W/S No. 19 Cdn Horizontal Aerials
 

Does anyone have photos available of an original Canadian made Horizontal Aerial on it's wooden reel that shows how the black insulator links are set up at either end?

The only picture I can find is from the Mk III Operators Manual that shows the complete Truck and Ground Installation Set Up and the photo is too small and dark for any good detail. It looks as if there are three black links at each end of the aerial wire, but I need to determine what fastened the link set to the aerial plate at the top of the 20 and 34 foot masts. Was it a simple piece of cord, or one of the green metal snap clips like the ones used to fasten the guy ropes to the masts...or something completely different, Not sure if the Canadian and British Horizontal Aerials were identical or not.

19 set aerial
 

Hi david
about the 19 set aerial, I have only one picture of one on the holder.
you can see the plastic isolators on the wire. I think thy used carabiners to connect the two.
hope this picture helps a little bit david.
cheers jaap

I have reference to three different methods. One is using a split metal link (looks like a giant paper clip) and is described in manual FZ256/3.

The other two are using just a length of rope or using a clip to attach to the metal plate at the top of the mast. The last two methods are used in the enclosed diagram.

Gentlemen.

Thank you both for taking the time to reply.

Jaap, I think the aerial in your photo is probably British made. The photo in the Canadian W/S No. 19 Mk III Manual I have shows the three link insulator quite well, just not the final means of connection at the outside end. The same three link insulator shows up in the manual for the Canadian made Telescopic Antenna Masts, which I think is the drawing Bruce provided.

Bruce. I have heard of the simple cord and split ring ways of attaching the Horizontal Aerial to the mast, but never actually seen an example of the split ring. My initial thought was something like a heavy duty key ring. The latter, clip option you mentioned makes sense to me for a couple of reasons: they were already in production/use for the mast guy ropes and they would be the fastest way of setting up the Horizontal Aerial.

Guess all I need to do now is find an NOS Crate full of Canadian Horizontal Aerials somewhere. Wonder how much all that copper would be worth these days???...

David

Here are a couple of photos of one of the wire antennas showing the clip.

I've seen the aerials on ebay but they command a ridiculous price.

more pics
 

Dave, here are three pics from my AERIAL 70' No 1 ZA11530 showing the different ends on the aerial. One end is twisted into a loop while the other has a cylindrical piece soldered to it. The cylindrical end was trapped in the keeper ring which went through the insulator link.
The reel has it's own stamp as follows: REEL, Aerial No.4 ZA10049 and is marked 6.6 - 8.0 MC/S. Further, their are two inspector stamps side by side which have 70' MECH. INSP. inside of triangles.
Hope this adds to the conversation.

CHEEMO!

Derek.

Here's a few pics I had laying around.

more info
 

I neglected to mention the cylindrical end goes into any aerial socket that fits the Aerial Rod F. Sec. Bottom ZA 0894.

CHEEMO! :cheers:

Derek.

Hello Derek.

These things are getting interesting. Looks like two possible feeders existed at least: the cylindrical one you show, and the flat C-Shaped connector for slipping under a screw post. I wonder if this difference was noted in slightly different part number codes for the finished aerials?

There must have been a lot of component manufacturers as well. On the black insulator links alone, so far I have seen the two halves fused together at the mid point of the short ends, or somewhere along the long sides. Most of these have been a perpendicular joint, but I have seen a few done at an angle. Adding to the mix is that most fused joints can be spotted easily as a thin ridge is typically left, but I have also seen links that look like time was actually spent creating a seamless look to the link and you cannot tell where the two parts were joined.

The end of the aerial wire seems to be a standard design. It is formed into a ring, the wire wrapped back around itself and then soldered. I am thinking these wire ends might have been formed first and then the two halves of an insulator link fitted and fused to connect it. The wire rings are larger than the link to allow some movement of the link inside the wire ring. Could be a hard thing to accomplish if one had to wrap the wire around the link and then solder it as the final assembly step.

Well I finally took a great step this weekend and decided to carefully unwind the 180 foot horizontal aerial I had stowed away for so many years to see what sort of shape it was actually in. Turns out it is pretty much scrap copper as it was in four pieces. Two pieces, each with an insulator link assembly at one end, measured a total of close to 192 feet, which doesn't match any horizontal sizing I could find for these aerials. The wooden reel ended up marked as for a 185 foot aerial. A third piece of the same twisted copper wire was about 15 feet long and ended in a cylinder connector like the one you described, Derek. The last piece of wire was also an uninsulated twisted copper section about 22 feet long ending in a C-shaped connector. At least the reel is in good shape.

Now I am wondering how and where the vertical aerial lead in was connected to the horizontal section of the aerial. From the photos on this thread the vertical lead appears to be an insulated wire, not bare twisted copper and I am guessing that the length of the vertical lead in was probably standard for all lengths of horizontal aerials.

One other side observation. When rewinding the horizontal aerial onto the wooden reel, one must really pay attention to keeping correct tension on the copper wire to prevent it from kinking. I wonder now if the Wireless Operators were trained on that point, or if it was something the Sargent kept to himself for entertainment value?

David

Try one of your local electrical distributors for replacement wire. Common aerial wire was 7X22 stranded bare copper. The aerial itself was was called "wire, electric, R.4 Mk I" and the lead in was "wire, electric, single, No. 12" The various antenna lengths were 70', 90', 110', 150' 185' & 250'. The lead in was always 10'3". This insulated wire was soldered to one end of the aerial creating what is called an end-fed aerial.

The cylinder plugged into the fitting at the back of the variometer that normally held the rod aerials.

There were rubber insulated wires with C clips that attached to the insulator base when using the vertical mast as an aerial.