[ARC5] Video discussing the loss of the Lady Be Good

[gordon white]

     My experience as a private pilot/navigator in the 1950s-1960s was 
that the four-course "Adcock" ranges were a little difficult to navigate 
on, especially when crossing the station ("cone of silence"),  
particularly where the outgoing range was not a straight line with the 
incoming range. There were procedures for re-orienting yourself, but it 
was not easy.

     Not sure when the Adcock system came in, but it had to be in the 
thirties. Remember the old aviation movies when the intrepid pilot was 
"on the beam"? I think the phrase got into common usage.  On one side of 
the beam you heard A in Morse and on the other side an N. "On the beam" 
you heard a steady tone as I recall.

     But I do recall learning that when using a DF signal you listened 
for the signal to get louder as you approached and fainter as you 
departed. A situation where avc was not a help.

     I put a surplus Bendix ADF on my sailboat in the late fifties and 
chiefly found a lot of thunderstorms. Then small loran receivers came 
along, but, sailing out of Annapolis, the big NSS transmitters 
overloaded the Loran signals. (those landmark towers are gone now)

     I believe the Adcock ranges were fairly common overseas and in fact 
lasted a lot longer there when in the US you soon had the vhf Omni 
Ranges. The BC-453 stayed in aircraft for a long time mostly because 
outside the US there were many LF navigation systems.

     A.R.C. built prototypes of a LF Omni receiver, but that was never 
built as a system. I thought the Omni design was fairly elegant. It was 
an analogue of the Coast Guard lighthouses where when the rotating light 
passed through north another light flashed. The omni had a rotating 
phase keyed to north.

  - Gordon White