Renault TSF – Rebuilding the Antenna Mast and Antenna Reel - Inside Track | Renault TSF Tank Kent

The past articles describing a member's remarkable archive find led to a plan to remedy our previous efforts to reproduce the reel and antenna mast. Both had to be stripped out completely and begun again. The phenolic resin sheet (pre bakelite) material ordered specially from India for the Renault FT and TSF dipsticks, had been pressed into action for our earlier attempt to create the reel and pulley mechanism at the top of the mast. This had to be scrapped as it was 8mm thick and the plans showed 3mm thick reel sides and the reel had been drilled in places to fit the schematic from the Loading Plan manual. Thinner bakelite sheet was purchased and the two round plates were created from the newly delivered board. The holes were drilled and new handles made as per the archive diagram. The images show the reel lock in the form of a pin which was later dropped in favour of a chain given that the pin was more difficult to lock in the same place every time and the chain offered a more flexible and practical solution. The next series of images show the pulley at the top of the antenna mast. This had originally been sized in relation to the diameter of the mast itself. The dimensions for this and its housing were also missing from the drawings but could be easily calculated from the known mast diameter. The mast diameter was established from the hole in the roof of the TSF cupola to the right rear of the hatch. The drawings we had used previously had been schematics from the Loading Plan manual and a manual mentioned a number of times, "Reglement des Unites De Chars Legers Description Et Entretien De Materiel" dated 1932. These proved to be a trap given what we now know but were at the time the only source material available. A further manual from the Ministry of War Instruction Sur L’Emploi du Materiel de T.S.F ondes entretenues type E10 listing the loading plan for the TSF provided yet another trap as it listed that 2 fibre baton antenna masts were required for the Renault TSF. We discussed in a previous piece how the length of the masts was misleading given the few side-on images of the masts stowed on the side of a period Renault TSF. The mast length established by using a almost perfect side on image was used initially in sizing the length of the carbon fibre rods used in lieu of the fibre baton antenna masts mentioned above. The carbon fibre masts once made and strapped to the side of the Renault TSF when driving, were not successful. We could not stow spare fibre baton in the position as shown in the image from WW1 – they would melt. The intense heat generated by the exhaust literally brought the fibre batons to melting point. The new archive information on the antenna mast build described metal pipes. These would not melt when exposed to the heat of the exhaust, but we no longer could rely on the Instruction Sur L’Emploi du Materiel de T.S.F ondes entretenues type E10 given the trap we had fallen into previously. We would ignore the image and the document and simply recreate the steel antenna mast with its distinctive pulley and stow the tools on the side of the Renault TSF instead of the antenna masts. No spares only the single mast!.

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