Aerial mast base

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Philliphastings

Hello Mike, thanks for the pics and info on the WS No 11. Please read the following and take it with a grain of salt.

'Having carefully read your comments on the quality of the Australian No 11 sets ( which my grandfather proudly assembled during the early war years), I went out to the shed and scooped up all three sets I had and smashed them !

No sense saving something so abundant and of such poor quality as you have pointed out now is there ?

Now I have more room on my shelf to collect rusty Landrover parts...'

Seriously though, None of the above is true.

I still intend fitting my Australian manufactured No 11 set into the Mk1 Scout carrier because:

1/ I have at least one complete working set in excellent condition.

2/ The scout carrier was discovered in Western Australia and shows obvious signs of having seen Australian Service, including having been rebuilt at 5BOD Nungarin prior to disposal.

3/ The only Genuine British EK Cole and Co manufactured Wireless set No 11 I have ever seen is still crumbling to white powder in a blackberry bush invaded shed belonging to a well known military hoarder in Perth. It may once have been a proud, top quality Military communications set but is now too light to be a boat anchor and too heavy to be a paperweight.

Having said all that I hope you will forgive me for being proud of the Aussie made set afterall. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Cheers

Phill

Yep OK .

The early AWA built sets ( 11 etc.) used cotton covered wireing ... imagine this scenario - tropical moisture and humidity to levels we cannot imagine down here and the cotton factor. Ideal for fungal growth . One unit up there devised a clever solution, they built a wooden box..housed the wireless inside it ..lined the box internally with light globes and kept them on - the only way the radio was kept going ...keeping the set dry and warm . In that case it was a AR7 receiver .

Usually, the 11 set genemotors would last about 7 days before expiring , moisture intrusion a major factor . Plus, can you imagine lugging it around the jungle terrain. I couldn't carry the heavy thing 20 yards , let alone up and down hills and muddy tracks . Reading accounts of the Malayian campaign ,wireless communication was hopeless.. the 8th division had AWA 101 and STC 109 sets .. they had better luck shouting at each other from hilltops. The sets were low powered, .5 watt for the 101 and 10 watts for the 109.

The reason so many Aust. 11 sets have survived is: many of them were not even issued ..they spent their life in storage. On some of them, you will see a red 'TP' stencilled on the case..this stands for Tropic Proofed . All they did was spray the insides with shellac , a natural varnish stuff made from Beetle wings.

Around 43 or 44, PVC insulated wires arrived here . Before that the British used cotton, and a cheap rubber insulating coating e.g., on their 22 sets , with age it cracks and falls off....leaving bare wires ! Nasty.

In the desert.. it's a different story.. dry and so on . Wireless was more effective there.
Mike