Broadcast - 12 May 2024
The last technical night saw Ross VK7ALH first in the door and with him came two ex-military field telephones sets. We saw one earlier this year after it was newly acquired but this time it came back with its twin from Ross’ collection. Both were ex-military and the same model, “Telephone Sets D Mark V” and both Manufactured by STC Pty Ltd (Standard Telephones and Cables) in Sydney.
This time it was more as a comparative exercise, two units manufactured for two different countries.
Both units had the same circuit diagram and were the same version number. Basically the same and at first glance were pretty much identical apart from the obvious case colour.
One was manufactured in 1941 and the other manufactured in1943. One was for the Australian Army and the other for the American Navy. One was painted in good old olive drab and the other painted in a light beige. One had all circuits and instructions printed black on white with the other printed in the negative.
There were differences in the width of the webbing strap attachments and fasteners but basically both units were very similar.
One interesting addition to the 1943 unit was the inclusion of the “new agreed” phonetic alphabet for that time. According to Wiki “The US and UK began to coordinate calling alphabets by the military during World War II and by 1943 they had settled on a streamline communications that became known as the CCB. Both nations had previous independently developed alphabet naming system dating back to World War I”, end quote.
This one was heavily based on the U.S. Army and Navy and was generally called the Able Baker alphabet. It uses shorter everyday words and names and goes like this: Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy, Fox, George, How, Item, Jig, King, Love etc.
In 1956, NATO allies decided to adopt one common phonetic alphabet for all members to use, this alphabet is still in use today: Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel etc.
Thanks Ross for giving us the chance to compare the subtle variations of one model between countries. Even though I was aware Nectar was used before November to phonetically represent “N”, I didn’t know Nan was used even before that, I have learned something new.
As noted last broadcast, Peter VK7KPC has had quite a bit of success restoring his WS62 ex-military HF transceiver to a working state over the past months. Initially with CW but once that was operational he has moved on to the Amplitude Modulation section. This week he has had further success on the AM section of the unit.Peter had a video recording taken from his oscilloscope screen of the demodulated transmission from the WS62 operating in AM. It looked and sounded excellent. As they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so a video must be conclusive evidence of his progress.
NTARC QSL Cards - Andrew VK7DW, our QSL manager has advised me that “Yet another recent delivery of QSL cards has arrived”. VK7’s AT, AU, BO, DON, GC, HBR, JFD, KJL, KW, MAT and ZR. If you just heard your call-sign then there are cards waiting at the NTARC club rooms for collection on the next Coffee morning or Technical Night. Thank you Herman for your continued support regarding QSL deliveries and thank you Andrew for the update.
There have been quite a few requests as to whether the club rooms would be opening up to watch the REAST presentation on “Glitching Pulsars – the sequel”. Well the 5th of June coincides with a Wednesday Technical Night. So doors will be open by 6:30 pm as usual and at 7:30 mobile phones will be put on silent and we will cross to the live presentation on the REAST YouTube channel. Normal services will be resumed after the presentation. So rather than sit at home watching, feel free to come along and watch it on a large screen TV, in a distraction and stress free environment.
As always, pictures will be available on the NTARC Web site under “Blogs” for this broadcast.
UPCOMING EVENTS
TestNet and TechNet session - Every Wednesday, TestNet/CW course on 3.580MHz from 7 pm till 7.30 pm, then a TechNet on 3.567MHz from 7.30 pm till about 8.30 pm. Your host for the evening will be Nic VK7WW.
Coffee Morning - held every Friday in the NTARC Club rooms. Time is from 10 am to noon and we look forward to seeing you all there. So why not pop in and join us for a cuppa, there is endless tea and coffee along with biscuits available for a donation.
Club Room Technical night session - The next session will be on Wednesday the 22th May and will commence at the usual time of 6.30 pm, running through to about 9 pm, at the Club Room Archer Street, Rocherlea.
Finally - A reminder to all members that if you have any items of news you would like added to our weekly roundup, no matter how trivial, then please email them to the Secretary at the following address news@ntarc.net all items to be received no later than 5 pm on the Friday prior to the Broadcast.
That’s all folks,
73, Stefan VK7ZSB, Secretary NTARC Inc.
