[ARC5] ZB discussion!

[Michael Bittner]

Mike, I'm in general agreement with everything you have said, and BTW, 
belated thanks for posting the link to the manual.  However, I will put one 
more angel on the pinhead by reminding that the first system of aircraft 
homing beacons in this country operated at angstrom wavelengths and the 
beacons were installed at points along designated flight routes.  Pilots 
"navigated" along the route in the dark by visually homing from one beacon 
to the next.  Mike W6MAB


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Hanz" <aaf-radio-1 at aafradio.org>
To: "Discussion of AN/ARC-5 military radio equipment." 
<arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2010 10:09 AM
Subject: Re: [ARC5] ZB discussion!


> Gee, I dunno, Bob.  If you go to the link to the 29 March 1941 manual I
> gave earlier today, you'll see that the Navy called the ZB-3 by the term
> "Homing Adapter Equipment" and it was used on both carriers and
> (primarily for the USAAF) at fixed airfields.  No mention of navigation
> in the entire manual, that I can recall, but I'll check again just to be
> sure.  The "Evolution of Naval Radio-Electronics and Contributions of
> the Naval Research Laboratory" shows photos of the first ZB, and the
> caption reads, "The primary aircraft-to-carrier radio homing system used
> by all carriers and their aircraft during WWII.  The models YE-ZB."  If
> you want to consider a homing system as a subset of navigation, fine.
> To me, it's not worth debating the fine points of the taxonomy...too
> reminiscent of arguing the number of angels that can dance on the head
> of a pin.... :-)     I think it's clear to all that a homing system
> would be of little use for the original problem of navigating to a
> predetermined Japanese held island with a mission to find and intercept
> Yamamoto.
>
> 73,
>  - Mike
>
> On 5/24/2010 12:30 PM, Bob Macklin wrote:
>> In 1942 in the middle of the Pacific Ocean this was a NAVIGATION SYSTEM!. 
>> It
>> was the way the airplane found their carriers when they were returning 
>> from
>> their missions. Carriers are not link airfields. THEY MOVE! THEY MUST 
>> MOVE!
>>
>> What you may consider a navigation system today is much different from 
>> what
>> was available in 1942!
>>
>>
>
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