(1) Numerous Bureau technical staff - 2001-2002 (private communications)
Remember The "Ping-Pong' Balls?- Reg Carter
Remember the performance test on the WF2? A copper-coated table tennis ball
was introduced into the neck of a balloon and released as a test of the performance
of the radar.
As I remember it had to be followed for 14 (or was it 17) kilometres for the
WF2 to be judged as 'up to scratch'. It certainly was a far better performance
check than that prescribed for the poor old 277, which used the dreaded "umbrawin";
another name for a copper coated nylon mesh fitted as covering to the frame
of a large umbrella device. In Queensland at least, I know that due to age,
most if not all of the 'coppering' had eroded away or fallen off due to the
age of the targets whenever I looked at using them for a calibration flight.
So I guess we were tracking the frame!
WF2 Range Jump- Reg Carter
Remember the 'design fault' in the WF2 range unit.
There was always a jump in the range when switching from 0-14 km to the 14 km
onwards in range.
It was due to the fact that the range unit used the 'Early Trigger' for the
shortest range and then used the 'Delayed Trigger' for the rest of the ranges.
The extra delay due to passing through the range trigger delayed pulse generator
was just sufficient to ensure that it was impossible to get a smooth changeover
from that first range 'range to the second one. Spent many "happy"? hours playing
with the WF2 at Bowes Ave. and later at Camp Rd. trying to smooth it out but
never succeeded.
References
(1) Numerous Bureau technical staff
- 2001-2002 (private communications)