[David Dunlop]

Gina.

I am a little fuzzy about the variations in the Stuart family. Does your model have the short sponsons, originally intended for machine guns, or the later stretched sponsons?

I believe the British discovered the machine gun idea was ineffective fairly quickly and did away with them, utilizing the space for extra storage, one item in particular being the location of the 19-Set in the right side sponson. Early Stuarts also had no turret bustle at the back, so no space at all there for the wireless to go.

You have correctly identified a critical problem when installing a wireless set in an armoured vehicle with a turret. The set and the aerials must all be located in the same place: hull or turret. No cross overs allowed.

The A-Set (HF) is the longer of the two for the 19-Set so if the set goes in the right sponson on the hull, the A-Set aerial must be located somewhere on the hull to clear the traverse of the main gun. The curved plate location you described makes sense. Also, the A-Set aerial system is very tolerant of differing transmission cable lengths from set to aerial. The variometer solves that problem.

With the B-Set (VHF), however, distance from set to aerial is critical to the extreme. The B-Set transmission cables are tuned lengths and must not ever be cut. If memory serves, they come in three lengths only, the longer two being multiples in length of the shortest one and all are directly related to the wavelength the B-Set operates on. Long story short, the B-Set aerial must be installed on the hull, somewhere in close proximity to where the 19-Set is installed.

I have a photo somewhere of either a British or Canadian Stuart with the short sponsons and the B-Set aerial system is installed on the outer edge of the right front fender, directly in front of the sponson. Interestingly, the mounting for the No. 9 Base is not the typical heavy steel pipe with the square four hole base plate. It is the two to three foot tall small steel tube type mount. This mount sports a large round rubber cylinder shaped base with a circular steel plate at the bottom, which I believe is drilled with the same hole pattern as the Mounting No. 8 for the HF aerial. The top of the steel tube has the fitting for the B-Set aerial, Mounting No. 9. The angle of the photo is a bit low, but it looks as if the height of the aerial mount needed brings the base of the aerial to a point close the the top plate of the turret. The B-Set aerial must be fitted high enough to clear the main steel mass of the vehicle, otherwise the signal gets blocked.

Hope this helps a bit, Gina.

David