My xmas but not really

[AlanBeckett]

Sorry Lawrence, as expected I'm afraid I can't help.
My FAZ suffers from the same problem - no cables - and my B40 is down at the moment
I've got to get it going for the Football season.
Alan

       

[pwdrive]

Sorry Lawrence, as expected I'm afraid I can't help.
My FAZ suffers from the same problem - no cables - and my B40 is down at the moment
I've got to get it going for the Football season.
Alan

Thanks for taking the time Alan, that FAZ adaptor... Hmm there's a green tinge here in the St Austell area, havn't seen one of those for a long long time, pretty rare now I would say.
As for your B40..come on Alan get it sorted...PDQ....You don't want to miss Man.U.

Lawrence.

[Skywave]

OK, bit of a long shot, anyone know what the name of the 12 way output connector is on the Racal RA218 Independent Sideband Adapter and where I might obtain one?

Thanks.

Lawrence.

Looks like a Plessey Mk. 4. If my memory serves me right (which is asking a lot these days!), those came in 2 orientations (might have been more ) - as per Alan's comment. One good reason for that was with the 3-way connector: commonly used for a mains connection, but a 3-way could also be used for other purposes where a 3-wire connection was required and a 'mains input' was most definitely NOT required! Now I seem to have a very vague idea that the orientation might be changeable within the plug / socket (for a given type), but I certainly wouldn't want to bet any money on that . . . . after all, it was all such a very long time ago!

As for obtaining a matching connector, try looking around some of the Military Radio Collectors sites - such as VMARS. Plessey Mk. 4 connectors were always very common on military kit. Needless to say, you'll need to specify the orientation . . . . .

Al.

[pwdrive]

Thanks for the input Al, I am still not sure, I always thought the 3 pin mains connector on my Avo CT378A was a type 4, and poss the Murphy B40 receiver mains in (my B40D mains in socket is missing) if the two just mentioned are type 4 then the mains in on the RA218 adaptor is larger than those. I have put the feelers out on the WS 19 Group also as to what's what.
Are you fully recovered from your recent bout of flue?

Lawrence.

[AlanBeckett]

Man U! Wash your mouth out. For my sins I'm a Stoke supporter. The Internet stream is generally blocked during home matches - copyright - but there's a 1kW am Transmitter which the B40 is happy to fish out of the aether, when it's working

Yes Al, I think that's what they are. As I remember there were Screw lock and Bayonet lock (62GB ?) versions. The Navy favoured the Screw lock versions I think. When I worked on that sort of thing, for Plessey, we had a large Catalogue with all the different configurations shown. You had to construct a great big long number specifying the shell size, Type, Pins, Insert, Orientation, Backshell, cable clamp, Finish, etc, etc. You put in the Order and waited several weeks for them to come. Sometimes they even fitted! If you were lucky a helpful soul at the other end rang up and said 'You do realise that AAAA/BBBB/CCCCC..... doesn't mate with PPPP/QQQQ/RRRRR .......'

The insert can be moved round to different positions and I've got some tools to take some sizes to bits.

Alan

[pwdrive]

Sorry Alan i'm sure I meant Stoke Used to go to some of the music clubs in and around Stoke in my youth but that's another story.
Yes the B40 mains in is listed as a type 4, the moulded inner (the bit with the pins) on the RA218 looks very similar but the outer thread is extreamly course, I can only describe it as a 1.5 to 2 turn coarse Acme type thread. The one on my Avo CT358A is fine thread.

Lawrence.

[Skywave]

Yes Lawrence: the Plessey Mark 4 connector was available with many different numbers of poles. More bits 'n' pieces are now coming back from my memory. The lowest number was 2 poles and I think the highest number was 36 poles. Each pin is identified by a letter of the alphabet, A - Z then into lower case after Z has been reached. And what Alan has said about specifying the config. at ordering time is correct. When I was employed in a Gov't. R & D organization many, many years ago, Plessey Mk. 4 connectors were available from Central Stores. So the first thing was to look up the description of what you wanted in the catalogue and thus obtain the NATO Stores number. If I recall correctly, the orientation (as well as the number of ways, chassis mount or 'free' plug, male or female, bayonet or screwed, etc.) was all encoded in the NATO part number. Surprisingly for a NATO / Government Scheme there was actually some sort of logical system to the numbering style that reflected the variants!

All a long time ago now - but they were happy days- and my enthusiasm was then boundless.

Aside: Yes, now fully recovered from that awful dose of 'flu: thanks for asking.

Al.

[Skywave]

Afterthought: some of this might help:

http://www.electrojumble.org/Connects_01.htm

Al.

[AlanBeckett]

That looks a very promising Site young Al

Alan

[pwdrive]

Thanks Al, and for the link, if I get it sorted I will let the forum know.

Lawrence.