Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

RADAR for Canada s Navy &y Bruce Lanskail Manager, Government Contracts Division Engineering Products Dept. RCA Victor Company, Ltd. n 'uRiNG World War II, Canadians took to the water as they had taken to the air in the first World War and a great Canadian naval tradition was born. Since the war, the Royal Canadian Navy has become an important part of the nation's defense force and to step up its defense efficiency the Navy recently pur- :hased from RCA Victor Company, Ltd., Montreal, the largest and most powerful air search radar equipment ever produced in Canada. The new equipment was demonstrated to top Navy officers, Department of Defense Production officials and the Canadian press at RCA Victor headquarters. Two Sea Fury fighter aircraft served as aerial targets for the test demonstration and were picked up on the radar screen as they approached Montreal. Simultaneously, the movements of the 90-foot antenna, mounted on top of one of the RCA Victor buildings, were shown on a tele- vision screen so that naval officers, production officials and the press had a complete picture of all the equip- ment in action throughout the test. Set up in an enclosed section of the company's engi- neering products department, the equipment was oper- Examining the screen of Canada's newest and most powerful radar at the RCA 'Victor plant in Montreal are, left to right, Commodore H. N. Lay, Assistant Chief Naval Staff (Warfare); Commodore W. L. M. Brown, Assistant Chief Naval Staff (Air) and Commodore (L) W. H. G. Roger, Electrical Engineer-in-Chief. ated by a naval operator under conditions simulating those which would be found on shipboard. The demon- stration was completely successful with the results ex- ceeding the expectations of naval officers, Commodore H. N. Lay, OBE, CD, RCN, Assistant Chief Naval Staff (Warfare), declared foUowing the final day's tests. Designed to detect enemy aircraft at long ranges, the new radar equipment will greatly strengthen the defense effectiveness of Canada's Atlantic and Pacific fleets. Sets are being installed in destroyer escorts and in the aircraft carrier now being built for the Royal Canadian Navy. Weighing more than two tons, the complete equip- ment includes a stainless steel antenna which will be mounted high on the warships' superstructures, a trans- mitter, a modulator and several smaller parts. The an- tenna rotates continuously, sweeping the sky with a radio beam shaped like a fan on edge. The bearing and di;- tance of an aircraft more than 100 miles distant are revealed at the instant it intercepts the radio beam. This information is then displayed instantaneously on the tele- vision-like screen of the plan position indicator unit. The equipment's output is several hundred Thousand watts and can be increased to several million watts, inak- ing it one of the most powerful naval aircraft search radars in the world. Commenting on the success of the Montreal demon- stration. Commodore Lay emphasized that the new radar could be of tremendous value to Canada in an emergency. He pointed out that the equipment was being manu- factured in Canada so that the navy could be assured of production in that country. RCA Victor Company, he said, was to be congratulated for the efficiency with which it had produced the first set to be delivered and for the manner in which the demonstration had been so successfully staged. Commodore (L) W. H. G. Riger, OBS, CD, RCN, electrical engineer in chief, declared that the harmony of engineering entailed in its construction was obvious when it was realized that it had to be both highly sensi- tive and extremely rugged. The equipment has been designed to withstand Arctic and equatorial tempera- tures and also to be shock-proof at all times. The naval contract, a vitally important one in the Canadian defense program, amounted to $3,500,000. RCA Victor Company, Ltd. was selected for the work because of its extensive research and production facilities .md its long record in supplying communication and detection equipment to Canada's armed forces.