19-Set Crystal Calibrator

[David Dunlop]

Finally! One of these elusive little things has showed up on eBay from Utrecht, Netherlands under Item Number 173996967599. First one I have ever seen, considering every Calibrator Kit from Canadian Marconi was equipped with one.

On the very sad side, however, somebody during the life of this connector, deemed it necessary to hack the calibrator feed cable from it and cut off the brown resin ID ring. You can still see the ghost of where it was fitted to the cable.

Soooo sad!


David

[James D Teel II]

That’s terrible!

By the way, my crystal calibrator dog bone is a 12 pin.

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

Finally! One of these elusive little things has showed up on eBay from Utrecht, Netherlands under Item Number 173996967599. First one I have ever seen, considering every Calibrator Kit from Canadian Marconi was equipped with one.

On the very sad side, however, somebody during the life of this connector, deemed it necessary to hack the calibrator feed cable from it and cut off the brown resin ID rig. You can still see the ghost of where it was fitted to the cable.

Soooo sad!


David

My suspicion is that 333288844505 from the same seller may have been part of the calibrator at some point. (It's the right sort of cable with no outer jacket over the braid.)

The calibrator power leads were available in all three varieties: 6-6, 12-6 and 12-12, as were the control cables for the RF Amplifier No.2 (British WS19HP), but I don't think there was ever a power lead that supported both units.

Chris.

[David Dunlop]

Good eye, Chris.

I had seen that cable and it made no sense to me as is, but if you put the small steel tube, mounting clip and binding cord back on it behind the Pye Connector, there you have it...the output line from the chassis of the calibrator!

I suspect the small 3-pin Jones Plug fitting on the connector dog bone was needed for a project, which sealed its fate. Doubly sad, as I bought one a couple of years ago in case I needed it for my Remote Supply Power Cable for my 52-Set and it was a new manufacture item with ‘Made in Mexico’ on the label. But then why go to the trouble of removing the ID Ring from the dog bone? All it would have had on it was a small column of three ‘PL/C’ Numbers that give no real clue as to the purpose of the connector on their own.

Hopefully, now that we have seen the remains of this one, more of these useful calibrator pieces will start showing up in complete usable condition. There must be a number of Mk II 19-Set owners out there who would like to fit a calibrator to their set. I would bet some Mk II sets are already out there with the slow motion drive fitted to the frequency dial for calibrator purposes, but no proper dog bone anymore.

David

[Rod Salter]

I have purchased items from this particular seller 5 stars

The dog bone at the current bid is around $80 Australian and another 75-80 to post, this make ws19 parts expensive down under

There is another seller with dog bones who will not answer contact messages

All I NEED is the 2 pin plug as were connected to the control cables for the RF Amplifier No.2 and also the 2 pin power plug

At the moment I have a plug from an old jug cord for the power lead and it looks bad

I do not have a calibrator or the plug lead and have decided I can live without one in my collection, so bid on, I will watch from the radio room

thanks

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by Rod Salter

I have purchased items from this particular seller 5 stars

The dog bone at the current bid is around $80 Australian and another 75-80 to post, this make ws19 parts expensive down under

There is another seller with dog bones who will not answer contact messages

All I NEED is the 2 pin plug as were connected to the control cables for the RF Amplifier No.2 and also the 2 pin power plug

At the moment I have a plug from an old jug cord for the power lead and it looks bad

I do not have a calibrator or the plug lead and have decided I can live without one in my collection, so bid on, I will watch from the radio room

thanks

The eBay prices are insane. Current issue (current since the 1930s) chain-link insulators are being offered at 10 GBP or more when the MoD price on the label is 1.280 GBP for the single link insulator and around 4.6 GBP for the 3-link. There is the occasional bargain about, but some of the sellers are adopting the P.T.Barnum approach and waiting for the "One True Sucker" to pay them 50 GBP for a 12-way plug.

(/RANT)

The small and large 2-pin free sockets are both "Multi-Purpose Parts" (The large one was used for power input to the RF Amplifier No.2, R107 (for AC Mains) and the Typex cipher machine rotary converter (12V DC in and 250V AC out) - OK, there was a war on and Health & Safety was a fair way down the list of priorities. The small one was used for the RF amplifier control input, and the WS22, WS31/38/88 AFV power supply/LF amplifier, PCR power supply and R109 power input connector. There should be lots of them about but I suspect they all got scrapped with the power cables for the copper and brass content once the sets became obsolete.)

You could probably cut down the 4-way socket used on Microphone Hand No.4, 4A, 8 or 16 to make a reasonably good copy of the small 2-way one.

Since they are all very scarce, I will keep a look-out for them at the radio rallies and junk sales in future. They do occasionally turn up at sensible prices.

Chris.

[Rod Salter]

Thanks Chris,

Learn something new every other day

If I can get original plugs there is a rubber maker in town who can mould some look alikes

They will work and look OK I think, only not Bakelite


Actually I am working at making the moulds for the ws19 drop sockets and plugs, to have some made up, then use the old contacts to assemble them

The rubber process is a simple procedure, the making of the mould is a little more of an exercise

fortunately the outer covers seem the same

trying to get my head around making the spaces and leave the air where the rubber will go

maybe other plugs could be made too, for anybody, but the moulds are the expensive drama if you not able to make your own

amazing what he makes, the mind boggles

Last time I was there he was making replacement door seals for some huts in the Antarctic

Was his phone number in the referdex or on the wall by the phone, like "Hey ring that bloke and get some new seals, I'm over these leaky doors"

How did I find him, easy, I got lost and wandered in to ask directions, I was in there for ages, looking and talking

rod

PS. found an empty coat pocket coming down under from the UK in the near future, so clicked the mouse on 2 of 6-12 dogbones. Some fiddley soldering coming soon. Anyone want a 12-12?

[James D Teel II]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

Hopefully, now that we have seen the remains of this one, more of these useful calibrator pieces will start showing up in complete usable condition. There must be a number of Mk II 19-Set owners out there who would like to fit a calibrator to their set. I would bet some Mk II sets are already out there with the slow motion drive fitted to the frequency dial for calibrator purposes, but no proper dog bone anymore.

David

Like I said, my calibrator has the 12 pin dog bone. I’d gladly trade my 12 pin for the correct 6 pin.

[Chris Suslowicz]

There is a supposedly 6-pin calibrator lead on eBay UK at the moment, but I would urge caution: it looks more like a modified control lead for the British RF Amplifier No.2 and the connector on the flying lead is completely wrong for either purpose (being an 8-way Jones socket instead of a 3 way one or a 2-pin socket for the amplifier control).

Might be useful for other purposes though.

eBay item number: 163850463951

Chris.
(Closer look: It's British and has been re-wired with modern cable and wrapped in tape by the look of things.)

[James D Teel II]

I saw that. He won’t ship outside of the UK anyway. You’re talking about this one:

[Ron Pier]

Originally Posted by James D Teel II

I saw that. He won’t ship outside of the UK anyway. You’re talking about this one:

I see there's one bid on it and 7 days to go. Let me know if you want me to put your maximum bid on it and post it to you if successful. Ron