29-09-2012, 09:41 AM
A few ramblings and personal observations on this rather nerdy topic that crops up from time to time.
Quite often radios of the wrong era are depicted in TV progs - for example, listeners huddled round a Bush DAC90A (circa 1948) listening intently to Chamberlain's broadcast in Sept 1939 saying that Britian had declared war on Germany. This often causes vintage and military radio enthusists to become quite animated and vocal and to quistion why programme producers don't go to more trouble to get things right. I guess they have a point, in that the Vintage Wireless and TV Museum could advise and supply loan radios of the correct era.
However, to a producer of a TV prog, I've no doubt that it's a little thing in a busy day, and to the average viewer, of no consequence at all. It's a radio - sound is coming out of it - so? Such programmes are little more than light entertainment - at best, 'docu-dramas' or 'info-tainment' where historical accuracy of every aspect of every artifact on display is of little consequence. I dare say that people wth other interests will say 'that dinner plate design wasn't made till 1950' or 'that curtain material wasn't made till 1952'!
The odest thing I saw was in 'Heartbeat' where - in the station - they had a Trio JR310 amateur communications receiver into which the sergeant was bellowing orders via an unconnected microphone! I doubt that many viewers noticed, and those such as me who did, probably didn't get too het up or nerdy about it. As I said - 'light entertainment' - nothing more.
I'm not personally interested in military radios, though each year for many years in early autumn, along with my younger son (44) and sometimes my wife, we go on escorted battlefield tours of WW1 and WW2. (Normandy, The Somme, Colditz, the Dams, Berlin, Prague, Dresden and so on). The three of us recently spent a week in France visiting such places as the 'Martyred Village' of Oradour Sur Glane, deserted and left as it was on 10 June 1944 when the Germans massacred almost 700 villagers in what had until then been a peaceful village in Vichy France. (It features in the opening credits to the acclaimed 'The World At War' series). Also we visited Bordeaux (Cockelshell Heros) and various other places connected with the SAS, SOE and French resistance movements. (Violette Szarbo - Carve Her Name With Pride' etc). Often, these daring couragious events, with much loss of life, had little impact on the outcome of the war, other than to boost morale.
As in other such tours, be it Normany, 'Operation Market Garden' (Arnhem - 'A Bridge Too Far') or wherever, what often becomes apparent is that military radio equipment often didn't perform well or at all, notably VHF radios. Indeed, communications equipment errors such as wrong crystal frequencies at Arnhem probably contributed to prolonging the war by several months. A small hand-held transceiver costing no more than £35.00 today will comfortably out-perform WW2 military equipment.
Looking back to a time when there was a paucity of materials, many military sets seem grossly over engineered and overly large and heavy for the task in hand, but I guess that will have depended on the design brief. (Why build an R1155 to last for decades when it's average life was, I believe, just 19 weeks?). It strikes me that one such rather cumbersome radio was the Pye 'PCR' which stands for 'Portable Communications Receiver’ though I’ve heard it said many times that it meant ‘Personal Comfort Radio’ intended for welfare purposes such as in the NAFFI rather than for battlefield comms. No doubt that’s a popular myth.
The PCR was designed by Pye Ltd in Cambridge and the drawings finalised in March 1944. The design was manufactured by Pye, Philips Lamps and Invicta Radio (another company run by the Stanley family who owned Pye Ltd). Pye was initially contracted to produce 5000 PCR1 and 12000 PCR2/3 units at a rate of about 800 per month. The total Philips production figures aren't known, but are thought to have been around 15,000 - 17,000 units. The Pye equipments were manufactured on an out-work basis by teams of assemblers in the "Pye Village Industries" scheme in village halls and other buildings around East Anglia.
The PCR is often described as a 'forces welfare receiver' or 'NAAFI receiver', however this is thought to be a popular myth, and probably relates to a later post-war application for some of the large quantities of sets remaining after the war, never put into use in the short time that the war continued after PCRs fist went into production.
War-time employees of Pye Ltd are certain that the equipment was intended as an "Invasion Receiver", that is, a general purpose, portable communications receiver (hence the type designation PCR) , for use in Europe by the British 2nd Army after the D-Day Normandy landings, to receive military progress and information broadcasts as part of Operation Overlord, as the various divisions moved across Europe.
Recent info from British Armed Service personnel indicates that the set was also supplied by the RAF to Resistance Groups in Norway, Holland and France. This is confirmed by the Dutch Royal Corps of Signals Verbindingsdienst web site. It was also later used by the British Army during the Korean war as was Wireless Sets No. 62.
The last PCR's made by Pye in Cambridge were completed in December 1946, and at the end of production a few extra sets were found to have been made. These were offered to employees for £10 each. PCR equipment manufactured by Philips Lamps were produced at their Mitcham Works factory, South London, and internally have the inspection stamp marks "MW".
I don’t know how many employees took up the offer - £10 was in line with domestic radio prices in the immediate post-war years, but like the over engineered 'Wartime Civilian Receiver', a very high price for an unattractive radio in a domestic setting - £350 at today’s prices. (No MW – only LW and SW). There were shedloads of PCRs for sale well into the late 1950s in surpus shops in Nottngham when I was in my teens, and in PW mag etc. (They also sold 'chocolate pig' Morse keys for 5 shillings each - I wish I'd bought a few - they seem to fetch ludicrous prices on e-bay, but then doesn't everyhing?)
Some of the info above from this source:
http://www.pyetelecomhistory.org/prodhis..._PCR_PCR2_
Rambled and dribbled Yorkie.
Quite often radios of the wrong era are depicted in TV progs - for example, listeners huddled round a Bush DAC90A (circa 1948) listening intently to Chamberlain's broadcast in Sept 1939 saying that Britian had declared war on Germany. This often causes vintage and military radio enthusists to become quite animated and vocal and to quistion why programme producers don't go to more trouble to get things right. I guess they have a point, in that the Vintage Wireless and TV Museum could advise and supply loan radios of the correct era.
However, to a producer of a TV prog, I've no doubt that it's a little thing in a busy day, and to the average viewer, of no consequence at all. It's a radio - sound is coming out of it - so? Such programmes are little more than light entertainment - at best, 'docu-dramas' or 'info-tainment' where historical accuracy of every aspect of every artifact on display is of little consequence. I dare say that people wth other interests will say 'that dinner plate design wasn't made till 1950' or 'that curtain material wasn't made till 1952'!
The odest thing I saw was in 'Heartbeat' where - in the station - they had a Trio JR310 amateur communications receiver into which the sergeant was bellowing orders via an unconnected microphone! I doubt that many viewers noticed, and those such as me who did, probably didn't get too het up or nerdy about it. As I said - 'light entertainment' - nothing more.
I'm not personally interested in military radios, though each year for many years in early autumn, along with my younger son (44) and sometimes my wife, we go on escorted battlefield tours of WW1 and WW2. (Normandy, The Somme, Colditz, the Dams, Berlin, Prague, Dresden and so on). The three of us recently spent a week in France visiting such places as the 'Martyred Village' of Oradour Sur Glane, deserted and left as it was on 10 June 1944 when the Germans massacred almost 700 villagers in what had until then been a peaceful village in Vichy France. (It features in the opening credits to the acclaimed 'The World At War' series). Also we visited Bordeaux (Cockelshell Heros) and various other places connected with the SAS, SOE and French resistance movements. (Violette Szarbo - Carve Her Name With Pride' etc). Often, these daring couragious events, with much loss of life, had little impact on the outcome of the war, other than to boost morale.
As in other such tours, be it Normany, 'Operation Market Garden' (Arnhem - 'A Bridge Too Far') or wherever, what often becomes apparent is that military radio equipment often didn't perform well or at all, notably VHF radios. Indeed, communications equipment errors such as wrong crystal frequencies at Arnhem probably contributed to prolonging the war by several months. A small hand-held transceiver costing no more than £35.00 today will comfortably out-perform WW2 military equipment.
Looking back to a time when there was a paucity of materials, many military sets seem grossly over engineered and overly large and heavy for the task in hand, but I guess that will have depended on the design brief. (Why build an R1155 to last for decades when it's average life was, I believe, just 19 weeks?). It strikes me that one such rather cumbersome radio was the Pye 'PCR' which stands for 'Portable Communications Receiver’ though I’ve heard it said many times that it meant ‘Personal Comfort Radio’ intended for welfare purposes such as in the NAFFI rather than for battlefield comms. No doubt that’s a popular myth.
The PCR was designed by Pye Ltd in Cambridge and the drawings finalised in March 1944. The design was manufactured by Pye, Philips Lamps and Invicta Radio (another company run by the Stanley family who owned Pye Ltd). Pye was initially contracted to produce 5000 PCR1 and 12000 PCR2/3 units at a rate of about 800 per month. The total Philips production figures aren't known, but are thought to have been around 15,000 - 17,000 units. The Pye equipments were manufactured on an out-work basis by teams of assemblers in the "Pye Village Industries" scheme in village halls and other buildings around East Anglia.
The PCR is often described as a 'forces welfare receiver' or 'NAAFI receiver', however this is thought to be a popular myth, and probably relates to a later post-war application for some of the large quantities of sets remaining after the war, never put into use in the short time that the war continued after PCRs fist went into production.
War-time employees of Pye Ltd are certain that the equipment was intended as an "Invasion Receiver", that is, a general purpose, portable communications receiver (hence the type designation PCR) , for use in Europe by the British 2nd Army after the D-Day Normandy landings, to receive military progress and information broadcasts as part of Operation Overlord, as the various divisions moved across Europe.
Recent info from British Armed Service personnel indicates that the set was also supplied by the RAF to Resistance Groups in Norway, Holland and France. This is confirmed by the Dutch Royal Corps of Signals Verbindingsdienst web site. It was also later used by the British Army during the Korean war as was Wireless Sets No. 62.
The last PCR's made by Pye in Cambridge were completed in December 1946, and at the end of production a few extra sets were found to have been made. These were offered to employees for £10 each. PCR equipment manufactured by Philips Lamps were produced at their Mitcham Works factory, South London, and internally have the inspection stamp marks "MW".
I don’t know how many employees took up the offer - £10 was in line with domestic radio prices in the immediate post-war years, but like the over engineered 'Wartime Civilian Receiver', a very high price for an unattractive radio in a domestic setting - £350 at today’s prices. (No MW – only LW and SW). There were shedloads of PCRs for sale well into the late 1950s in surpus shops in Nottngham when I was in my teens, and in PW mag etc. (They also sold 'chocolate pig' Morse keys for 5 shillings each - I wish I'd bought a few - they seem to fetch ludicrous prices on e-bay, but then doesn't everyhing?)
Some of the info above from this source:
http://www.pyetelecomhistory.org/prodhis..._PCR_PCR2_
Rambled and dribbled Yorkie.
Regards, David.
BVWS Member.
G-QRP Club Member 1339.
'I'm in my own little world, but I'm happy, and they know me here'
BVWS Member.
G-QRP Club Member 1339.
'I'm in my own little world, but I'm happy, and they know me here'
I'm looking forward to the next episode: BBC 2, Thursday @ 8.00 p.m.
