19-Set Vario/Aerial Base Mounting Plate

[Patrick Johnson]

Currently up for auction on ebay is another one of these rare plates, same manufacture and finish as mine. The seller is suggesting they were used in the bren carriers.
eBay item number: 132398883162

[David Dunlop]

Well after sweating bullets for a while and seeing this item go unsold, I was able to make a deal with the seller and this Plate, Mounting No 1 is now on its way here. And it only took 30 odd years to track one down.

I am beginning to suspect that when these Plates were first disposed of, the Army scavenged all related components to put back into the system. By the time the last ones were surplussed out, they were so obsolete they were disposed of with most or all fittings still attached.

The stripped plates would be a challenge for anyone to figure out if they bought a box at a disposal sale.

Now I just have two bits to find for it, an intact Aerial Base No. 10 Mk II, and that fiddly little steel packing plate that sits between this Plates, Mounting No. 1 and the wooden Variometer mounting bracket.

David

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

Now I just have two bits to find for it, an intact Aerial Base No. 10 Mk II, and that fiddly little steel packing plate that sits between this Plates, Mounting No. 1 and the wooden Variometer mounting bracket.

David

No, you only have one piece to find: an Aerial Base No.10 Mk.II.

The steel plate is only used for mounting the variometer on the supply unit or similar arrangements with four small screws. For this plate you use three 1/4" BSF setscrews (hex head) and the wooden/rubber/bakelite/etc. "Piece, Packing" to fill the gap between the flat plate and the curved variometer.

Much simpler.

Chris.

[David Dunlop]

Chris. You are just making this day get better and better! I may break into a happy dance at any moment!

David

[David Dunlop]

I am thinking the Wireless Set No. 19 installation in the wartime MB/GPW’s, utilizing the Plate, Mounting No.1, may have been a British idea, subsequently adopted by the Canadian Army.

There is a late 1940’s installation manual from the British Military for the 22-Set in the MB/GPW, and Canada published installation info in the early 1950’s for the 19-Set in the M38CDN, utilizing a completely different system than the Plate, Mounting No. 1.

A handful of these Plates have turned up in Canada. Is it possible, Canadian Army MB/GPW’s based in Canada during the war, and postwar up until replacement by the M38CDN, were equipped with 19-Set Installations using these plates? If so, should there be a Canadian Army publication covering the MB/GPW installation, or would Canada simply have used the available British publication?

Anyone ever run across either?

David

[Chris Suslowicz]

Apart from the 50+ estimated fitting kits for the WS19, there were various local modifications, improvisations, and outright bodging to put sets into vehicles.

There are several (at least three and probably quite a few more) different plates that fit on top of the WS19 (with or without supply unit), and an absolutely ridiculous number of (mainly post-WW2) carriers for various combinations of sets, supply units, amplifiers, etc. - they got up to around No.82 by the Larkspur era before giving up with numbers and calling them "Tray, Support, Radio Set" and a stores code.

The WS22 used Carrier, Set, No.4 as far as I remember.

I recently obtained a lot of carriers and trays for a WS62 set in trailer or Jeep, but it came with an aerial mount for the WS19 'B' set (and I'd like to find the matching 'A' set mount. purely to find out how the variometer fits to the box on top of that). (I'm also missing the WS62 carrier - No.40, and a lot of the items to fill the various other carriers (which are common to the animal pack station) - the list of "bits I'm looking for" is getting longer rather than shorter!

As far as Canadian manuals go, they reprinted a large number of the British ones, but had their own range of manuals for kit built in or specific to Canada. There would have been a fair amount of parallel development going on.

(This probably doesn't answer your question.)

Chris.