Renault TSF – The Antenna Wire and Rope Assembly - Inside Track | Renault TSF Tank Kent

A struggle for over 6 months prior to the launch of the Renault TSF was to find a solution to the rope and cable arrangement for the radio apparatus. Earlier breakthroughs in establishing accurate dimensions for the trenching skid and attachment specific to the Renault TSF left us with an unfounded confidence in our later quest for resolving the cable and rope combination for the same vehicle. Dimensioning the rope was not too difficult given 4 very good images we had in our archive. The critical width for the very thick rope used to drag behind the Renault TSF to achieve the required length was dimensioned using known sizes on the Renault FT. Two images one of a post war Renault TSF shows a rope coiled around the cupola on the square armoured section beneath. The other image provided by Expedito Bastos (an academic attached to the Brazilian Army) showed a Renault TSF on parade in the 1920s from the rear. The rope was coiled up neatly and belted on the triangular attachment above the trenching skid. These two images provided us with the means to determine a close outer diameter of 75mm. Finding a 75mm plus rope today is not easy. Despite multiple calls and explanatory emails to the Chatham Ropeyard all enquiries ended nowhere. They were not interested in helping us as the 75mm rope required was supposedly too short for their rope making equipment. The length was subsequently determined to be much longer than our earlier calculations. Another very good image of a prototypical TSF with the cable, guide (or lead) rope and longer 75mm thick rope provided us with the components of the antenna assembly. A return to the Brazilian TSF image using a basic understanding of pi, the 75mm diameter, and how many decreasing loops made up one of two rows indicated this thicker rope was no longer 5 metres but 10 metres long. The largest diameter hemp rope we could find was 60mm – acquired too late for the TSF’s first outing but in time to be spliced and completed by an expert from the island of Barra!!!. The dimensions of what is required are drawn on a schematic provided in a 1930 manual. The lengths are different in later years as we have seen most post war examples with what appears to be a severed end. The rope was presumably too bulky and long for the crews and shortened as a result.

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