MCR 1 Receiving Set

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Gentlemen

Following on from Brian's excellent posts on the Wireless set no19 and the Fullerphone I wanted to show an example of a rare piece of World war two communications equipment that I had in my collection until a short time ago.

The MCR1 receiving set was issued in large numbers to the various Resistance movements in Occupied Europe often being air dropped in a silver coloured 'Huntley and Palmers' one pound biscuit tin. The set was only able to recieve communications and was designed to be powered by a 90 volt B+ power supply or from a plug in companion power supply unit which allowed the receiver to operate on four ranges of AC mains voltages.

The set itself comprised of the compact receiver itself and five plug in valves and coils covering various frequency ranges. A wire anttenae was also supplied with the set along with 120 ohm headphones. Unfortunately the set shown had been seperated from its tin container but apart from that was in almost complete condition.

The excellent Amberley Open Air museum in Sussex England has a number of examples of ths set, one complete with its tin. My example was passed to me by the son of a Major who served with the Royal Signals in the Far East during World War Two and then in a Signals School postwar.

The first image shows the set with its accessories.

Simon

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The set itself with valve box attached.

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The valve boxes covering the various frequencies.

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The power pack for the set.

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The wire anttenae wrapped around the original fibre type board.

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Finally the headphones.

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These sets are difficult to find in my experiance, the only others I've seen have been in museums and are an important part of the history of the liberation of occupied Europe.

Simon