Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

While currently on a bit of a break from component hunting for the 52-Set, I have been once again reading over the manual, and other documentation on this set. This has been a very interesting read, both the information that is available, and the information that is not.

The primary manual for this wireless is the WORKING INSTRUCTIONS WIRELESS SETS, CANADIAN NO. 52 VEHICLE AND GROUND STATIONS, dated 8th May, 1944. The first, notable impression one gets from this manual is that it is almost twice as thick as the one published for the Canadian Wireless Set No. 19 Mk III (a very well written manual in its own right). This first impression, combined with the current, perceived reputation that the 52-Set was difficult to work with, puts one in high alert mode as far as expectations for the read are concerned. This concern relaxes fairly quickly, however, once the read begins.

The style of writing is very similar to the Canadian 19-Set publication. The information is well laid out in a very logical flow and one cannot help but get a sense that the wartime wireless operators were a very well trained group of individuals. Not just in how to operate a wireless set, but in enough electronics background to understand the basics of what is going on inside the set, and during use, for trouble shooting and basic maintenance in the field. Even a nice sprinkle of humour on occasion, both written and illustrated.

What is really interesting about this 52-Set manual is how comprehensive and self contained it is with regards to the information it provided the operator. In addition to the expected step by step instructions on assembly, operation and basic field servicing and maintenance of the 52-Set and its components, relevant extracts from the manuals for the Charging Sets 300 Watt Mk I Canadian, Wireless Remote Control Unit No.1 (Canadian), Switchboard, Charging No. C5 and Antennae, Vertical, 34’ Steel Mk I Complete Kit are also provided. This is a valuable document for any 52-Set Wireless Operator. It has earned its metal stowage box on the top left of the Carrier No. 4 for the 52-Set. That brings us to the other interesting information about the 52-Set. The documentation that does not exist, or has yet to be found.

74 years on from the introduction of the 52-Set, a key piece of missing documentation to those of us now attempting to restore one of these sets today, is the detailed repair and rebuild information typically found in the Second to Fourth Echelon Work Instructions published by the military. An Issue 1 Canadian Army EME Manual, dated February, 1945, does exist for this document, but it is only 84 pages long, and apart from a dozen or so pages dealing with a general inspection and alignment procedures for the set, the bulk of this document deals with building and specifications for all the coils and chokes used throughout the Wireless Set No. 52. Unlike the 300 plus pages of the similar document for the 19-Set Mk III, nothing at all on repair and rebuild of any of the components for the 52-Set. Odd, considering this wireless set served into the early 1960’s in Canada. Maybe there were enough spare components in stores that broken sets were simply replaced and the duff ones tossed.

Chatting recently with Reg Hodgson in Edmonton, I learned he has been searching for a number of years for the installation instructions for the 52-Set in the White M3 Scout Car, with no luck. That initially struck me as odd. Reg has been well connected in the military vehicle sector for decades. He should have no trouble flushing such an installation manual out of the woodwork, original or copy. Then I remembered the introductory comments in the 52-Set Manual regarding interchangability of the 52-Set. Since it was a direct derivative of the Wireless Set Canadian No. 9 Mk I, its Carrier and mounting arrangement is identical to the earlier set, with one minor exception. The metal electrical connection conduit box running along the upper back portion of the Carrier No. 4 of the 52-Set adds 11/16th of an inch to the depth of the set. As long as there is sufficient clearance at the back of a pre-existing No. 9 Set installation, the Wireless Set No. 9 Mk I and its Carrier are simply removed and the 52-Set and Carrier No. 4 installed in it’s place. So on the face of it, it appears no wartime installation instructions for the 52-Set were needed, or published. That would mean today, if one wants to install a 52-Set in a particular wartime vehicle, one needs to find the installation information for the Wireless Set Canadian No. 9 Mk I, for the vehicle in question, and substitute the 52-Set in the installation. There is an interesting exception to this, however, the C15TA Armoured Truck.

A document exists, dated 8 April 1945, which combines information on how to modify the C15TA to fit inside the Hamilcar X (the twin engine version of the earlier heavy lift glider) and how to install a WS 19HP and WS 52 (CDN) combination setup in the C15TA. I call this a document as referring to it as an Installation Instruction Manual would be a huge stretch. If you would like to review a copy of this document, you can join the Wireless-Set-No19 Group in the UK and download a copy from their archive (Document # 2070). What you will find is what one might almost expect a publisher would get to polish up for printing and then some. It consists of some pages of rough, typewritten text, photographs of a sample C15TA vehicle installation for the two sets, with parts identification overlays for where everything is to be located and machinists drawings of all the necessary metal racks and brackets needed to complete the wireless installations for the two sets. The vehicle in the photographs must have been in Canada somewhere (or perhaps England) for documentation purposes. But clearly this vehicle installation was intended as a task to be done in the field somewhere, building everything needed from supplies at hand. No fancy kits from Canada required. Probably a great example of how the rapidly changing dynamics of the war post D-Day meant waiting for things to be produced at home just wasn’t going to work anymore.

My apologies for the length of this post, but as I said at the beginning, these 52-Set documents make for an interesting read, I thought was worth sharing.

David

[Barry Churcher]

David, here are a couple of photos of the C15TA installation that you are referring to. I would like to do the 19 set part of the installation on my truck but I don't have a 52 set for the rest. There are a couple of variations of this, for example the chore horses mounted on each front fender or both mounted on the rear wall.
Cheers,
Barry

[David Dunlop]

That latter photo is interesting, Barry. Looks as if they took advantage, somewhat, of the pre-existing jerry can rack. I wonder where the jerry cans were relocated to?

David

[David Dunlop]

Just having a closer look at the first photo you posted in Post 71, Barry. Good resolution in it and it shows the long rectangular connector box on the back of the Carrier No.4 quite nicely. First look I have had of that particular bit.

Also of interest is the top of the waterproof cover mounted along the top front of the Carrier No. 4. Looks like it is fastened to the carrier top by 5 lift the dot style fasteners with two straps to secure it when rolled up out of the way. That is interesting because the description of this item in the 52-Set Master Parts List suggests the cover is fastened along the top of the entire top edge of the carrier by a piece of flat steel bar. Unless, perhaps the steel bar is sewn into the lower edge of the cover to hold it down when in the lowered position.

Another thing to add to the further research list I guess.

David

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

74 years on from the introduction of the 52-Set, a key piece of missing documentation to those of us now attempting to restore one of these sets today, is the detailed repair and rebuild information typically found in the Second to Fourth Echelon Work Instructions published by the military. An Issue 1 Canadian Army EME Manual, dated February, 1945, does exist for this document, but it is only 84 pages long, and apart from a dozen or so pages dealing with a general inspection and alignment procedures for the set, the bulk of this document deals with building and specifications for all the coils and chokes used throughout the Wireless Set No. 52. Unlike the 300 plus pages of the similar document for the 19-Set Mk III, nothing at all on repair and rebuild of any of the components for the 52-Set. Odd, considering this wireless set served into the early 1960’s in Canada. Maybe there were enough spare components in stores that broken sets were simply replaced and the duff ones tossed.

The EMER set is almost certainly complete, and is all there ever was. Fourth echelon maintenance was "Base Workshops" who would have had the full complement of spare parts (as listed in the Identification List) available and were entirely capable of reducing the set to its component parts and rebuilding it from scratch. (This was done, post-WW2 when sets were rewired with PVC insulation, tropicalised, and reissued - particularly 19 sets that came out of Newark (near Nottingham, UK) with new paint and "NEW/mmyy" date markings on the (refinished) front panels.)

The lack of detail in the WS52 EMER is most likely because it used parts (such as the Condenser Drive assembly) common to the WS19 so there was no point in duplicating that - workshops would be completely familiar with it.

Various components were also supplied as sub-assemblies, e,g. the WS19 PA tuning mechanism as a complete unit from the flick mechanism back to the mica capacitors mounted to the rear of the tuning capacitor. That would save a lot of time if one had to be changed due to severe damage.

The coil winding details are in the 2nd-4th echelon repair EMER because that was a relatively simple repair job, and they had the equipment to do it. (They also had the equipment for rebuilding dynamotor armatures (rewinding and varnish impregnating), though I suspect that was an "only when there's nothing else going on" task.

Chris.

[David Dunlop]

Well now that I have calmed down after all the Edmonton excitement, I can return once again to my real little world. Sigh,

I popped the back cover off the Aerial Coil box to compare the No. 2 Brown paint inside to two other examples I have available: a 1944 Northern Electric Variometer for the 19-Set and an unknown 19-Set Spare Parts Case. Interestingly, although the two 19-Set items look more of a semi-gloss original finish than the interior of the 52-Set Aerial Coil box, all three samples seem to have aged similarly.

One can definitely rule out UV damage to the inside of the aerial box, so the generally universal fading of the paint pigments over time must be a result of oxidation breakdown of the pigments.

I wet down a small patch on each piece and it would appear all three actually come quite close to one another in the wet state. My thought process at this point is to use the wooden back plate from the Aerial Coil box for my matching sample when it comes to getting the paint and to have the match done to the paint when it is wetted down. My logic, and it may very well be flawed, is that the newly made up can of paint will be wet and will typically dry a tone or so lighter. If I match to a dry paint sample, the end result will dry even lighter.

David

[David Dunlop]

Been communicating recently with the Canadian Army Directorate of History (DHH) in Ottawa about the 52-Set. They can find nothing in their archives at all by way of a comprehensive set of repair and rebuild instructions. Nor is there anything suggesting work of such nature was or was not carried out by Canadian Marconi.

However, they did discover a great deal of 52-Set information is scattered around the LAC files that takes a bit of creative searching to track down. Topics like 'wireless' and '52' and anything else you can think of are worth trying. On line that can get you to files which one can then order copies of from the LAC.

A couple found are as follows:

"Standardization - Materiel - Ground Radios - Cdn Wireless Set 52 - United States Radio Set AN-GRC-19, - United Kingdom Wireless Set C-11"

Not sure what those three sets have in common, but an interesting grouping.

The other item was:

"Equipment and stores - Design Development and Research Project 1958 - Truck utility 1/4-ton M38 Canadian - installation of Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian and Ground Station"

Yikes! The poor ass end on that jeep would have been dragging like an overloaded classic VW Beetle!


David

[David Dunlop]

Been looking through the manual to try and identify the single conductor cable that runs from the Receiver, up through a series of eyebolts along the top of the three main components and into the Sender, to allow these two items to play well together.

Can anyone confirm that I have got it right with the above title? Probably going to have to track one of these cables down, sooner or later.

David

[Colin Alford]

David,

Here is a link to the CMHQ London files that were compiled on the Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian.

This link should get you to the first page and then you will have a lot of clicking to do to get through the hundreds of pages. Hopefully you will find some interesting information.

http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oo...7/1063?r=0&s=1

Regards,
Colin

[cmp truck]

Colin,
You have to buy a subscription to these archives.
Do you have a subscription and do you find it valuable?
The obvious usage would be material on vehicles and radios especially manuals and technical orders.
Regards,
Ian
VA6SSV

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

Been looking through the manual to try and identify the single conductor cable that runs from the Receiver, up through a series of eyebolts along the top of the three main components and into the Sender, to allow these two items to play well together.

Can anyone confirm that I have got it right with the above title? Probably going to have to track one of these cables down, sooner or later.

David

Ah, now I was R-ing TFM in an idle moment and thought "that will be in the Identification List", and so it is. (It also gives you enough description to make one up if you so desire.)

-----------------------------------------

LEADS, Aerial, 25.3/4-in lg, No.C1

No.16 B&S stranded wire, rubber covered to 7mm dia; metal sleeve and tip on each end; early parts were wrongly labelled "LEADS, Aerial, No. C7 -- ZA/C 00105"; this label should be ignored.

NOTE: Spares are available for this item although not shown in station spare parts list.

ZA/CAN 4703

-----------------------------------------

(Page 5 of FZ526, which has an illustration of the item - showing the incorrect label!)

Best regards,
Chris. (Still looking for valveholders - but there's a radio rally on Sunday so I might have more luck there. I have found two B7 sockets but they're the fragile Paxolin type, I'd prefer the moulded variety.)

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

A couple found are as follows:

"Standardization - Materiel - Ground Radios - Cdn Wireless Set 52 - United States Radio Set AN-GRC-19, - United Kingdom Wireless Set C-11"

Not sure what those three sets have in common, but an interesting grouping.
David

Those are the "Role" sets for "Rear Link" operation by Signals personnel, I think:

Canada - WS52
USA - AN/GRC-19
UK - C11/R210 (replacing the WS19HP and/or WS52)

Chris.