wythall radio club

      The author Chris in the workshop

              Restoring the Admiralty Pattern 1271 Buzzer Repeater Key by Chris Pettitt

Member may recall I purchased a Lot of six vintage morse keys at a local auction, sight unseen a couple of months ago. I have already written of my experiences in restoring the Vibroplex Champion semi-automatic bug key. (See Library index). The next key in the Lot to get my attention was the Admiralty Pattern 1271 Buzzer Repeater Key. A strange looking device indeed, not only a key but an earpiece, a B15 bulb holder and an on/off switch (see picture below)

         “a strange looking device indeed”

your supervisor is calling

 I did some research and found a circuit for the unit and according to Brundit’s Morse Key website it has been suggested, but not confirmed, that this type of unit was used on large warships for internal communications between the main W/T office and other      offices. As well as the earpiece (acting as LS) it has a miniature bulb which was used to attract attention when the Radio Supervisor was calling. (See Circuit above). I reckoned the buzzer unit was from the 1940s.   

Further research via Google, took me to a 1930 Royal Navy Document W5 which showed that similar units were located at various stations on the vessel and were connected to an audio oscillator in the Ship’s Coding office. They were clearly used internal signalling purposes using the key. Warships would have had several means of internal communications, i.e. Voice tubes, tannoy, etc in case of damage during action. I hope to find out more about how these units were used, particularly what signalling codes may have been use.

I stripped the whole unit down to individual parts and using a combination of warm water, vinegar and metal polish cleaned all the parts and rebuilt it. The only thing I had to replace was the internal wiring which was fabric covered solid core copper wire which had deteriorated. This was replaced with modern plastic covered equivalent.  I also discovered that the bulb needed to be 12-14V DC with a 15mm bayonet fitting, so found a suitable red one from a ship chandlers’. It cleaned up rather nicely as you can see below.

          …..and the finished article ready for the museum

COMING SOON.. DATES FOR THE DIARY:

1.THE EASTER CONTEST AWARDS EVENING .. WHO WILL WIN THE MUCH COVETED (AND MYTHICAL??) CHOCOLATE EGGS- TUESDAY APRIL 23RD. 8.30

2. “ASK THE EXPERTS”

(OR ANYONE FROM WYTHALL RADIO CLUB REALLY) ASK THOSE QUESTIONS ABOUT RADIO YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO ASK. TUESDAY 8TH MAY AT 8.30 PM

BOTH MEETINGS IN THE DARTS’ ROOM AT WYTHALL HOUSE; ALL VERY WELCOME AND ZOOM AVAILABLE.