Firstly, be assured this comm prop is absolutely genuine.  Despite having key parts absent or altered when first found, it wasn't hard for anyone early on to know pretty much what this communicator was.  It came from the same person who also had the blatantly authentic Finney/TMOST hero Phaser 2, it had all the unique hallmarks of a Wah-built comm - and a stopwatch was inside.  Still, the auctioneer wanted to be rock-solid 100% sure, so some preliminary photos of the find were sent to our top expert emeritus (who two decades ago established Alpha's legitimacy) for independent corroboration.  While we are not at liberty at this time to show those pics, here are a few small excerpts of some specific details that our fellow looked at to render his full assurance for Julien's and for you...

The Shell

The small-pit haircell texture is a match to the 1960s-era Kydex (note - Alpha looks to have more of a shine due to different lighting):

Also the prop has no Velcro or trace of glue on the back - which is good, as Beta never actually did have Velcro.  Screencaps from "Elaan of Troyius" show the comm is not elevated that approximately 3/32" like it would be if it originally had it:

The Antenna

Here we have a clear match-up of every full or partial hole, wire gap and solder mark:

The back end of Beta's antenna is especially distinct, mostly due to the prominent angled gap between the sheet and wire adjacent to the right hinge wheel (the red arrow below):

The Mic Grill

This small detail provides the ultimate fingerprint test.  It was unexpected to see the radio mesh inverted (like in only Epsilon), so that its embossed diamonds point inside rather than outward:

In an earlier study of Beta's mic grill, where we tried using "Day of the Dove" screencaps to locate exactly where on an intact radio mesh sheet those unusual dark diagonal stripes (between the green arrows) appear...

... the possibility of the mic grill being inverted was never explored.  Thus a new lighting test was required here.  So standing in for the real prop is a nearly identical radio mesh placed behind a nearly identically-cut control panel, positioned so that the diamonds and holes also match the newly found comm:

When we lit our re-created mic grill similarly to how Beta was when filming "Day of the Dove," all the bright diamond facets, separated by those odd dark diagonal stripes, sure enough appear:

A mere two lit facets in our re-creation (in the upper right corner of the mic grill, circled in cyan) are not seen in "Dove."  Since those bright spots should be there regardless where on the radio mesh the piece was cut from, their absence can only be attributed to a bit of dirt once lodged there.

In summary, there is not the slightest bit of evidence to even remotely suggest this prop isn't fully authentic.

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In addition, and not to tease, but as mentioned elsewhere on our site, there is also a "secret" tell, a tiny but readily observable feature seen ONLY in Wah-built communicators that is not published anywhere on HeroComm, as a deterrent to forgers.  It was happily reported to Julien's that the tell was indeed clearly visible in the photos they supplied.
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Early September 2024 update:  Beta obviously suffered some damage since it was last seen in the show.  When found, the original aluminum moiré bezel rings, the radial pattern disks and the brass winder tube were all sadly gone.  The non-working Minerva 30-second stopwatch was simply loose inside.  The right knob on the control panel was missing, and a tiny clear rhinestone was glued to the top of the surviving left knob.  The two original outer jewels were lost and replaced with aqua-colored chatons (pointed-back rhinestones).  The antenna now sits even more skewed to the left than what's seen in its Catspaw (closed) close-up, whereas the top shell sits further to right on the midplate, indicating the shell once was detached and was glued back on:

(2292 x 1290 - from YouTube video)

The bottom shell incurred some heat damage, with the long sides showing some warping.  And carved into the flat underside's haircell texture is "E 48," whose meaning cannot be known - perhaps it was a stocking number assigned by the facility where the prop was shelved for a time after the show.

(1744 x 1348)

(2782 x 1451)

(2187 x 1249)

(1764 x 1138)

(1608 x 1569)

(2224 x 2038)

(1969 x 1849)

(1522 x 1514)

(1757 x 1443)

These official "original find" photographs above were posted on this blog.

For the auction, the prop has of course undergone a refurbishment, and it made an appearance at San Diego's Comic Con 2024:
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(3024 x 4032)
from RPF member dremeldemon

As for the wax on the back cover, it can be reasoned that Wah, as a final step in building the comm, put a small glob of warmed, pliable (and lightweight) beeswax on the installed stopwatch's back and pressed down the bottom shell over it, smushing out the wax while filling in the gap, thus pushing the stopwatch tighter against the top shell.  However, the same later heat (likely from bad storage) that warped the bottom shell's sides must have also altered the wax's original shape, as it looks to have since flowed a bit to one side.

One other lost original element inside was a thin spacer that needed to be placed between the shell and the stopwatch face - this to elevate the watch over the bit of the hinge axle epoxy that ended up at a spot where the watch would otherwise sit.  This spacer very possibly took the shape of a wide, flat washer, around 1/16 to 1/8" thick, likely held on by the long bead of glue that still partially circles at the edge of the shell's moiré hole.  It cannot be known what the part was made of, but our guess would be something humble (and lightweight), such as cardboard or sheet balsa.

Early September 2024 update:  It's assumed the replacement stopwatch now in Beta is also a Minerva, but since no photos of the refurbished insides have been released, it is not yet known if it's like the original without a reset button, or like the pictured extra watch with (which don't snap back to zero on the third press - they just continue running where they last stopped).  It's unknown as well if the new watch has a similar wax pad added to more faithfully re-create the original look.

It's worth noting that it is straightforward to take out and put back in the movements from these particular watches, with the removal of three screws...

... and so it likely would have been readily possible to install back into the communicator a good percentage of the original watch parts by swapping out from Wah's casing the failed movement for one that was still running, and using then that (now-working) watch instead.  This would have allowed as well the preservation inside the prop of the original winder knob (with its remnants of the rubber tube) and that ingenious wax pad on the back cover.  Given, however, that we see in the Julien's photo the original stopwatch intact outside the refurbished comm, it's reasonable to assume this was not attempted.
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Left

20ss Emerald AB

20ss Blue Zircon

16ss Hyacinth

16ss Crystal AB

16ss Light Amethyst AB
16ss Violet AB
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To know what Beta's original moiré pattern looked like, we fortunately have very good data from "Day of the Dove," albeit for a short length of time (about 2½ seconds).  Still, that has allowed us to offer a concise assessment of what was there.  Of course, just like in the Alpha hero, it used two overlapping Edmund Scientific #4 radial line patterns; the top transparent layer glued in place while the 1-inch diameter white cardstock layer - attached to a 30-second stopwatch - rotates below, creating the famous "spider" effect that's actually an ever-moving whirl of growing and shrinking arcs:

To see if Beta's spider pattern originally behaved like Alpha's - rotating along with the stopwatch, 360 degrees every 30 seconds - we started with the two sharp caps you see above; one early and one late in the shot.  The goal in each was to "re-circle" the moiré bezel ring, accurately restoring its circular shape and orientation; this to then compare them.  Nicely in these images we have two consistent reference lines at a near-exact right angle to each other and on planes parallel to the bezel ring:  1) the top edge of the control panel, and 2) the right bottom fold of the control well.  These lines, when copied and moved to form a box (in red below) around the bezel ring, eventually allowed us to correct for the changing viewing angle and camera-zoom while Kirk lowers the comm in his hands...

The resulting red parallelograms were righted, skewed back into rectangles, and the bezel rings contained within - at this point ovals - were reduced in the long axis to return them to circles.

Note that while in 2.4 seconds the stopwatch would have rotated the bottom layer nearly 29 degrees, the spider pattern turned only about 9 degrees:

So what's going on here?  To figure it out, we sought to reproduce in Photoshop this strange motion by shifting around the position of two Pattern #4 layers while rotating one of them.  And indeed one positioning closely replicates what's in the screenshots; with the bottom rotating layer a tiny 0.008" off-center and the top transparent layer 0.023" off-center to the right (the cyan crosshairs mark the stopwatch axle beneath):

According to our study, over the course of the full 30 second stopwatch rotation, the "spider" roughly maintains a vertical orientation but with some wobble, leaning first to the right and then to the left, then back again.  The first two images in the simulated sequence below, at 0.0 and at 2.5 seconds, contains the portion captured in "Day of the Dove":

Remember this whole time the spidery arcs are also quickly expanding towards the top and shrinking towards the bottom.

In real life, disks cut to our specifications (along with the bezel rings - see below) would match up about like this:

Note - the picture above right is of a precision replica currently under construction by one of our friends that's aiming to perfectly emulate Beta's look in "Dove," and when done a video of its operation will be posted here - to inspire and aid your future builds.

Early September 2024 update:  Beta's missing original moiré disks have been replaced for the sale.  Its current operation is seen in the YouTube video for a duration of about eight seconds:

Since these clips don't show the pattern movement or orientation seen in "Day of the Dove" or any portion of our simulated sequence just above, it can be surmised the disks were neither cut nor positioned as per our measurements, which have been posted here since 2021.  The new spinning disk also measures from photographs to be approximately 1/16" smaller in diameter than the ±1.01" that's been confirmed via the same pixel ratio method with both Alpha and the original Beta (and posted since 2009):

This reduces by about 13 percent the visible area of the new spider pattern.

!Moiré Pattern Vertical Gap

Next, was the original top transparency installed with the ink-side up, like in Alpha (so the lines are exposed to the outside), or down?  You may think this is a trivial aspect, but it's actually huge when the centers of both top and bottom patterns are very close to each other, as they were in Beta.  The variable at play here is the amount of vertical gap between the two surfaces with printed ink.  When the two sets are tight together (i.e. the transparency's ink is down, almost touching the spinning layer), the spider arcs appear uniform, dark, and with well-defined edges.  However, when the ink is up, the vertical separation caused by the mere thickness of the transparency plastic is enough to make room for a shadow to be cast of the top layer onto the bottom (especially when the prop is lit by a point source).  This "third" set of lines generates unexpected and even bizarre blotchy patterns like those below:

Since no evidence of these effects is present in the "Day of the Dove" close-up, it can be reasoned that Beta's original transparency was ink-side down, plus the bottom disk also rotated level and VERY close - studies indicate less than 0.02" - to the transparency's underside.

Early September 2024 update:  The vertical distance between the new transparency and paper disk is more than that, which now creates the blotchy, speckled moiré pattern when the prop is viewed under point source lighting:

Transparency Hole

Lastly, the original top transparency had the same hole in its center as in Alpha (which is 1/32" or 0.031" in diameter), as per this cap from "Dagger of the Mind", and there is no reason to think Wah wouldn't have used the same drill bit on both:

Early September 2024 update:  The hole in the replacement transparent layer has been sized from photos via the pixel ratio method to have a diameter of ±0.06, double Alpha's.

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The subject of moiré patterns is discussed in greater detail on our A Moiré Story page.  And the means to print out clear, accurate Pattern #4 images can be found here.
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Early September 2024 update:  Only the left knob survived, with the right having been replaced for the refurbishment with a more heavily worn Aurora slot car hub Type "C".  And there was also a surprise seen in some later photographs - the existence of a small, clear, faceted rhinestone that had prior been glued to the top of the remaining left hub (red arrow below):

Our guess is that clear gem on the left is a Swarovski 8ss Crystal chaton (pointed-back rhinestone) applied not by Wah but likely at the same later time the two larger aqua chatons were installed on the outer jewel bezels.  Now while it is true that screencaps from 1st Season's Dagger of the Mind seem to hint of such raised jewels crowning Beta's knobs...

... further study (below) shows those bright spots to be just that; glare from the studio lights reflecting off the hubs' chrome:

This, plus the fact that no other Wah-built comm has rhinestones seen there, nor have any of the rhinestones he did use been shown to be pointed-back, means the greenish (10ss Chrysolite?) chaton gem added to the replacement right knob is to all firm evidence also inauthentic.  Had we been consulted by Julien's on this, we would have even suggested the removal of the clear stone from the surviving knob, likely thus returning it best to the look it had in Season 3.
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