Quote:
Originally Posted by Robert Bergeron
Have you seen the size of this antennae ground spike !
My god, where did they fit all of that signals equipment in that small box ?
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The ground spike (there should be two of them) go in the "Bags, Aerial Gear", along with all the guys, pegs, both hammers, et cetera. I think they were designed to be unbreakable by squaddies, but the illustrations in the Working Instructions for the mast seem to hedge their bets on this.
I think the general rule for radio trucks is: "There is space, therefore we must FILL it". Operation on the move must have been very cramped, but once parked up and with the penthouse erected things would be a bit more comfortable.
There are two (or possibly three) versions of the insulator for the ground spike; the one you have (which has a vulcanite insulator portion), a later one with a ceramic insulator (because vulcanite was found to be a bit 'lossy' and unsuitable for the WS52 on high power), and I have a very fragile appearing ceramic one (similar to the later 27-ft mast insulators) that is definitely not squaddie resistant. The last is definitely related to the 34-ft telescopic mast because all the casting numbers match up - though it's much earlier that the usual insulators, judging by the part number on it - failed to survive normal usage and replaced by the vulcanite one?
Chris.