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[winchman]

My son is restoring a Series 2A Land rover. He had to buy a pair of wings to get a good one!

One has this what we think is an aerial base?

Now is it any use?

What is it?

What should we ask /  swap it for?

Should we just bin it?

Thanks in advance

[Dentman]

It's not quite like the aerial boxes  I've seen before, unless like me there are bits missing
I'd expect Dave from Arthur Daley's Winchester Club to pull on it saying, "Orright  Arfur?"

[Porkscratching]

Therye not military wings certainly, probably someone built a 'walty' motor, painted it NATO green and bolted lots of oddments all over it !
I wouldn't bin the thing tho, id shove it on ebay as an unknown military vehicle FFR part or something..

[Matt Reeves]

I don't recognise it, except to say it's fairly recent, probably made within the last twenty years and while it looks similar to some of the newer Bowman kit I suspect it could be European in origin. Gene might have more ideas?.

As suggested it's probably of interest to someone.

[geoff]

 .... Borg Technology - it's been assimilated 

[winchman]

Thanks I have asked on a military forum but as yet no reply?

[w3526602]

Hi Winchman,

If you hear a funny noise on the roof, it's the SAS dropping in for a cuppa!

602

PS ... I only met the SAS once ... RAF Sharjah, 1961 ... uncouth lot ... Tommy guns all over the cookhouse tables. 

[Steve_C]

Looks similar to this:
https://store.cbeagle.co.uk/clansman-base-antenna-element

Except says it would normally be mounted on top of an antenna mast rather than on a vehicle wing.

Steve

[gcc130]

It’s been suggested to me they it’s made up of bits, spring on top may be Bowman, pineapple is possibly Clansman
Bits and pieces out of the parts bin?

[julesthorne]

Is there a NATO stock number on it?

Like Z99 5985 99 633 6237 - the numbers all mean something, for example the 99 is the country code (99 = uk and 01 = us etc etc for all NATO members) 5985 is for clansman range.

Could find out more with a view of the other side :)

[Genem]

I don't recognise it, except to say it's fairly recent, probably made within the last twenty years and while it looks similar to some of the newer Bowman kit I suspect it could be European in origin. Gene might have more ideas?.

As suggested it's probably of interest to someone.

Its not a normal antennae tuning setup from either the "Larkspur" range or the later "Clansman" kit. In lieu of any other information I'd agree with the "walty lash-up" theory. A military radio rivet counter will doubtless be able to identify the components...  Strangest radio kit I had to work with was based on Pye Westminster radios, more usually seen in Taxis. Another setup used civilian HF marine radios lugged about in converted horsebox trailers ….but I'm not allowed to talk about that :-) 

[winchman]

It has a plate on the sidePV1415 Plessey Avionics & Communications
50W wideband  C.F. Antenna matching unit 30-100MHz

[agg221]

It has a plate on the sidePV1415 Plessey Avionics & Communications
50W wideband  C.F. Antenna matching unit 30-100MHz

I think that puts a date range on it between 1961 when that division was formed and 1988 when Plessey was bought by GEC and branded its products "GEC Plessey", although I can't be absolutely certain about that division as I was involved with the civilian telecoms bit.

Alec

[Genem]

The Clansman range of radio kit included the Tuning Unit Automatic Antenna Matching or TUAAM.  Probably not seen on many S2, S2A vehicles, which would have been going out of service by the time Clansman was in widespread use. Pic below.

Prior to that the normal kit was "Larkspur" ….  http://remlr.com/wireless/larx/Links.htm#SEC5

I have vivid memories of tuning the C42 both in the back of FFR landrovers and in the back of my "ferret". Good excuse for digging out the "Young Rommel" pic... 

Edited to add, that .30 Browning had a plate on it confirming it was built by "International Harvester" in 1942.... still in service in the 1980s. The irony of a machine gun built by International Harvester stays with me still, for what is war if not International Harvesting...

Stopping now, starting to sound like 602 :-)

[julesthorne]

It has a plate on the sidePV1415 Plessey Avionics & Communications
50W wideband  C.F. Antenna matching unit 30-100MHz

So that’s a pineapple.  They have just fixed it to a wing, I seen them used like this and placed in trees and other such locations.   As stated , normally for a UK RT 353 (30 - 79.975Mhz) you would have a TUAAM and ARFAT. The ARFAT would be in the back of the Vehicle and the TUAAM on the wing contained within a metal box use of these was to ensue the antenna - in this case vehicle whip replicated the required tuned length for the frequency selected.  The other option would be to connect the radio to the pineapple and place the pinapple on top of a PU12 mast, this would give you omni directional antenna cable of operating at 50W  something you couldn’t do with the wing mounted TUAAMThere are other setups but this would be for other countries. Having spent several decades on with Clansman (which still used Larkspur equipment for things such as remote head set etc) and later Bowman equipments it is surprising what a squaddie with make if they think it would save them time!! :) Remember we exported a lot of our innovation (or rather our defence industry did) this could just be a variant used buy other countries or such.

There was similar on UK RT 321 (H.F) where they had a SURF and a TURF, inline to tune the antenna and to ensure as little interference with neighbouring installations as possible.

I could waffle for hours, but i won’t that’s what becomes of being a R Signals Radio Tech!! :)