Following on from our look at the WS38 Mk III radio last month, today we are looking at the accompanying aerial. In place of the older WS38 set’s aerial which consisted of four foot long rods that needs their own carry case, the WS38 MkIII uses a folding aerial that can be carried inside the No 10 Signal Satchel in the rear compartment. There were actually two sets of aerials carried, A pair of No 1 aerials (which is this one) for short range work and a pair of No 2 aerials which were attached to the No 1 to give an eight foot length for longer range work. According to the checklist one set was for use and another for spares. The No 1 aerial consisted of five sections:

These were connected to one another by a length of wire that runs the full length of the aerial and holds the pieces together when disassembled:

The sections press fit together to create a single four foot long aerial:

With the four foot aerial the radio had a range of one mile and with the eight foot aerial it had a range of three miles. The aerials were also used by the WS62 set.