WW2 british ALDIS lamp signalling daylight short range

[wendel daniel]

Technical Manual for the aldis lamp

[wendel daniel]

[Marc van Aalderen]

Nice set, thanks for posting!

I only have the large box and it is empty on the battery side. All parts in the other compartment are present. Now I have an idea what is missing and what to look for.

Cheers,

[wendel daniel]

[wendel daniel]

[fv1620]

What a superb example of the equipment & accessories, thank you for sharing.

I would imagine this was a late war production because the Key W.T 8 Amp No.2 is largely Bakelite indicating it is probably No.2 Mk 3

The original key was entirely machined metal on a Bakelite base as you can see in Fig. 3. This was the No.2 Mk 1 but was not marked as Mk 1 (in the same way as a Series 1 Land Rover is not marked as Series 1)

Later keys were cast metal, Mk 2 keys had less metal & Mk 3 even less.

I have three Mk 1, two Mk 2 & two Mk 3 keys & much prefer the clunky rigid click of the Mk 1 than the softer feel of the later keys. I don't use them for visual signalling, they are in daily use on 2m, 4m & 80m amateur bands.

As a boy in the 1950s I bought the basic set for 12/6 from Pride & Clarke, London. I robbed the key which I still use. I recently bought a scrap set just to get the Mk 1 key & saw the case still had the Pride & Clarke delivery label.

Clive GW4MBS

[Mike K]

I had a box full of the special bulbs OSRAM brand . 10 volt I think. I posted the bulbs to a chap in the UK he was teaching boy scouts Morse code with those lamps . Aussie disposals had WW2 dated NOS tripods back in the 1980s I bought two of them. The Australian lamps were made by PMG from memory , the box is not like the UK made sets in that it sort of looks like a thin casting rather than sheet steel. Morse speeds were limited because of the slow acting filament in the bulbs typically 10wpm or less. We had two set up at Corowa years ago . A ex army chap told me during training in Tasmania his unit would set up Aldis lamps between Launceston and Hobart , from Mt Barrow they would relay from mountain tops down to Mt Wellington , at night the range of these lamps was amazing. The larger type lamps are less common.