[Milsurplus] US Radar

Bob Wilder [email protected]
Wed, 11 Dec 2002 16:57:04 -0600


When I first went in the USAF in 1948 we were still using a SP1M mobile radar
which can be remembered for its "bed spring" antenna mounted on to of a
mobile van.  Was not very good but did paint most slow moving aircraft and
if set up on the sea shore could paint ships.  We went to this to the
CPS-5 and finally to the CPS-6B.  The advantage of the CPS-6B was that
it has three antennas and could do both range and height at the same time.
Our first CPS-5 was S/N #1 from General Electric out of Syracuse, NY.

By the way this was all from the 108th AC&W Squadron of the NYANG which
ended up at Red Cliff Air Station Newfoundland during the Korean War.


At 05:45 PM 12/11/2002 -0500, William Donzelli wrote:

> > > 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
>[email protected]
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>
>
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Bob Wilder, AF2HD/AFA2HD
6032 Idlemoore Court
Theodore, AL 36582-4117
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