Hello Joe,
Yes, I forgot to mention I've removed the nasty sharp rolled steel
tape ant.and replaced it with a bike spoke.
I'm thinking of using 50ft. of wire to extend the ant. down the garden
from my window to see if I can receive the ground end of the
conversations.

Hartly.

Joe McElvenney wrote:
Hartly,

It has what looks like a small lead acid battery connected, but I cant
get it to charge or work. I use a 9v d.c. supply to work it.
Thanks, Hartly.

Years ago, one of the departments under me used to repair SABRE's.
There is an official battery adaptor but they used to take the guts out
of an unserviceable battery, drill a hole in the fluted end and feed
wires into it. I cannot remember the battery type as it was some years
ago but I don't think that it was ordinary carbon zinc, alkaline or even
NiCad/NiMH.

The idea as I remember it was for there to be a beacon (alternating
tones) on the distress channel and an airman to rescue craft talk-back
channel for when they got close to him/her. We used them on different
frequencies though for ground to helicopter liaison which was not very
mission critical. You could easily heave it and try another one if need
be. I once pulled the ring on one of the older models when in a mate's
car and it nearly put his eye out when the antenna suddenly unfurled :-(


Cheers - Joe