11 Set stuff

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by cletrac

I found another No 3 connector for my Aerial Unit C so now I can make the connector that hooks onto the set. This screenshot off the Erection of the 11 Set video shows the leads on that connector being about a foot long. Where would I get some of those wire ends that they show?
I got looking at my NOS aerial unit and it's made by PT&EW Co. What does that stand for?

PT&EW was Phoenix Telephone and Electrical Works Ltd. Bought out by a consortium in 1960, see http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Phoenix...Electric_Works

The wire for the connector is Cable, Electric, P13 (I think - they used that on the earlier Aerial Units A & B) and the connectors for the ends are "Lug, special, No.1". (They're a nickel-plated brass spade connector with a screw-on plastic (bakelite or ebonite, I think) sleeve. The end of the cable is bared, wrapped around the groove in the threaded lug and then fixed in place be screwing on the sleeve.) Another of the "Multi-Purpose Parts" that stayed in service for a very long time. They fit the spring loaded terminals on various equipment, and also fit screw-down terminals.

Chris.

[Joe C]

Came across this picture in my collection showing what looks to be a complete WS No. 11 Ground Station set up for wireless training.

http://www.rcsigs.ca/index.php/File:..._WS_No._11.jpg

[cletrac (RIP)]

I got this Aerial Unit C off Kevin and you couldn't see through the ammeter glass. I took the meter cover apart and it has two thin layers of glass with a piece of clear plastic between them. The plastic had deteriorated so it wasn't clear anymore. I cleaned stuff up and left out the plastic and it looks good now. My question is "Why would they make it like this? A single layer of glass should have been sufficient I would think.

[Grant Bowker]

Laminated glass like auto windshields that also sometimes go opaque in the plastic layer?

[David Dunlop]

That was my thought as well, Grant. Protection for the meter and the adhesive for the plastic has failed over time. I've see one or two CMP windscreens do the same thing and take on a yellow brown hue in the process.

David

[Grant Bowker]

I also wondered if the dial had (still does?) contained radioactivity for glow in the dark that might have originally been contained by the plastic and also have caused the plastic to deteriorate. This is pure speculation, NOT/NOT based on any parallel to known equipment.

[David Dunlop]

Any radioactivity present would not be worth worrying about, Grant, and plain glass and plastic have zero containment capability in any event. To act as a radiation shield, you need leaded glass, but I am not sure what percent lead is required. Common crystal glass is around 22 to 24 % as I recall.

David