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Old 20th Mar 2015, 23:02
  #25 (permalink)  
Dora-9
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: SE Qld, Australia
Age: 77
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Coff:

I'm pretty certain that no RAF Chipmunks were fitted with both Vhf and Uhf radios (they were either Vhf or Uhf equipped) ... with respect to Mil Vhf aerial installation, this was under the starboard wing.
Unthinkable I know, but I suspect that I was (generally) wrong and that therefore you were correct about this. I've just trawled through my RAF Chipmunk photos, normally a lovely thing to do but this time rather marred by that sinking feeling that I'd erred - big time! It seems that, with very very few exceptions (I only found three), RAF Chipmunks had either a UHF radio (the two fuselage "blade" antennae) or a VHF radio ("whip" antenna under the RH wing).

The first exception to the rule seems to have been Birmingham UAS' WG307 which carried both aerial styles as noted above, which is not to say that both radios were actually fitted. Further to my earlier comment about the layout of WG98?'s Day-Glo fuselage stripes, note the two variations apparent here (the cowling stripes on WP790 have rounded leading edges too):



Also, I had it firmly fixed in my brain that the VHF antenna was always the swept white "rod" style fitted to the upper tail cone. I'm not sure where this notion came from. Again looking at the evidence provided only two examples, if nothing else validating my favorite adage that "assumption is the mother of all cock-ups".

WG480, possibly with 4 AEF, which would date this in the late 1980's (note both UHF and VHF antennae carried here):



WD310, I don't know when & where, but since this one was noted at EFTS wearing a "hydbrid" scheme (a combination of the first and second R/W/LG schemes) in August 1987 it's apparently after that (only a VHF radio here?):



Cheers,
D9

Last edited by Dora-9; 21st Mar 2015 at 11:12.
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