german ww2 radar device with unknown antennas

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EricZ

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Hi at all

Has anyone of you a clue what kind of antennas one can see on that special radar device that had been used in the Duisburg/Düsseldorf area in Germany between 1943 and 1945?

This device was used as a special one by the german Luftwaffe in the whole concert of radio tracking.



"Air Scientific Intelligence - Report No. 83 - Recent Developments in German Route Tracking and RCM (dated 26.3.45)

Since report No. 73 (July 1944) new developments highlighted -

1. formation of specialist RCM unit
2. spread of route tracking to GCI stations
3. use of listening recivers for guiding long-range radars

It notes that the function of the RCM unit is largely deployed in the problem of jamming Oboe.

1. RCM Development - History

Nov 1943, special detachment of German Air Signals Experimental Regiment established near Duisburg for investigating methods of defence against Oboe. The unit was able to cover most Oboe transmissions in Germany from Duisburg.

During 1944, transmissions were plotted successfully by listening and Oboe Mk I was then successfully jammed. In May 1944 the unit was commended for it's work during a big attack on Duisburg.

The unit had managed to identify and plot Oboe Mk II transmissions and thusidentify the main raids from the spoofs - being the only unit which gave a clear picture of the Duisburg raid.

The techniques developed were then passed on to the whole route tracking organisation.

In the second half of 1944, a jammer against centimetic Oboe was introduced. The unit is began to develop counter-measures against other navigational aids.

..."

It would be very helpful if anyone could help me with the strange kind of antennas, ´cause I´m not a radio specialist.

Brgds, Eric
 

EricZ

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Here is the pic that was too big...

Cheers, Eric
 

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SCPD

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Looks to me like a couple of broadband ("thick" elements) dipoles with a plane reflector stacked. Basically two 2-element yagis.
 

kb2vxa

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Hi all,

Nein, nicht Yagis, eine wide band colinear cardioid array. The Yagi was in it's infancy, mostly a laboratory curiosity rather than a production item. The colinear dipole design with and without a reflector is used today, you've probably seen half wave dipoles stacked a half wave apart and fed in phase although not such a large a diameter because such bandwidth isn't needed for communications.

It's hard to tell size perspective with no reference point in the photo but my guess is in the area of 144MHz which was a radar band in WW2. US Navy destroyers used huge rotating dipole/reflector arrays, you can see them in old films. In the early 50s these same arrays were used to track the early experiments with captured V-2s, helical arrays were also used, both around 144MHz. You can see them in those corny B&W sci-fi flicks.

FYI, the 70cM Amateur band is shared with military radar, particularly along a wide swath of the US-Canadian border and in the Carribean. Such radar has poor resolution but extremely long range so is used for drug interdiction. It's also used at Arecebo PR for planetary mapping and the ERP is in the terrawatt range. Being a few on the staff are hams it was throttled back to a transmitter power of 1500W to keep it legal but with all that antenna gain the power output was still formidable, other hams clearly heard signals bouncing back from Uranus. OK, we've heard the jokes but you can have your turn if you like. (;->)
 
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