This view shows the set with the front cover removed, ready to be connected to a 12V battery, antenna and earth.

The Aerial Medical Service (AMS) commenced operation in 1928 from Cloncurry in north-west Queensland, providing medical assistance to people in the outback. Before then, with no telephones or good roads in areas remote from Cloncurry, it was extremely difficult for people in those areas to access medical services – even though Cloncurry boasted a well-equipped hospital.

By contrast, the AMS had a doctor who could fly out to visit people in need of medical attention. Subsequently, the AMS became much more effective when, in 1929, the first radio link in what was to become the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) commenced at Cloncurry.

The radios in use at station homesteads at that time were extremely simple, consisting of a 1.5W single-valve Morse code transmitter (crystal controlled) and a 2-valve regenerative high-frequency (HF) TRF receiver. The base station was much more complex, as it transmitted voice with a power of 50W and used a high-performance receiver in order to receive the low-powered homestead transmissions (see "Outback Radio from Flynn to Satellites" by Rodney Champness for more details on the early days of the RFDS and the radios used in the outback).