[Milsurplus] US Radar

[William Donzelli]

> > Actually the Germans and the British both had very well developed 
> > early warning radar networks back then. The U.S. was still a little 
> > behind, but only for a short time.
> > >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> > 
> > presumably when tne Tissard mission arrived ?
> 
> For values of "Tissard" that are equal to "Tizard", yes, IIRC.

Well...no.

The U.S. was really only behind in numbers and experience when it came to
the early warning radars. Some of the first EW sets in U.S. service,
like the SCR-270 and SC, were actually pretty good.

The Tizzard mission really did not do much at all for the early warning
radar guys at all. The reason for this is because the goodies gained from
the Tizzard mission - namely the star of the show, the pulsed cavity
magnetron - were not used in early warning sets. 

From the dawn of radar until the early 1950s, the best early warning sets
were VHF*, generally around 100 MHz. Microwave sets tended to be difficult
(false returns and such) for air search duties. Big triodes in pairs or
rings were the preffered method, with receivers that looked more or less
"standard"  to radiomen. There were no magnetrons in these sets, nor were
there klystrons, waveguides, and everything else associated with microwave
sets, as was found in aircraft, fire control, GCI, and surface search
radars. 

*SCR-270s were actually recalled into service during the Korean War 
because the new microwave early warning sets just could not paint a MiG 
very well.

William Donzelli
aw288@osfn.org