WS 58 set

[Ron Pier]

I've been offered a WS 58 set.(CND) anyone know if they're rare or roughly what to offer the guy? Ron

[Mike Kelly]

How complete is the set Ron ? The price depends on the accessories or lack of that come with the set .

See this link

http://www.wftw.nl/wireless58.html

[Ron Pier]

Hi Mike. I already looked at that link. I have the book also. A 58 set meant nothing to me till I looked it up. I haven't seen it yet. I'll probably get there this week. Ron

[Bruce MacMillan]

The last two to sell on ebay were just the radios alone. They went for 60-70 GBP. The headset/mic is hard to find, especially in working condition. Rod aerials seem to be more common than the telescopic one. Portable use was through using a battle battery & associated carrier. The vibrator psu was for more static use. It carried spare valves and was powered by two Willard wet cells.

I'm surprised more of these sets don't appear in the UK. Canada had sent 10,000 sets over but with inadequate battery supply they sat on the shelf until disposed of post war. The sets were never issued except for battle trials in Northern Europe in late 1944 to early 1945.

[Ron Pier]

Thanks for that Bruce. I'll take a look at what this guy has and report back.

Ron

[Johnny Canuck]

WS58
Have a couple of versions, WS58 Mk.1, WS58 Mk.1*, WS58 Mk.1*/T. I have three /T versions,
1. /T inline, hand stamped, shellaced,
2. /T slanted, below the line, shellaced,
3. /T inline, factory stamped before lacquer.

Mk.1 had a square case, all following versions had rounded edges on the cases.
At the Ottawa Tulip Festival, Whiskey Town Radio was there; Chris had a WS58 with no other numbers, looked pretty crude, Chris and Dave figure it is the prototype.
So we had 4 versions on display by the end of the weekend.
There were also 3 types of headset assemblies. WS58 assembly plugs into face, Mk.1 and on exterior plugin.(2 versions)
Will post some photos, think I have a manual(s) also.

Geoff

[Bruce MacMillan]

The first prototypes were made by SDRE and were almost proof of concept radios. I have a MK1/1*/T and two MK1 sets. The MK1's came with the vibrator power supplies and the battle battery box & webbing. Both of those were equipped with rod aerials and a telescoping aerial.

I didn't know about the various headsets. Mine are all identical. Interested to see some photos.

The manuals I have are Mk1* and Mk1*/T. Of the Mk1*/T I have two different printing dates. One is 1950 so it was either for the army cadets or the navy as they used them post war.

Reading through some docs I have from 1943 there is a reference to a WS58 Mk0. There were apparantly 600 sets shipped to England.

Waiting to see what info Ron reports back with.

[universalgrl]

So far I have acquired everything for a MK I except the case for the vibrator power supply, sectional antenna and the radio it self.
The manual is dated 1 April 1943

[Ron Pier]

Nice collection Roberta. So far I haven't heard from the bloke who wants to sell his. Someone gave him my number but he hasn't used it yet. I'll have to track him down. Ron

[David Dunlop]

Interesting about the backlog of these sets in England.

I bought mine from a dealer in England in the mid 1980's. Was rather surprised when it arrived that Canada Customs had not torn into it as the brown paper wrap on the box was untouched. When I peeled the paper off I was surprised to see a big, green, waxy, linen wrapped box underneath with an ID Label in the wax. Carefully opening it up, I discovered three more smaller, green boxes neatly wrapped inside, each with a 'Contents' label encased in the wax. So a complete 58-Set came in three boxes. One held the Vibrator Supply, the second the Battery Box and Canvas Cover and the third the 58-Set and the Signals Satchel. The Satchel was shipped empty. The headset and aerials were packed inside the battery box. The set itself, the VPU and the Battery Box all had Factory Inspection Tags handwritten and signed by the inspectors.

Interestingly, the telescopic Aerial and it's canvas case should have been packed in the Battery Box box, but were missing. Recently found the steel telescopic aerial, but still missing the canvas case for same.

I wondered at the time how such a complete set made it all those years unissued. Now I know. Thanks.


David

[Bruce MacMillan]

At the War & Peace show this week I saw a dealer there selling a WS58 still in the box. It came with VPU unit, battle battery box and headset. Like yours it was in three boxes, never been used. He said he had more.

He was asking a 1000 GBP for the set. Yikes!

[David Dunlop]

Wonder if it is the same dealer? I paid 70 pounds plus another 12 to 15 for freight shipping via a company called Thomas Meadows back in the day. Took around 6 weeks to arrive. Now that I think of it, that purchase had also included an NOS set of 20 and 34 foot steel masts in their original wood crates. Suspect Customs left them alone because of all the Ccanadian markings all over the boxes.

Those were the days!


David

[David Dunlop]

Got your email. I will not be able to post photos for a while. Our wireless printer just packed it in a few days ago that I load all my photos and scans through. Just starting the process of rediscovering what is on the market these days.

For the VPSU for the 58-Set, there is no haversack for it, just a set of canvas straps. Is it pics of these two straps you need?

I have the sectional aerial put away somewhere safe??? at the moment. Bit of an oddball thing. Once you've seen one you'll never forget it. 4 pieces about a foot long each. Sections are not tapered like the larger 19-Set cousins but constant diameter. About an inch of one end is flared into a socket and an inch of the opposite end looks like the pointy end of an FN Rifle Blank Cartridge with four slots in it. Coloured bands on the flared ends to match them up correctly. The four sections are slightly smaller diameters so the colour bands seem a bit redundant.

Do you have the Canadian Army Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Regulations Wireless Sets Cdn. No. 58 Mk I Identification List and Echelon Repair Schedule? I have the 1 JUNE 1945 issue with a 1 JUNE 1944 addition and updates from 30 MAY 1947 and 10 July 1950.

Nice to see the two batteries in your collection. I am assuming those are the beasts that caused the backlog of sets in England. They did not form part of the basic set package but were a separate order item apparently.

David

[universalgrl]

David
I was referring to the case the actual VPSU is shock mounted in. The lid of the case also holds the spare valves, vibrator and spare 21 volt "C" battery
I found the manual where else but epay from nova scotia.
I would like to have a copy of the EMER's for the 58, are they in a pdf format.
The Willard battery's which were dry shipped were common back then as they were used in portable tube radio's and other devices.
I think the problem was supplying the actual 180V/90V battle battery.
Didn't the 27 set also had battery problems as well.

[Bruce MacMillan]

I have made pdf copies of the EMERs F701,2,3,4,5 for the WS58. I will email to anyone that needs them.

There was a supply issue with the battle battery for the WS58 and the WS27. Both sets were designed by the same engineer using unique batteries. I guess he didn't know there was a war on.

[Ron Pier]

False alarm I'm afraid with the 58 set that was offered to me. The bloke brought it to our club meeting last night and there was no wireless, just the battery pack. As it happens another club member had been missing this part for years, so I passed it over to him to complete his station. Ron