Remote control

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

Yes the asking prices for this military communications stuff on Epay is generally inflated to the point of being ridiculous.

<snipped>

Those remote units were also manufactured in Australia, I can't recall the specific maker but it may have been AWA, I did have one at one stage.

The Australian remote unit is more likely to have been a locally built Wireless Remote Control Unit 'E', which itself was a modification of the earlier 'B' unit (for the WS2, 3 and 9 (I think)) to allow it to be used with the WS19. A large number of 'B' units were converted (and retained their original ID plates).

The British "E Mk.1" had a wooden outer case, the subsequent Mk.2 was steel.

For further amusement, consider item 353517254336 on eBay UK, which is a Larkspur-era 27-ft telescopic mast (Racal MA 638) with no accessories and an obvious "clamp-on" repair piece to the top section and some corrosion, offered at the bargain price of 275 GBP. Alternatively there's item 274916183837 that is an incomplete Aerial Base No.28 (Larkspur VHF base) at a bargain price of 79 GBP - at least the seller has changed the description from "WW2, Aerial base for Wireless Set No.19 / WS 19 / WS 21 /WS22" after I pointed that out... (The last NOS one of those I bought cost 7 pounds, and I recently got a bagful of mixed bases for 20 pounds (mainly because it had a Base No.8 in amongst all the Larkspur ones).)



P.T.Barnum was right (or at least some of the sellers think he was).

Chris.