[Milsurplus] Radio Ranges - Fascinating

Thu Nov 16 02:49:20 EST 2006

Radio ranges were before my (pilot) time, but I wonder if
anyone happens to have the older nav charts for the
Augusta, GA area, if there was a radio range TX site to
the south of the city, possibly feeding either Daniel
Field or Bush Field.

Many years ago, as a kid, I remember seeing tower lights
past the east end of Barton Chapel Road, east of US 1 and
was told it had something to with what I now assume was a
radio range.  The towers have been gone for 30-40 years now,
but I'd be curious to know if someone happens to have an
old chart and I could get a scanned copy of this area,
to at least satisfy my curiosity.

thanks,

73
Sheldon
WA4MZZ

jcoward5452 at aol.com wrote:

> 220047576380
>
> Test your skill! (read description).How much sweat was expended due to 
> this thing?I would love to see a cadet's first plots!This is why Hot 
> Air Ballooning is more fun.You never "know" where you are going to end 
> up but you better know how to stay out of the ATC zone!
> Jay KE6PPF
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: smithab11 at comcast.net
> To: milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
> Sent: Wed, 15 Nov 2006 7:34 AM
> Subject: [Milsurplus] Command Set Coffee-Grinder Saga Continues
>
> Yes folks, just went you thought the Command Set Coffee-Grinder, Range 
> Saga 
> was over. 
>  
> Some more comments are below, A link is give at the end of this email 
> to a 
> couple of charts with fixes and some other diagrams that I have 
> temporarly 
> put on my web site. 
>  
> BTW and this is very, very important: I gave a long and interesting and 
> comprehensive presentation at the MRCA meet in 2005 on Radio Ranges and 
> Procedures. Only 7 people fell asleep. 65 percent of the class flunked 
> the 
> famous 4 color card K4CHE quiz given at the end of the presentation. 
> This years 
> presentation on the R1155 produced about the same results. 
>  
> First: 
> Looks like I did not read the complete previous postings, what I was 
> talking 
> about was Coffee-Grinder tuning in general as used on receivers. I 
> believe 
> the term Coffee-Grinder was introduced after other low frequency 
> receivers 
> became popular. I am afraid I read the term "Command Set" in a different 
> context and confused the term with previous radio nav installations 
> that I 
> have become familiar with. 
>  
> Ask any of the troops that attended the MRCA meet at Gilbert this 
> September- 
> they will attest to the fact that I confuse nomenclatures. :-) 
> Recommend: 
> Rob Flory or Al Klase or Dale or perhaps the Gilbert Fair Grounds 
> Security guard. 
>  
> However the coffee-grinder tuning was utilized on the SCR-274 series for 
> the same reasons that I stated earlier i.e. 
>  
> 1. "The coffee-grinder" tuning was necessary during the en route 
> navigation and or approach phase where two or three different Low Freq 
> Nav 
> Aids were 
> utilized. Often a fix was acquired using two Range Stations. Crank 
> fast . 
> See my link at the end for scans of actual charts. 
>  
> 2.The Coffee-grinder tuning could be useful during the approach phase 
> where communications with tower was necessary while flying the range. 
> The Coffee 
> Grinder allowed quick QSY between the Range and Tower. If you were lucky 
> and you had two working low frequency receivers. . . if not you 
> cranked fast. In crowded areas two ranges may have been used for a fix 
> during the initial approach phase. 
>  
> 3. The most obvious reason for the Coffee-Grinder knob was that the 
> pilot "in those days" was turning a long 
> flexible tuning shaft that was snaking back through the cockpit and 
> fuselage to the radio bay. 
>  
> It would be very hard to just turn this long shaft using a small knob 
> during frequency changes. 
>  
> To tune in a station you tuned past it and usually retuned and 
> retuned. Anyway the Coffee-Grinder made tuning a lot easier. 
>  
>  
> What's the longest flexible tuning shaft that anyone has run across? 
>  
> 4. Navigation to a Range station was often accomplished without being 
> established on an outbound leg of another station. For instance 
> arriving in 
> the New York area after cross the Atlantic direct from the Azores. The 
> navigator 
> would take his last fix and then the crew would DR to hit a leg of the 
> range . 
> Upon arrival this would often require an "orientation" to ensure the 
> correct range leg was chosen. 
>  
> There were scores of "orientation procedures published" , some were 
> simple , 
> some used two or three different Range stations which required some fast 
> cranking and re-cranking to recheck and double check, some of the 
> orientation procedures were arduous and 
> could make a grown man cry. See the link at the end of this email for a 
> chart depicting a fairly simple three range station orientation 
> procedure which required a lot of cranking. 
>  
> 5. The object of the navigating the range was to listen for the on 
> course 
> tone created by the combining of the A and N letters but often in the 
> early days the tone and A and N were slight ragged as in the early days 
> when the ranges used actual Loop wire antennas strung between poles. It 
> was often reported that the signals would vary and modulate as the 
> wind blew 
> the wires. . .Later they installed towers in different configurations 
> such 
> as the Babcock range. See link at the end for a depictions of the 
> first loop 
> system with an excellent sketch by Clete, WB2CPN. 
>  
> 6. The cone of silence was very important as it told you where you 
> actually were for about 15 seconds. Your alitude determined the size 
> of the 
> "cone". 
> IF you fly today and fly precisely over the VOR station you can hear a 
> brief loss of signal but you gotta go right over the station. A 
> depiction of the cone of silence is given on the page link at the end. 
>  
> 6.When flying a range leg it was published as a technique that it was 
> usually easier to off set to "the right" of center so that you 
> would pick up the solid tone and either the A or the N right zone 
> signal. 
> This made it easier to tell if you were drifting off course and this 
> technique produced a much narrower path to follow. It was easier to 
> tell if you were drifting off course because you were actually 
> listening to 
> two signals at the same time the solid tone and just barely hearing the 
> right zone letter. Much easier than listening to the solid tone. 
>  
> This procedure of flying to the right was also safer if everyone 
> followed 
> it. :-) 
>  
> But I guess there were those that liked "flying to the left". 
>  
> This flying the range leg offset to the edge was often called"twilight". 
> Sometimes this was a much better technique than wallering around 
> in the solid tone zone. Reference: "U.S. Navy Instrument Flight" Part 
> two. 
> Published 1943. 
> In addition Bendix Radio published this procedure in their "For Wider 
> Horizons" pamphlet. 
>  
> 7. You always rechecked your tuning of the Range because 
> with the flexible cable sets, it seems that the 
> cable would flex kind of like a rubber band and detune the receiver 
> slightly 
> and perhaps there were other mechanical/electrical causes. 
>  
> 8. While discussing Ranges we might as well mention the VHF "Visual 
> Aural 
> Range" that was introduced after WWII that utilized frequencies in the 
> low VHF band around 108- 109 Mcs. These ranges were kind of 
> interesting as 
> they produced two "Aural legs" and two Visual legs. 
> The Aural legs you used your ears for the A and N signal and overlap, 
> the 
> Visual you looked at an indicator in the cockpit. See link at the end. 
> ----------------------------- 
>  
> Here in my flight deck ** See the link below. I presently have 8 feet of 
> flexible tuning cable on a single low frequency receiver and the 
> frequency tuning cable can be slightly difficult to turn. When I am 
> finished with adding the additional navigation rack I will not have to 
> tune back and forth for fixes and tower as I will have multiple 
> receivers installed. I consider the Coffee Grinder knob an essential 
> part of any of my navigational installations including my "Flak Bait" 
> display. But I 
> only have one low frequency receiver installed at present in the 
> "Flight Deck" so I am probably lost but I keep my seat belt fastened 
> at all times. 
>  
> **(The term "Flight Deck" was coined by Mike Hanz) 
> ------------------------ 
> See this link for chart examples and other Range slides and my "Flight 
> Deck". 
>  
>   http://solo11.abac.com/zorroab1/Range/Rngpg1.htm 
>  
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