Panzer Antennen

[Funksammler]

I thought I start a thread sharing some pictures of various Panzer antennas. Most of these are for the Fu5 set, a two meter rod antenna on various mounts. I took these pictures a Bovington Camp.

Early in the war, the antenna was fixed to a spring loaded mount which could be lowered into a wooden trough for protection.

Panzer III:
Note how the antenna mount sticks out on a pod so that the antenna trough clears the air intakes:

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The antenna laid down in the trough:

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Close up of the mount, showing the springs controlling the sideways movement of the antenna:

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Panzer IV

Antenna mount in raised position, the two meter antenna rod has broken near the mount. On the Pz IV no pod was needed to clear the air intakes:

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The trough mounted to the side of the tank:

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Back end of the trough, note the space for the spare antenna rod under the trough:

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Close up of the back end of hte trough, clearly showing it was made of wood:

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The "Luchs" (Lynx)

While still using a collapsible antenna, the Luchs used the rubber antenna mount, creating a transitional design:

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The museum has overpainted the rubber mount, but through the paint the rubber insulator can clearly be recognised:

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The rotating mount appears to be made from thick steel, inside the mount it appears that the Porcelain insulator of the Fu8 (Mw.E.c + 30 W.S.c) indicating that this was a command tank. So the rotating antenna mount would probalby have been fitted with a Sternantenne D:

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The Bovington "Luchs" has a second antenne mount on the turret. It shows the standard mid to late war "Antennefuss 1" on a conical bracked near the roof of the tank. The top antenna was probably fitted with a two meter rod antenna for the Fu 5.

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King Tiger shows the typical setup on the Tiger and Panther tanks later in the War. The "Antennefuss 1" is simply placed on the rear deck:

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Sd. Kfz 234/3

In the final months of the war, the smaller "Antennefuss 2" was introduced. The smaller rubber insulator saved rubber, the antenna rod diameter was also reduced. The Sd. Kfz. was fitted with a Fuspr. F; similar mounts were used on late war Sd.Kfz 251 half tracks. I have yet to see the "Antennefuss 2" used with the Fu 5 on a tank, they seemed to have continued using the larger "Antennefuss 1" on the tanks:

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The antenna mount is the thin still assembly hanging over the top of the sloping armour of the vehicle. The museum policy seems to be to paint over all rubber antenna insulators:

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The Panzerkasten 2.. is mounted on the inside of the antenna mount. The antenna cable connecting the Panzerkasten to the antenna can be seen (the cable to the antenna connection box near the Fernspr. F is missing):

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Another view of the inside of the assembly:

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enjoy,

Funksammler

[la5he@yahoo.no]

Thanks Funksammler. Which museum is this ? Last year I visited the German panzermuseum north of Hannover, but they had nothing like this .
rgds Ragnar

[Asbjørn]

Interesting topic. Do you know what mount the StuG III used?

[Hue]

I have an antenna about 6 ft tall that i thought was possibly a Sterneantenne but then i realized it is way too heavy for that. Also the mechansim is frozen so i cannot extend the umbrella like arms. Once i learn to use my camera i will post some photos, as i plan to sell the antenna anyway. I wonder if it is part of the crank-up antenna for the radio trucks.

[Yuri D.]

I restored a Panther antenna system, here are some details:

Kasten 2g - this is the pass-through box to which the 10W.S.c connects:

[Yuri D.]

The Kasten 2f sits under the antenna mounting plate in a special basket. The photos are from Wheatcroft's panther:

[Yuri D.]

So we made this one to look and work the same:

[Yuri D.]

And here is the 2f box installed inside: