Wireless of the Week - week 43

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

The Reception Set (Canadian) R.103 Mk.1 was a Canadian version of the British R103 made by D. E. I. L. (Dominion Electrohome Industries Ltd. of Kitchener, Ontario) in 1943. You will note there is no photo of an original R.103 (I don’t have one) but I am including it in this series as it is one of my favorite sets.

The R.103 Mk.1 was designed for use in staff cars for the reception of radio telephone (voice) and continuous wave (morse) signals. Its frequency range was from 1 MHz to 16 MHz in three bands (Band I, 1 to 2.6 MHz, Band II, 2.5 to 7 MHz and Band III, 6 to 16 MHz) which allowed officers in those staff cars to listen in on tactical communications between their troops in the 2 to 8 MHz frequencies, the more strategic communications using frequencies above that and, perhaps most importantly, the BBC news and music in the lowest band. The set operated on 6V DC which was supplied by the staff car’s battery.

The set was 20-1/4” wide, 9” tall, 8” deep and weighed 33 lbs. The spares case which contained spare valves, fuses, earphones and an operating manual was 9-3/4” by 7-1/4” by 7-3/4” and weighed 9 1/2 lbs. Accessories, such as the 7’ telescopic aerial and base plate added another 6 lbs to the complete station. Controls and a handy back-light for the dial were on the front of the set and cooling vents, aerial, battery and ground connections were on the back.

Production seems to have been in the 1000 to 1500 range, however as post war surplus their size and lack of chrome probably made R.103 sets a poor replacement for civilian car radios of the day.