Canadian Wireless Test Equipment

[David Dunlop]

Going through the items on the shelf next to my wireless sets this morning and discovered I had a couple of pieces of test equipment that were Canadian made, and probably built in the 1940's and 1950's.

Though I would start another thread in case more such equipment is out there worth documenting. Both of these set are in working order, though neither came with manuals when found years ago.

I will post photos and sub titles for the two items shortly.

David

[David Dunlop]

I ran across this item back in the 1980's at Rob Love's favourite Surplus Yard while 19-Set bits hunting one weekend. It had a little surface rust on it at the time, which cleaned up nicely. Electrically it was in great shape and even had its original AC line and test leads.

I bit surprising back then that it had not been smashed to bits before disposal.

David

[David Dunlop]

This one was a flea market find, also back in the 1980's. Complete and working, but with no original test leads.

Rather pleased to have rediscovered it now, in light of the fact it is a STARK product and it is one of their British Valve Adapters I am planning to clone for my 52-Set Project.

David

[Bruce MacMillan]

When I was in high school last century our electronics lab was kitted with all Stark test equipment. Some Stark tube testers were made under licence from Hickok.

Here's another example of Canadian test equipment. This is the RCAF version of the American BC221. It is direct freq readout though, doesn't require a calibration booklet. Covers from 500 Kc to 100 Mc directly and using harmonics and sub harmonics.

[David Dunlop]

I was doing some equipment research on line over the weekend when I stumbled across a PDF File posted at some time by Jerry Proctor, which I found a very interesting read. It is a copy of a mid-1960’s Royal Canadian Navy equipment listing of all Oscilloscopes in service at that time with the RCN. It was several pages long with illustrations and descriptions of each scope.

The first surprise was that the total number of oscilloscopes in use was 39, including four identified as ‘British Admiralty Pattern’. Based on the NATO Stock Numbers, the rest of the equipment was either of Canadian or US manufacture.

The second surprise was the 5th illustration, which happened to be of the OS8-B/U Oscilloscope that I have always known to be a US Navy Contract Item from 1952. I picked one of these up years ago for around $50 Cdn all in. It is a rugged little design and probably close to the first truly light weight portable scopes built. Mine is a US Navy contract item built by Hickok.

Having seen this RCN document now, I wonder if a contract was ever placed for a run of OS8-B/U scopes that have RCN ID tags on them, or if what the RCN needed was simply bought direct from US Navy Stores?

David

[David Dunlop]

I have been picking away on this scope lately in my spare time between the usual summertime chores around the house and, quite frankly, the desire to be outside enjoying the back garden whenever possible. I will have 7 more months of indoor time to play with electronics soon enough.

The scope started out working quite well, but over a few weeks I noticed the horizontal controls starting to drop away. Then the vertical controls gave away to the point all I got was a small horizontal trace line at the upper section of the screen that gave me purely random responses to any of the controls. A complete valve replacement did not improve things and I eventually traced the problem to the two electrolytic capacitor cans in the power supply. Both were Mallory Type FP items, one a three section unit and the other a four section.

A little searching on the web revealed a company in the States was still making these capacitors using the original 1920’s equipment from Mallory. And the two capacitors I needed were available with suitable specs AND dimensions. This latter point is very critical in such a compact chassis design. So I shall be ordering a pair of capacitors shortly.

I hope to get the scope back up an running before winter sets in as it will come in handy in testing my two 52-Set receivers.

David