"The Enlightenment" wrote in message ...
There truely were some unnecesary stuff up that could have been
avoided if the leadership understood how technology progesses. The
fact that all German radars shared a single frequency...
All German radars did not share a single frequency - far from it,
actually*. Their radars were far more frequency agile than Allied
radars, although not like the "frequency agile" that we know today.
Most could be retuned fairly easily, being rather simple, elegant
designs. Most allied radars could not without a massive headache (as
in hours of unstable operation, getting all the bugs out). Allied
microwave radars could not change frequency at all, unless the
magnetron was actually replaced. The "first" (I think) tuneable
microwave radar the Allies had was the X band SCR-584.
On a side note, both the Allies and the Axis both tried to keep their
radars confined to various bands. There is a good reason for this -
interference. The airwaves were horribly overcrowded, even up in the
VHF area where air search radars live. Spreading your radars all over
the place on the band is actually troublesome.
*Freyas were found everywhere between 90 and 190 MHz. Wurzburgs were
found from 470 to 590 MHz. Source: TME 11-219 "Directory of German
Radar Equipment".
and the secrecy
sourounding the effectiveness soruning 'duppel' or the German version
of Window which had so much secrecy placed upon it proper
countermeasures could not be developed.
For 1940s technology, Window was almost impossible to defeat. The
Germans, however, did a pretty good job with their Window ECCM
(anti-jam). Allied radars had AJ features as well, but not quite as
advanced (it was rarely used).
William Donzelli
|