Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

I did a quick hand sanding of the top of my parts Coil case the other day to see what might turn up. This case has a very light coat of NATO Green on it and only on the exterior. I was hoping to carefully cut the paint back to see if there was any surviving evidence of the application of the C-Broad Arrow stamp. Sadly, no such luck. There were only two applications of NATO Green, but the first coat came with a sanding of the original Flat Olive Drab that would have taken off the stamp very easily. Still want to check the two sides, however.

What I did find was interesting in any event. On top of the first coat I found the remains of a yellow, 1-1/4 inch equilateral triangle. No sure if it was originally solid, or a thick outline. Also present was a yellow '83" done with a 3/4-inch stencil. This would likely all have been applied in the late 1940's or early 1950's when the NATO Green paint first came into use, but before the arrival and use of the NSN System came into effect.

I have photos of a 52-Set in Use in a wartime CMP Command truck in 1952, or 1953 in Ontario during an exercise. The cases/boxes visible in the photos show the darker NATO Green having been applied but the markings are still the original factory ones, simply bumped up to 3/4-inch stencils from the original wartime 1/2-inch. When I was refurbishing my cases/boxes, I found traces of this same 3/4-inch format stencil on the fronts of two of them. When the NSN System came into full effect, these stencils became abbreviated a great deal and a lot more cryptic. Nothing was ever applied on top of the second coat of NATO Green on the parts Coil case.

When I owned a full Canadian C 42 Ground and Training Set, several of the components had a white triangle painted on them, along with a Comm Sqdn ID like 734 or 736. I was told this was common practice when large military groups assembled in Canada for exercises in order to help ensure the equipment went back to where it belonged after the exercise was over.

Now I wonder if the yellow markings I found are an earlier version of this identification process using the wartime Regimental Numbering system in some way.


David