Canteen Radio

[peter simundson]

Excellent reading. Thanks for posting!

Peter Simundson

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Fascinating stuff, Rod! Thanks for sharing.

Hanno

[Mike K]

Reminds me of Winnie the war winner , bits of it are held at the AWM I think. A wireless set put together by the chaps on Timor under Jap occupationhttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=quisMMLJRFo

[Mike Cecil]

There are 10 images (an 11th is a 'ring in') of WTWW on the AWM site:

https://www.awm.gov.au/advanced-sear...ype=Photograph

Captions provide a good explanation regarding its history. It is a lot more bulky than the canteen listening set.

The radio was on display in the WW2 Gallery for many years - not sure if it was included after the gallery half life upgrade.

Mike

[Rod Salter]

Thanks Mike. Thanks fellows

My dad was stationed at Darwin during the war
He was at the American base out in the swamp
He was a "Listener" and communicator

I remember he said he (and others) took down the messages from the pacific island watchers, about the presence of the Japanese, the ships and planes
They decoded them before they were dispatched to Darwin, so he knew before anyone else some of what was happening in the pacific

I recall one incident where the message was plain and not in code

'They have found me I need to be rescued, send the sub'

Later another

'I am making for the beach'

Dad said he never heard from him again

I sensed he knew the man personally and it effected him for the rest of his life

Dad wore a black beret when I was a kid, I have all his kit and the wooden box (no beret unfortunately) also I have his correspondence lessons where he learned radio to be accepted into the army in signals. He had lost an eye in his youth and failed any medicals

On an occasion, Dad was travelling in the back of a big yank truck 6x6 with other men and a huge engine driven generator when the truck rolled

He helped the wounded, some died, Dad had a stiff sore neck for months and then he had a headache for the rest of his life. In his 80s it was discovered he had sustained 2 cracked vertebrae in his neck in the rollover. This caused severe shaking like Parkinsons from his 70s on until his death at 96

I believe the swamp transmitter all original was moved into Darwin about 2015 and the ABC stopped all shortwave broadcasts form it and others circa 2017 ( more research required, so I'll be more than happy to be corrected)

I was skeptical of glowing mercury vapor rectifier valves in the YouTube clip, thinking maybe Hollywood had intervened to make it look good
Then the remark of using a car generator also puzzled me as I suspect no man has the physical capabilities to drive a generator to produce any usable power

The photo from the war museum (thanks again Mike) has solved some of my questions

Winnie the war winner.jpg

On the left is the antenna tuning unit (which they were soldering in the clip) then the transmitter itself contains 2 (no less ) 807 Valves (quite a monster)
Then the power supply with the mercury valves producing around 700 or more volts, and the most significant part is the small metal can on the left end in the front "A vibrator" This explains quite a lot

On the right is a control box and possibly the Morse code key

The persons who built 'Winnie the war winner" certainly knew about radio
I salute them

In the movie there is a 6 volt battery, I would think the reference of a "car generator" was used to charge it. I still wonder how they turned that "car generator"

This is a TRANSMITTER, so where is the receiver?

cheers rod

Ps I can start another post of more of my POW constructions if anyone is interested
.

[Mike Cecil]

"The radio was on display in the WW2 Gallery for many years - not sure if it was included after the gallery half life upgrade." - on reflection, I might be wrong: I may be getting it mixed up with the POW 'broom' radio.

Mike

[Mike K]

Max Loveless from Hobart , a radio tech, was the main constructor of WTWW. A pre war ham .They salvaged bits of a WS 109 , the meter and knob and the PSU .