[Milsurplus] Re: [ARC5] What did they talk to ??

[Bob Camp]

Hi

As far as I can see it's about 600 miles from London to Berlin. The  
long distance end of the radio link in a bomber was running a hundred  
watts CW. I have not seen any data that suggests ARC-5' s were relied  
on for the long haul stuff.

If the other (ground) end of the link was in the couple hundred watt  
range that would be plenty to do the trick. Since the antenna on the  
ground was likely a better setup than the antenna in the airplane a  
hundred watts on the ground might be more than enough. Running a KW  
or two would not  help the situation a whole lot.

The vital information was coming from the air rather than the ground.  
Post strike information and aircraft in trouble communications  
certainly ranked right up there on the priority list. The ground end  
of the combo calling off the strike didn't rank very high at all .....

This certainly was the way the US was set up. I do not know how the  
British set up a Lancaster. I suspect the same basic equation applied.

Certainly there were KW and multi KW transmitters in the inventory.  
If there had been a need they could have been employed. The  
separation requirements between the transmit and receive end go up as  
you increase the kilowatts out of the transmitter. This assumes they  
want to listen for other airplanes from the ground station while they  
are talking to an individual.

The command sets and the VHF stuff was intended for short range work.  
That's not to say that you could not get enormous range with them  
under the right conditions. The communications planning simply could  
not count on propagation conditions being such that you could count  
on this.

     Enjoy!

         Bob Camp
         KB8TQ


On May 2, 2005, at 7:45 PM, J. Forster wrote:

> David Stinson wrote:
>
> So, IMHO, the answer to the question: "What did they use?" is:  
> "Whatever they
> could get to work."
>
>
> I must confess to considerable surprise at the answers to this  
> question. I
> figured there would have been a very few high power HF stations  
> with fair sized
> antennas for long range Liaison communications, and lower powered  
> VHF stations
> at the airfields used for local traffic control, but that does not  
> seem to be
> the consensus at all.
>
> Does anyone know the reliable range of the SCR-522 ? I would have  
> guessed under
> a couple of hundred miles, but I'm now pretty puzzled. Were bombers  
> over Germany
> out of communication range (radio silence not withstanding) ? Seems  
> unlikely.
>
> Thanks,
> -John
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Milsurplus mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milsurplus
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
>
>