British Army Equipment Designations
British Army Equipment Designations
In the forthcoming time, I will try to enter some British Army equipment in our database here at radiomuseum.org.
Many British Army transceivers carry a designation like "Wireless Set. No..xxx". Very much in depth information on all of these sets can be found in the excellent books of Louis Meulstee, who did write four books about British Army communications equipment.
Most of my knowledge about British sets do originate from studying his excellent books, I only have a small number of Wireless Sets in my collection, one of the most famous ist the "Wireless Set No. 19" which was sold as surplus after the war and was used by many radio amateurs.
Very early nomenclature
Shortly after World War I, did not only a carry a designation derived from the input power but got a letter code, starting from A used for sets used from forward troops very near the frontline, with ascending letters for equipment used further "behind".
Mobile stations got a prefix letter "M".
Nomenclature of Wireless sets 1929 - 1948
In 1929, six sets with different communication ranges habe been introduced, from No. 1 Set for short range communication to No. 6 set for world wide range.
After 1930, the last figure of the Wireless Set nomenclature indicated this same communications range or purpose, later designs of sets with the same purpose got a second number as a prefix in ascending order, e.g. 19, 29, ...
New sets under development got an letter "X" in front of the future designation.
| Type of Set | Designation | Later Designs |
| Short range Brigade, Artillery/GP | No. 1 | 11, 21, etc. |
| Short range Division / GP | No. 2 | 12, 22, 62, etc. |
| Medium Range Corps, mobile set | No. 3 | 23, 33, 43, etc. |
| Long range transportable GHQ / Base set | No. 5 | 15 |
|
Long range transportable Army chain later: special types |
No. 6 No. 26 |
36, 46, 76, etc. |
|
Interim AFV (armoured fighting vehicle) set later: special types |
No. 7 No. 17 |
27, 37, 47, etc. |
| Infantry battalion manpack set | No. 8 | 18, 28, 38, etc. |
| AFV set (armoured fighting vehicle) | No. 9 | 19, 29, 49, etc. |
| Local control set for AFVs (armoured fighting vehicles) | No. 14 | 24, 34 |
| Jamming set | No. 16 | 56 |
| UHF sets with optical paths | No. 10 | 20 |
Canadian sets designed and manufactured in Canada not having an exact British equivalent got a designation with a prefix C.
Australian sets linked with British models usually got a designation with a 100 - prefix, e.g. Wireless Set 101 instead of 1.
Nomenclature after 1948
After the count of "Wireless sets" reached a number of 88, a new nomenclature has been introduced in 1948 consisting of a letter (indicating the power input) and a number indicating the frequency range.
For in depth informations, go and get a copy of the Meulstee books,
hope that helps
Martin Boesch
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British Army Equipment Designations
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To continue this topic after 1950, there have been two schemes used
1950s and "Larkspur" system until 1980s
Firstly from around 1950 until 1976 new sets had one letter and two numbers. The letter indicated power and the two numbers indicated frequency range. The letter increases with power. I do not remember the power limits for each range but "A" sets were generally portable under 5W, "B" sets were generally small mobile sets in the 10-20W range, "C" sets were larger mobiles around 20-50W and the "D" sets were large truckmounted sets well over 100W. Numbers below 30 are HF and numbers above 30 are VHF.
For example A16 was a small HF patrol set, B47 was a low power VHF mobile, and C12 was a modernised Wireless Set 19.
Sets with a separate receiver used an A/B/C/D designation for the transmitter and an R number for the receiver continuing the WW2 series. For example C11/R210 for the largest transportable HF station and D11/R234 was a Marconi marine set installed in a 4x4 truck.
1976 onwards NATO standard
After 1976 the Clansman and Bowman ranges of sets have used American style numbering starting UK/PRC for portable and handheld sets and UK/VRC for mobile and fixed stations followed by a number in the 300-399 range. A few older sets that continued in use past 1980 were renumbered by adding 300 to the original type number (so Station Radio A16 became UK/PRC-316), and the future UK/PRC-320 was first mentioned as B20. The Clansman range and associated sets were:
UK/PRC-316 4W CW/AM patrol set ex A16 by STC in service 1965 to early 1980s
UK/PRC-319 40W CW/AM/SSB/Data heavy manpack by M.E.L. used by UK Specisal forces from 1989
UK/PRC-320 30W CW/AM/SSB HF manpack by Plessey issued 1976
UK/VRC-321 45W CW/AM/SSB HF fixed/mobile by M.E.L. issued 1976
UK/VRC-322 250W CW/AM/SSB/RTTY HF fixed/mobile by M.E.L. issued 1976
UK/PRC-344 UHF AM airband ground to air set by Plessey
UK/PRC-349 VHF FM 36-46MHz 250mW near-handheld by Racal issued late 1970s
UK/PRC-350 VHF FM 30-56MHz 2W light manpack by Racal issued 1976
UK/PRC-351 VHF FM 30-76MHz 4W manpack by Racal issued 1976
UK/PRC-352 UK/PRC-352 with 20W (nominal) 30W (in real use) amplifier
UK/VRC-353 VHF FM 30-76MHz 50W fixed/mobile set by Marconi
From 2007 onwards these sets were replaced by the "Bowman" range which use spare numbers in the UK/VRC-3xx range
I hope this helps
Iain
73 de G0OZS
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