WW2 Canadian Wireless Valve Testers

[David Dunlop]

The Canadian Marconi Company was a major player in the design and production of the Wireless Sets No. 9 and 52. Both of these sets made extensive use of British designed valves, to the point where I believe these valves went into production with CMC in Canada.

The tricky bit with these valves is the pin layout in the valve bases. These layouts are not compatible with standard North American valve sockets and therefore, by extension, cannot be tested by any of the North American Valve Testers of the day. But they needed to be tested sooner or later at any number of levels and locations.

So that begs the question. What valve testers would have been used in Canada during and after World War Two that were capable of testing British designed valves? Were British testers imported and modified to 110AC Mains to do this work, or did one or more valve tester manufacturers in North America modify their products to handle the British valves? This latter option would in theory be a fairly straightforward job.

David