Film Noir Antenna
- Thread starter Ensnared
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AM loop antenna?
nd5y
Member
It's probably not an antenna.
An AM loop antenna is bidirectional and would be useless on a vehicle unless the vehicle was pointed in the right direction at all times.
An AM loop antenna is bidirectional and would be useless on a vehicle unless the vehicle was pointed in the right direction at all times.
Probably not a functional antenna, yes. But it might have been a loop antenna added as a prop/gimmick.
It wouldn't surprise me if a Hollywood prop person said "hey let's put this on there for looks", esp. if that person had seen a 1946 Beechcraft Plainsman.
Hollyweird has done stranger things.
It wouldn't surprise me if a Hollywood prop person said "hey let's put this on there for looks", esp. if that person had seen a 1946 Beechcraft Plainsman.
Hollyweird has done stranger things.
Yeah, I've seen some interesting portrayal/props of old-style radios in this genre of movies. I guess the some of the radios had a telephone handset. There seems to be a lot of those in these classic movies.
The person who got me obsessed with crime shows/movies, particularly the use of radios was Broderick Crawford in the series Highway Patrol. He did not play.
The person who got me obsessed with crime shows/movies, particularly the use of radios was Broderick Crawford in the series Highway Patrol. He did not play.
Yes, I saw that, it was great! The ending blew me away. I was impressed with the detail they used on triangulation.
BinaryMode
Blondie Once Said To Call Her But Never Answerd
Planes back then I believe used a loop antenna that tuned AM radio stations for direction finding. Though, they were in a continuous straight flight...
nd5y
Member
That's ADF. It operates with NDBs in the 190-400 kHz band and AM broadcast stations. The first ones had a rotatable loop antenna. The navigator or radio operator manually rotated the antenna to null out the station. Since that type of loop is bidirectional all you know is the null is on a line that bisects the receiver location so you don't know which side of you the received station is (assuming you don't know approximately where you are or where the station you are receiving is) and there is no way to tell how far away the received station is
Modern ones, the kind I worked on, have two ferrite rod antennas perpendicular to eachother plus a sense antenna. They worked with NDBs on 190-400 kHz up to about 2 MHz to cover the AM broadcast band and beacons in certain areas above the AM band. The ADF receiver detects the phase angle of the signal so the antennas don't need to be rotated and it points in the direction of the station. You still can't tell how far you are from the station so you need to tune in two or more to determine your location.
That thing on the car looks to me like it's too close to the back window to rotate.
mikepdx
Member
What I always laugh at is in both old movies
and new, is that, when an officer or base
communicate, the audio is always loud
and clear. Fantastic s/n ratios.
No hiss. No hum. No skip interference.
No fading. No nuthin'...
We know that's not so,
and certainly wasn't back when.
Ha Ha.
and new, is that, when an officer or base
communicate, the audio is always loud
and clear. Fantastic s/n ratios.
No hiss. No hum. No skip interference.
No fading. No nuthin'...
We know that's not so,
and certainly wasn't back when.
Ha Ha.
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