Book review

[Mike Kelly]

I found a copy of a nice book in the local Library catalogue.

WIRELESS AT WAR by Peter R Jensen published 2013. 352 pages.

The author , an Australian ham has produced a well researched book . He includes a lot of information relating to Australian military use of wireless.The book spans from the late 1800's to 2013.

A few strange errors , but overall it's excellent .

He writes that the Aust. manufactured No. 19 set was able to be 'man packed' Only if you are a Olympic trained athlete perhaps . He also writes, the Aust. 19 set was far easier to manufacture here ( compared to the 11 set ) , because of the USA type valves used in the original 19 set . This doesn't add up because the local AWA manufactured 19 set was fitted with completely different valve types, made by AWA themselves here in Aust. eg 6U7G's instead of 6K7's

He makes reference to the Australian WS 108 being issued in the Nth African theatre at Tobruk. This is news to me and I would like to know where he sourced that info from . I have never come across this relevation anywhere.

Regarding the Larkspur sets, he makes no mention of the C13 or B47 sets issued to the Aust. signal corps. Just a brief reference on the C42's

He also writes the Aust. 109 set has a folding lid, it does not , it has a clip on lid . He seems to think that the 109 was designed after the AWA 101 set was built and issued, when in fact they were designed at the same time in the late 1930's. A certain Major in the Aust, signals at that time, instigated their design

A good book but as with most of these publications , a few problems here and there.

He includes chapters on the process of reproduction of a WW2 era para set and a WW1 set ..this is a added bonus and makes the book the better .

[Mike Cecil]

Thanks, Mike, a great appraisal and sounds like a very worthy book to add to the reference library ..... and here was me thinking I was in the process of downsizing the volume of books!!

Mike

[Mike Cecil]

My copy arrived earlier this morning. As Mike K said, a nice overall appraisal and well worth the few $$.

Like Mike, I've detected a few deficiencies in his listings (he has a tabulated listing of radio/wireless sets in the back, with their approx period of use by AMF), and there is a general absence of fine detail, which I suppose is to be expected given he's tried to cover the period 1895 to 2012 in just 352 B5 sized pages.

A few examples: He mentions the WS No.19 Mks 1 and 2, but no mention of the WS No.19 Mk 3. Likewise, the No.88 set gets a mention as a man-pack set, but not the No.88(AFV) set. Only the AN/VRC-12 is listed out of the series which included the much more common AN/VRC-46 and AN/VRC-49 sets. He mentions both the AN/PRC-25 and the later AN/PRC-77, but only the AN/GRC-125 and not the AN/GRC-160. The Larkspur series, as Mike noted, gets little attention which is surprising given their extensive use across several Arms of Service in the 1950s to 1970s period (the last users were the RAAC as late as 1977!).

So, a worthwhile reference book, but on the understanding that it has some limitations.

Mike