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

[Hue Miller]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Morrow" <kk5f at earthlink.net>

> The web has info from many US submarine war patrol logs, which almost always
> document some radio equipment and frequency use.  One example is at:
> http://www.ussbaya.com/patrol4.html

Thanks indeed Mike, for posting this link.
I also found  a number of interesting items in there.
For example:
1- using SJ radar manual keying button for short bursts of radar, to keep
enemy convoy from locating the sub
2- using same keying button to contact other USN vessels by cw ( and
not TBS! no TBS mention at all, at least in this narrative.)
3- complaint about vhf range, not satisfactory out to even 10 miles.
4-Japanese using, and apparently skillfully, 10 cm radar. I did not
realize they had micowave radar at all.
5- use of radar beacon ( called RDB in log ), tossed overboard by sub Abaya, to try to
mislead enemy convoy as to sub location. What equipment was this? Not a passive
device, apparently.
6- enemy jamming of fox broadcasts. That would seem to be an expensive and
not very effective measure, overall.
7-Perth navy base frequency = 8470 kcs.
8- PRF ( pulse repetition frequency ) of radar intercepts is noted. (sometimes misspelled
TRF )

Also, this brings up the question, for me, of how effective a submarine HF antenna
could be. It was just a sloping wire from conn to fore and aft, right? Maybe good for
NVIS, but otherwise???

Also, i can't help feeling but that the straits Japanese shippng was in 1945, was kinda
parallel to the way the US was suffering under U-boat attacks in early 1942: hapless,
defensive but yet ineffectively defended, and definitely the underdog.  -Hue Miller