Larkspur radio system

Larkspur was the name of a radio system used by the British Army. It was developed in the 1950s, introduced in the 1960s and replaced by Clansman in the late-1970s although some elements of Larkspur were still in service into the 1980s. The range of sets originally comprised the vehicle VHF sets C42, C45, B45, B47, B48, the A13 HF manpack transceiver and the C13 vehicle HF transceiver, all of which were designed to specifications produced by the government Signals Research and Development Establishment (SRDE) at Christchurch and initially known as the "New Range" to differentiate them from wartime legacy radios. They were characterized by similar tuning drills, the use of relatively simple architecture that avoided complex switching as far as possible and using commonly available components and a degree of modularity in construction. All the sets were constructed in hermetically sealed alloy enclosures - a measure that had been found to be essential to ensure durability and reliability during the previous war. Initially, rollout of these New Range sets was restricted to the Royal Armoured Corps and the Royal Artillery, however a project to re-equip the rest of the army was undertaken and given the name Larkspur, the name becoming retrospectively applied to the original New Range sets and eventually by common use to virtually all radio equipment used by the British Army between the end of WW2 and the arrival of Clansman

VHF manpack sets of the era were derived from established designs with the A41 and A42 being copied from the US AN/PRC 8, 9 & 10, and the A40 from the Canadian C/PRC26. Other sets developed commercially were bought in to suit specialist needs, examples being the HF156, A14 (BCC30) and A43R.Various other sets such as the B70 UHF carrier telephony relay, C11/R210 HF transmitter/receiver for Royal Signals use, and the transmitter D11 and its associated receiver, the R230 were commercial developments adopted by the British services. All such sets of the era became known under the generic name of Larkspur.

Trivia

In 1962, while the Larkspur program was underway, a horse named Larkspur running in the Derby won at 22/1. This was considered to be a good omen for the Larkspur project.

External links

* [http://wftw.nl/larkspur/larkspur1.html The Larkspur Page on the Wireless for the Warrior site]