[The WS No19] RE: [Milsurplus] Re: British Army Radio During WWII

[Hue Miller]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Hankins" <g7rvi@richard-hankins.org.uk>

> One reason for US sets being more carefully laid out is possibly that they
> had more time to get sets designed. The WS19 was a "rush job" of the first
> order.  THe WS11 was not produceable in volume and something had to be done
> quickly to get the volume of sets required.  When viewed in that context,
> the WS19 can be seen to be a fine effort to get something out quickly that
> functioned well enough to do the job - in at that sense it was a success.

Actually, this is something i appreciate about comm equipment
designed and produced during the actual war years. It was 
produced under great pressure and also had to try to fit
a design need that was a constantly movng target, with new 
conditions and information coming in all the time. A brief but
very intense few years of history. So those "rushed designs"
have a peculiar beauty all their own, when one considers the
exigent conditions of their production. Actually, at times it
would seem to be almost miraculous that the combatants could
marshal the resources to produce entirely new equipment.
Hue Miller