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Old 3rd Feb 2018, 11:22 pm   #1
St4pler
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Default Help any ideas what this is?

My dad passed away earlier in the year, he was an avid collector and repair of tvs and radios and we are trying to sort through his collection, we have just come across this and was wondering if anyone had any idea what it is?
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Old 4th Feb 2018, 1:35 am   #2
Herald1360
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Default Re: Help any ideas what this is?

That's a bit like a "guess what this is" picture- taken from an odd angle with no sense of scale!

Any chance of getting further back and including more of the object along with a ruler or something for size?

Is it with other any other recognisable stuff that might provide clues to its application?

Is the meter top left part of the same unit?
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Old 4th Feb 2018, 2:24 am   #3
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Default Re: Help any ideas what this is?

It looks very like one of these...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-R...QAAOSwJRZadj0G

Exactly what one of those is, someone here may be much better able to say than I am!

Paul
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Old 4th Feb 2018, 8:12 am   #4
Argus25
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Default Re: Help any ideas what this is?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul_RK View Post
It looks very like one of these...
I think it is exactly the same one as on Ebay.
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Old 4th Feb 2018, 9:17 am   #5
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Default Re: Help any ideas what this is?

Some guff, scroll down for pics.

http://www.vmarsmanuals.co.uk/archiv...l_Handbook.pdf

Lawrence.
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Old 4th Feb 2018, 10:48 am   #6
frankmcvey
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Default Re: Help any ideas what this is?

Yes, you've nailed it. STR18B was an airborne HF radio transmitter/receiver system, used by the RAF (and others!) for worldwide comms in the postwar period until it was replaced by the Collins HF system. Manufactured by Standard Radio, I presume this is a derivative.

I remember learning it during my apprenticeship in around 1966 and it was almost obsolete by then. It was quite difficult to get your head round because of the large number of relays used in its design (ISTR a figure of 80 relays?) making the circuit diagrams hard to read.

Cheers,

Frank

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Old 4th Feb 2018, 12:33 pm   #7
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Default Re: Help any ideas what this is?

Wonder if that's what was deployed here? <gratuitous plug for website>

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~rw...nce/picatx.htm
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Old 4th Feb 2018, 12:52 pm   #8
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Default Re: Help any ideas what this is?

All those combinational buttons made it look like some sort of crypto gear, but it's a channelised transceiver for use in aircraft. The pilot(s) don't have time to fiddle with tuning up transmitters, so this beastie has a bank of 100 crystals, and their frequencies are chosen to be clustered in narrow enough bands for the thing to have a set of preset tuning controls for each band. Hence all the twiddlers! The pilots just drive it with a remote control box having a channel switch.

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Old 4th Feb 2018, 1:24 pm   #9
frankmcvey
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Default Re: Help any ideas what this is?

Hi, Russell,

I wouldn't have thought so. STR18B was designed for use on aircraft for communication, rather than as a ground installation for navigation. Perhaps the installation at Pica was just a simple radio beacon, as the website implies. These beacons were used by aircraft (and ship) radio compass systems, much like lighthouses. They transmitted a simple morse identifier signal; the navigator would use his radio compass to find a the bearing from his aircraft to the known location of that particular transmitter and use it to draw a bearing line on his map. He'd then re-tune to another beacon, find its bearing and draw that on the map - where the two lines crossed gave the position of his aircraft.

Cheers,

Frank

Last edited by frankmcvey; 4th Feb 2018 at 1:34 pm.
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Old 4th Feb 2018, 2:28 pm   #10
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Default Re: Help any ideas what this is?

It looks like a short wave radio shack in a box.
If you get it going and get a license there are new friends to be made on short wave.
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Old 4th Feb 2018, 2:45 pm   #11
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Default Re: Help any ideas what this is?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Refugee View Post
It looks like a short wave radio shack in a box.
If you get it going and get a license there are new friends to be made on short wave.
Wouldn't want to have to pay to populate it with the necessary pairs of TX/RX xtals though!

[I had its little-brother the R4187 receiver: again rock-bound though only with around 20 channels, I built a VFO for it]
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Old 4th Feb 2018, 3:40 pm   #12
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Default Re: Help any ideas what this is?

Quote:
Originally Posted by frankmcvey View Post
Hi, Russell,

I wouldn't have thought so. STR18B was designed for use on aircraft for communication, rather than as a ground installation for navigation.
Frank,

Many thanks for that. I only knew what I was told about it, and as I wrote, there was a rhombic used - and it was in a fixed direction. But your info is certainly useful and puts another piece into the jigsaw. I was told by another local military history buff that the rhombic pointed westwards and was perhaps used to guide aircraft landwards, but info is a bit scant. The 'DCS' signal (Dean Cross VOR?) was later transmitted from a brick hut on the same hill, but about half-a-mile eastwards, and must've just been a couple of racks, if that, in an unmanned room.

I thought 'DARKIE' at one time, but not sure if it was used post-war.

Interestingly, but not related that I can tell, the RAF had a VHF radio beacon (during and after WWII) at Pallaflatt Hill, where the present UHF TV relay is located, about 5.5 miles south-west.

Do you know of any other buildings in the UK that may have undertaken a similar role to that of Pica?
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