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B is for - Feldfunksprecher b, b1, b2


Funksammler

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And here is a novelty that I have in my parts box, and that I have yet to see period pictures of. 
This is a original ground dug rear Feldfu.b cover with white stenciling.

69548663_390222921687671_6650783675631796224_n.jpg

69571512_1302591623242970_5671349708430245888_n.jpg

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Top pictures shows a Torn.Fu.g; you can identify it by the thick antenna coil on top of the radio.. The SS pictures show the Feldfu.f with the angled antenna in use, especially the last picture clearly shows the white dot of the "f"; the one in the rubber boat shows the Feldfu.f or h while the picture with the Stug shows the Feldfu.h (the antenna is not fitted, so the set is not yet in use...) with a brown/oragne dot. The Feldfu.h and f should not be used within 200 meters of the armoured vehicles, as the regenerative circuit of the Feldfunksprecher would jam the sensitive Ukw.E.e/h receivers in the vehicle at short range.

regards,

Funksammler

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Ah Yes, you are absolutely correct, @Funksammler. I just noticed the blooper just now. These were just a bunch of reference files that I had collected in one folder. I'll edit out the incorrect pictures, and rather post them in the correct threads.

Best regards
Björn

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4 hours ago, Björn said:

And here is a novelty that I have in my parts box, and that I have yet to see period pictures of. 
This is a original ground dug rear Feldfu.b cover with white stenciling.

69548663_390222921687671_6650783675631796224_n.jpg

69571512_1302591623242970_5671349708430245888_n.jpg

I wonder if this is a very early cover, it seems that it is overpainted Dunkelgrau over Feldgrau. I have seen some other evidence that pre-production/early  models were painted Feldgrau and were later overpainted. The early nature may also explain the use of white letters, changed to black once the production colour scheme was applied.

regards,

Funksammler

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Earlier this year, I got my first Feldfu b1 for my collection. This would normally NOT be a radio that I would fork out money for, due to the condition - but this one was Dirt-Cheap so to speak, and I just could not let it pass. (At least  in comparisment to what other examples has been going for lately.)
It looked a little shabby, and the thin-rim casing was overpainted in a horrid green paint. I did have a hope, that I would be able to peel or clean off the postwar paint, but unfortinently no such luck. The green paint would not come off at all without taking off the original underlaying gray paint.

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The frontpanel was very dirty - but in rather good condition.

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Then I did a check of the usual things, to try to get it back on the air. The contacts in the vibrator had to be cleaned and adjusted.

And the big block capacitor had swollen up and did not work. I took it out, and replaced the original contents with modern capacitors inside the original housing. This is what it looked like.

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Usually, these repairs I did here, does the trick, and most feldfunksprechers would come back to life.

But this time it did not. The radio worked only half way - The transmitter was up and running, But the lf-stage was not - there was no radionoise in the earphones, when I released the TX button.
So I started measuring around and found that there was a dead spool. 
The R1 spool, of 450 Ohm in the combined Ü1 (überträger) had no contact at all.

012.thumb.jpg.b0eba3a86703e2b93a2ebc5846a31a80.jpg

 

Here is when I measured it:

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And to be absolutely sure, I measured the same spool on a working Feldfu b:

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And here I had to ask a friend for help. I took out the spool, brought it to a friend of mine and he rewired the whole thing for me. 
The thread had corroded off inside the spool, and it could not be saved.

 

 


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But he took great care to reuse the original wax paper and the original label inside the wax-paper on the spool, after rewiring it.

IMG_0512.thumb.jpg.30676b043469821c548f77a526504c79.jpg

 

I then refitted the parts, and connected a battery and switched it on - and I got instant radionoise on the earphones. It just felt like it had never been anything wrong with it in the first place.
I managed to carefully heat up and loosen the small ceramic trimmer and fine-tuned/calibrated the radio against the Frequenzprüfgerät f, so that it would fit perfectly up against my other radios.

I then cleaned up the whole thing, and repainted the bakelite casing in the correct color. I paintet the III on the side of the casing, as I already have a Feldfunksprecher with II originally painted on the casing. (and I think it looks cool 😎)

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The frontpanel with its original paint looks so much better afer a good cleaning. It was really just dirty.

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Edited by Björn
Edited out spelling errors.
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I just now a couple of minutes ago discovered something funny. Look at the Feldfu b1 at 

https://www.nachrichtentruppe.de/en/34-all-categories/projects/162-vitebsk-1944-a-german-infantry-funker-radio-operator-equipped-with-feldfu-b1

There is only 31 radios between the Feldfu b1 that I have, and the one pictured there:

Here is mine:

b1003a.thumb.jpg.45ca9831a65ea082eef0e01ba510a7a2.jpg

And the one pictured at nachtrichtentruppe.de:

feldfub1_6.jpg.7fcca7c7b3af4fd07e7fc4764981002c.jpg

Even the waffenamt markings match - here is mine (hard to get a good picture of the weak black ink stamp):

b1007.thumb.JPG.8a30d41d7b225f3373994dee5f48dcd7.JPG

And the funny thing is, that both radios are mounted in a early thin-rim bakelite casing - not the reinforced thick edge casing. It would be interesting to see if there are other b1's in the close proximity serial numbers that also are in the early type casings (i.e. -maybe a far reach, but perhaps a few b1's got delivered in first type casings?), or if both radios just had their original casings switched with older type casings. Anyway on my own radio, there is nothing to read of original legend stencils - the casing was repainted when I got it, so it's impossible to see what was originally stencilled on the bakelite case.

Best Regards
Björn

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@Björn - i think some B1's came already from the factory with "thin" B cases,

some evidence support this, but the research must go on, too few samples yet...

 

Here is little bigger number B1 in B case, but the radio is very complete.

Rückenstütze is missing, but striked out on the lid.

http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/showthread.php?t=735364

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Thank you @val
Yes there is. The Rückenstütze on the list in the lid has been struck out. But this is a ealy type (b model) thin rim case, not the reinforced later (b1) model case.
So most likely the case has been changed at some point. (Unless some of the new b1 models perhaps was issued in the old type of case)

But in my parts box, I have a ground dug loose back lid for a b1 model, and in this list the Rückenstütze is also struck out.

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6 minutes ago, Björn said:

Yes there is. The Rückenstütze on the list in the lid has been struck out. But this is a ealy type (b model) thin rim case, not the reinforced later (b1) model case.
So most likely the case has been changed at some point. (Unless some of the new b1 models perhaps was issued in the old type of case)

But in my parts box, I have a ground dug loose back lid for a b1 model, and in this list the Rückenstütze is also struck out.

Yes, i did understand it, by B1 i did mean radio itself. So far all the B1 radios that i have seen inside B case had

Rückenstütze striked out on the lid. I don't think they did it on the field or repair depot, but most probably in the factory.

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I think you are on to something here, @val.
I have seen several examples of the struck out Rückenstütze in several radios, and also the struck out and changed from 1 to 2 Doppelfernhörer f. They have all been done in such a similar manner, that I too suspect that these things were done before the radios were issued, either by the factory, or the issue depot.
If this was done by different field depots or waffenmeisters, I would expect to see larger variations of how these orders were carried out.

Edited by Björn
Edited out spelling errors.
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Thanks for the links, @val. Interesting stuff.
I was looking at the Feldfu b1 at WAF, and I am pretty sure that the radio shown there is also from the same factory as mine, and @Nachrichtentruppe.de's radios. I wish we had a better picture of the waffenamt mark on the one at WAF. I do see a black inkstamp there, but it's impossible to read the numbers on that picture. And according to the serial number it is only a little more than 300 radios later than the ones that I and @Nachrichtentruppe.de have.
 

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 @Björn- please make pictures of any stamps you see inside your B1 and then we can

determine the factory.

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I will, but not tonight.
It's already past midnight, and I have to go to bed - I have to get up for work in just 6 hours 😕
I will see what I can do tomorrow afternoon or tomorrow evening.

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