[Milsurplus] Question ( RBS; submarine )

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

On 26 Aug 2016 at 13:52, Nick England wrote:

> For anyone  seriously interested in the topic, check out "Abstracts of the Available Literature on 
> Radio Direction Finding 1899-1965" at
> http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=AD0800110
> which has entries for 5,224 articles to keep you entertained....

Thanks for that link, Nick. I'll spend some time there.
 
> My point was that NRL etc. were indeed concerned about the possibility of LO detection. When 
> they designed the RAA, RAK, etc. in the 1930's they were worrying about what a very clever 
> adversary *might* be able to do in the next 20 years. Predicting future technology is difficult and 
> assuming the worst case sometimes makes good sense.

Oh, I most certainly agree that it was a concern. Furthermore, I also agree that we should 
have, and did, think about it and try to counteract it if it could occur.

My point is that despite all these precautions, it never happened.

I never said it COULDN'T have happened especially given the state of the art at the time. I 
simply say that it never did....luckily for us.

I also think that many people thought it did happen, but were never disabused of the error 
for any number of reasons, none of which had anything at all to do with "conspiracy".

Ken W7EKB