W.S.122 Australia

[Mike K]

These sets were reasonably common finds at swap meets. I used to buy these for around $30.

A difficult set to repair. Too much was crammed onto a single chassis making access very difficult.

The author, Rod Champness, sadly passed on recently.

As far as I understand, these 122 sets were on issue during the last months of WW2. All of the examples I have seen have production dates of 1945.

A vast improvement on the British 22 set . I spent many hours on air with a 122 set , best contacts were two US stations on CW. The transmitter could be XTAL locked.

The PVC insulated wiring was a bonus for tropical conditions . The army, frustrated with poor performing earlier sets i.e. the W.S. 11 (Aust.) tested the Aust. 22 and 122 sets thoroughly and they were impressed. Special moisture resistant wax sealing compounds were developed for the delicate RF coils and the set was dunked in water tanks , blown off with air and turned on. A salient feature of this set is the very low power consumption on receive standby. The receiver also has good band spread.

A few errors in Rod's article: "Originally, the 122 came into use around 1942" not correct.