[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

A robust and well designed unit, the Amplifier Canadian No.19 was too slow in developing and too late in coming. As a result it was never adopted by Canadian or Commonwealth forces. Designed in 1942 and produced in numbers probably below 500, the Canadian Army Overseas declared it had no use for the set in February 1945.

The purpose of the set was to increase the range of a standard Wireless Set No.19 (or Wireless Set No.22) and operated on the same frequency range of 2 to 8 MHz. Early Amplified sets suffered from stray interference and, while this bug was worked out in production models, its size, battery consumption and lack of portability rendered it second place to the British RF No.2 Amplifier that did much the same job.

The set comprised a Vibrator Power Unit made by Electronic Laboratories of Canada Limited which weighed 77 pounds, was 17-1/2” wide by 8-1/2” high by 12” deep and could be switched to operate on either 110 or 12 volts. The Amplifier Unit made by Rogers Majestic Limited was 12-3/4” wide by 11” high by 16” deep and weighed 47 pounds. Both of these sat on top of a frame carrier that had space for the No.19 set underneath. The entire amplifier weighed 172 pounds not including the 19 set. The 19 set required its usual 12 or 24 volt DC power supply in addition to the 12 or 110 volts supplied to the amplifier, hence the need for a generator and lots of batteries.

When the 19 set ‘A’ set was tuned to the required frequency, receiving was accomplished through a regular variometer that had an extension on the back to protect it from the higher voltages induced by the amplifier. The sending signal was routed through the Amplifier Unit where voltages up to 2000V were applied and it was carried out the back of the unit on a lead to its own sending aerial. Thus, the set operated two aerials: one for sending and the other for receiving. A special 12 point male/female shielded cable connected the 19 set sender/receiver to the Vibrator Power Unit.

Other than the Aerial Base C1 used for the sender, regular 19 set aerial gear, bases, control units and remote control units were used. All the functions of the 19 set including R/T, CW, MCW, the B set and intercom were available when the set was used with the amplifier.