Wireless telegraphy (wt)

Communication between airfield and aircraft grew with the technology of the day through the 1930's and during WW2.

Can anyone give me a synopsis of radio communications to include the use HF communications leading to VHF communications and some kind of dateline?

When did 'voice' communication supercede Morse? Was WT Morse and RT voice?

What sort of aerial arrays (just general) were used on the ground (airfield) for transmission (Tx) and reception (Rx) of HF and VHF comms. Were dedicated 'ground' Tx/Rx units used or aircraft sets?

The main reason for my questions is to get an understanding of when ground to air visual signals were superceded by radio communications.

An excellent question this, and as a 'ham' one I had been planning to ask.

And just to add an extra question to this, without intending to hijack the thread..... I read that on the Dams raid Guy Gibson wanted to talk directly to the other pilots, which alledgedly had not been done before. So the Lancasters were fitted with VHF R/T radios from fighter aircraft.

And from this the book suggested that the technique of Master Bombers giving a running commentary to the bomb aimers during a raid was born.

Is this plausible, or just another urban myth springing out of the Dambusters rais ?

TIA, Snafu

Not directly related to my query but, I found this whilst surfing. Don't be put off by the title, there is a variety of interesting information in this guide.

Thanks to Micdrow of the Aircraft of World War Two - Warbirds Forum for the PDF:

www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/attachments/co...rators-info-file.pdf

Excellent find. Peter

A lot of the equipment in this book was available on the surplus market in the late 1950s. In particular the SCR 211 Wavemeter - much prized by radio amateurs of the period.

Graham

Can one of you chaps copy the file to me please? Don't really want to join yet another forum.

(also a licensed amateur)

PETERTHEEATER;49255 wrote:

Was WT Morse and RT voice?

Yes. W/T was used certainly up to and during WWII. It's big advantage (only advantage?) was that it was robust in comparison with speech transmissions. A very weak Morse signal could be understood, whereas telephony would be completely illegible. Certainly all Lancasters etc were equipped with a Morse Key, and for D/F purposes (which was very important) it was all that was required. I guess the single-seat fighter was the Achilles Heel. Sending a signal from a key strapped to the pilot's leg couldn't be easy whilst flying the plane.

Regarding dates etc, I've wondered about this for a while. Will see what I can dig up.

(Tigger - pm me with email address. Joining that forum was a real pain as it involved Yahoo)

Graham

Just been looking at "the Battle of Britain Then and Now". According to them, fighters were equiped with the HF RT T/R9 sets, although its performance was poor due to lack of range and no of channels available in the set. By late 1939 a new VHF set the T/R 1133 was available and this gave an air-ground range of 120 miles at 20000ft and air-air range of 100 miles. A new and improved T/R 1143 was available by late summer of 1940. According to "Then and Now", Dowding ordered thatduring the Battle of France, all A/C were to use the old HF T/R9 sets so it wasnt until mid 1940 that VHF was used.
Ground equipment for HF was probably the transtmitter type SWB8 or T1509. These were both still in use at Watton up until Mar/Apr 1963 when the last of the Lincolns were taken out of service, and the HF site was emptied. I drove past it in the early 80's and it was still in use as it had a flagpole in front and the ensign was flying. Probably something to do with Eatsern Radar. As an aside the T1509 was still in use at Salalah in 1971. The VHF equipment was more than likely the R1392 which was also used the the VHF D/F CRDF, and the low power T1540 and higher power T1131. Afraid I cant remember the power O/Ps. I did look on the RAF Henlow Signals Museum site, and although they seem to have most of the ground equipment, the onlt photo was that of the T1131.

Hope this is of some interest

Jim

Yes Peter WT is morse aka cw, and RT is voice. As for the use of WT by aircraft, well Nimrods used morse. And some of the oceanic ATCCs had and may still have a morse capability.

And the other AATCs on the site will know of the speechless procedure which uses morse.

Jim wrote:

Just been looking at "the Battle of Britain Then and Now". According to them, fighters were equiped with the HF RT T/R9 sets, although its performance was poor due to lack of range and no of channels available in the set. By late 1939 a new VHF set the T/R 1133 was available and this gave an air-ground range of 120 miles at 20000ft and air-air range of 100 miles. A new and improved T/R 1143 was available by late summer of 1940. According to "Then and Now", Dowding ordered thatduring the Battle of France, all A/C were to use the old HF T/R9 sets so it wasnt until mid 1940 that VHF was used.
Ground equipment for HF was probably the transtmitter type SWB8 or T1509. These were both still in use at Watton up until Mar/Apr 1963 when the last of the Lincolns were taken out of service, and the HF site was emptied. I drove past it in the early 80's and it was still in use as it had a flagpole in front and the ensign was flying. Probably something to do with Eatsern Radar. As an aside the T1509 was still in use at Salalah in 1971. The VHF equipment was more than likely the R1392 which was also used the the VHF D/F CRDF, and the low power T1540 and higher power T1131. Afraid I cant remember the power O/Ps. I did look on the RAF Henlow Signals Museum site, and although they seem to have most of the ground equipment, the onlt photo was that of the T1131.

Hope this is of some interest

Jim

Thanks Jim, having owned the references - to which you refer - since publication it shows how little I take in when reading and re-reading!

From that, VHF was in use (or available) much earlier than I thought and fitted predominently into fighter aircraft.

Does anyone have any idea of a typical aerial arrangement for the HF? Long wires between towers? Typical location?