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Many electrical and junk stores sold these in the late 1950s. Many came from RAF Lincoln bombers which were being de-commissioned (the Lincoln was the last development of the Lancaster) and many of the sets had been in service in Lancasters during WW2.

Those sold as receivers had their transmission equipment either fully removed or disabled and could be picked up for between ?5 and ?10 - remember the average manual worker wage at the time was around ?5 - ?7/10s

I've still got my licence to transmit on SW. I had to take a technical exam and morse code test - I can still transmit and receive morse, but not much call for it these days !laugh! I made most of my equipment.

My Uncle when he was in the RAF was a signal controller and of course used morse code.

When I took my morse test back in the 70's it was still the mainstay of ship to shore communication. I had to go to the Post Office radio station at North Foreland, where there were loads of bored looking blokes hunched over morse keys. A genial old gent, who was their manager, took me out to a shed, gave me a pen and pad and sent me a message to copy down at a generously slow speed - they don't do it any more !sad!!oldie!

Communication by morse code has ended. No more dots and dashes. !sad!

Mysteryman wrote:

the Lincoln was the last development of the
> Lancaster

Wasn't the Avro Lancastrian/York the final development of the "Lanc" ?

Sorry,just reading this thread (whilst slightly drunk) and really enjoying it. Only posted this,because MM strikes me as the kinda chap who could probably teach me a thing or two on one of me all time favourite kites.

Sorry again

BB

Like RGB I took the ham exam which enabled me to transmit on VHF then I took the morse which then allowed me to communicate on the HF/ short wave bands. 28Mhz (10 metres) being one of the HF frequencies. This is close to the 27Mhz (11 metre) used by CB'ers.

In the early 80's I had to drive out to a naval place right on the east of Kent called North Foreland to take the Morse Code test at 12 words per minute.

What an old fashioned thing morse code is. I remember showing a visitor my station and when he saw my morse key he was convinced I was a spy.

Just sold all my equipment on ebay last month. Really surprised how many people were interested in it as it was 20years old.

Anyhow coming back to the short wave band (HF).
Whilst tuning around you would often have a sound come over, a bit like a machine gun. It was nicknamed the woodpecker and would sweep/jump up and down the band.
This actually was a very high powered transmiiter in Russia that was bouncing these pulses off aircraft and was an "Over the Horizon" radar.

Commercial Aircraft flying across the Atlantic still contact Gander, New York, Shannon, Canaries, Santa Maria Azores and Dakar West Africa all these HF/Short Wave transmissions are receivable in the UK.

Military Aircraft call Lajes in the Azores. (Portugese islands in the middle of the Atlantic)

Shanwick (Shannon and Prestwick centres combined)

Frequencies

4742, is 4.742 Mhz on SSB single side band
15016 is 15.016 Mhz SSB

Spying Numbers stations were easy to hear.

PC (G4...)

The Lancastrian was a civilianised version of the Lancaster bomber, mainly used by British South American and BOAC. Basically the gun turrets were deleted, a few windows were added plus chairs and some soundproofing. The first was built in Canada in 1943 by converting Lancaster bombers for high speed trans-Atlantic diplomatic and mail flights. Most were built in 1945 - a total of 91 being completed including the Canadian conversions

The York utilised the Lancaster's wings, engines and the tail structure, plus an additional fin married to an all new fuselage, first flying in 1942.

The Lincoln was a beefed up Lancaster with many new components and a number of design changes which made its profile different in a number of ways. It didn't enter service until 1945.

The Shackleton - considered by some to be the end of the Lancaster line had different engines (Griffons as opposed to Merlins), a new fuselage and wings developed from the Lincoln. It entered service in 1949.

Many consider it to be a totally different design and its purpose - maritime reconnaisance and defence - put it in a different operational role to all but a few Lancasters.

Hey MM!!

Wow that was concise and that's for sure!!

I take it,AVRO is a bit of a passion of yours. You may well become my go to guy on the subject. So many things I did not know in that one post alone. Certainly made for some inteesting reading,ta.

Thanks chap

BB

No problem BeestonBoy. I was brought up 10 miles from the factory at Woodford and as my "local" planemaker I was a regular visitor during the 50s, 60s and 70s to both the side ofthe runway and on factory tours.