF radio telephone service and the WIA Morse training sessions on 3.550 each evening , with a 6 Volt car battery on the floor ! These sets turn up for sale even today , not particularly rare . They were based on the British WS1

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/a...wireless%20set

Fs6
 

A FS6 resto: http://www.tuberadio.com/fs6/fs6.html

I read somewhere that AWA fulfilled a contract for FS6 sets for the Indian army - this would explain how some of these sets have turned up in the U.K. And the FS6 was also used by the Chindits in Burma.

Years ago, I used one of these sets to listen to the old Telecom HF telephone system, all sorts of private phone calls could be heard from outback stations.

Robust
 

Hi David,

The FS6 and the earlier W.S.101 were loosely based on the British pre-war No. 1 set. The case or housing of these Australian sets is a rather unusual construction, they used a laminated type of box structure. A middle layer of what appears to be wood is between two layers of thin brass sheet the corners are fixed with small rivets.

A fair number of these sets have survived. Some FS6 sets have tuned up in 'as new' condition. The W.S.101 production dates from 1939 to around 1941 and the FS6 from around 1942. There are files relating to these sets in the NAA system but I ain't paying for them to be scanned.

The multi pin power plug/socket connectors for these sets are a rather odd affair and the only other device I've seen with a similar connector is the AWA built Wavemeter Class C.

The RAAF museum should have a ATR2 set on display rather than the army FS6 set.

https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/5c9d791121ea690d7811cd89
 

Article
 

Article.....................

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Thanks for the interesting read, Mike.

David

Kendall
 

The specifications for the W.S.101 , the set the FS6 was based on, were written up by a Major Kendall.

Kendall was a big mover in the army signals branch pre-war

Awa
 

As far as I am aware, the only sets described in this publication that were manufactured in any great number were the 101 and the FS6, the other types were either prototypes or produced in very small quantities.

https://www.tuberadio.com/robinson/M..._Equipment.pdf

European example