[Milsurplus] Re: DF-ing & Earhardt/Noonan

[Hue Miller]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marty R's GI-stuff haunt" <cosmoline@aa4rm.ba-watch.org>

> Here's one for the conspiracy theorists
> 
> There's a book
> 
>     "The Search For Amelia Earhardt," 
>         1966 Fred Goerner
> Was fun to read years ago but, as I remember, left more questions
> than it answered.

I read it too, and still have it somewhere, but i think it's been
pretty thoroughly discounted by now.

> One memory remains & that's mention of a new "secret df system" 
> installed in the Lockheed 10.
> 
> Wonder if that's the "unilateral" precursor to the DZ series.  The
> NRL inventor's unique-heading RDF.

I don't think there was anything "secret" about it, except in the
sense that anyone who really knew the whole electronics
configuration is now gone, and so it's not totally known.

The loop thing was apparently similar to the Navy's early DU,
the one without any -suffix number. This one tuned up to about
8 Mcs. and was fully manual for sense operation. Supposedly
the ship was to transmit on 7500 and AE & FN would home
on that. But before they left Lae, New Guinea, they tried it
out on the airfield's HF signal and could not get it to work,
no sense information. Then, when approaching Howland, same
thing. She radio'd, "We have you but cannot get a null", or
words close to that. Seems like not very good preparation, 
maybe. You like to have a   strong plan B, and then a plan
C, and so on.
Hue