THE An Illustrated Monthly Magazine of Owing to the fact that certain statements and expressions of opinion from correspondents and others opinion or partisan expressions if such should at any time appear herein. Published by WIRELESS PRESS, INC., 42 Broad St., N. Y. City. Edward J. Nally, Pres. Charles J. Ross, Vice-Pres. David Sarnoff, Secy. John Bottomley, Treas. RENEWALS When your subscription expires you will find a renewal blank enclosed. You should fill out and return same with remittance at once to avoid missing a number. Positively no copies will be mailed on any subscription after same expires unless renewed, and we cannot agree to begin subscriptions CHANGE OF ADDRESS address, giving both the old and new location. Notify us promptly of any change in your Since our mailing list for each issue closes the 5th of the month, .changes received after that date must necessarily take effect with issue for the second month following. Post- master as well as Publisher should always be notified of changes in order to forward mail Apr. 6, 1942 Τ' THE FUTILITY OF IDLE COMPLAINTS HE wireless man with the grievance is with us. He appears before the National Amateur Wireless Association by proxy regularly. Represented by a letter usually, his plea is that the closing down of his station, which at first seemed an injustice, has assumed the proportions of a tragedy. And then he airs his complaint and calls for drastic remedy, forgetting that we-all of us— Stand by the Government. The law must be obeyed. The nation is at war, and its interests ours. Everything that the President asks for must be given cheerfully. And it must not be forgotten that the experimental field in this country has been extended more privileges in peace times than is given by any other nation. A renewal of these privileges at the conclusion of the war is of paramount interest. To hold the recognition, amateurs must demonstrate unwavering, unquestioning loyalty in this hour of emergency. This is no time for complaints. Instead of wasting energy by bemoaning his fate, the experimenter should realize that he should be engaged in intensive study. Development of the art under war conditions is proceeding so rapidly that the well-informed man of today knows little tomorrow, unless he readjusts his point of view to embrace the new applications. To those who cannot conceive existence without radio, the course is clear. Enlist. The Navy needs you. The Army Signal Corps wants you. Where physical and age limitations put up the bars to active service, there is always the field of the instructor to consider. But instruction is preceded by study. WIRELESS SIGNALING FROM MILITARY AIRPLANES TH HE extensive application of wireless to aircraft with which Mr. Marconi dealt so interestingly in the September issue of THE WIRELESS AGE opens up a wonderful field of new possibilities. The combination of flying with radio phenomena is unquestionably the most fascinating one which Fate could have devised for the American mind. Since the publication of the Marconi message to American amateurs, one of the most prominent military aeronautical engineers in the country has stated his belief that "the day is just around the corner when all aviators must be wireless operators, as well." Thus an amplification of the present method of spotting artillery fire trom airplanes should be of interest. The observer in aircraft at the fighting fronts must have, aside from his knowledge of wireless, some grasp of the fundamentals of artillery fire. He must know, for example, the trajectory of shells, or the arc they describe, and be able to distinguish between the use of field guns for barrage fire and howitzers for destruction of heavy guns. This knowledge is required because in locating his piece's objective he may have to fly low, and, after reporting the enemy location, ascend to a safe height above the trajectory of the shell fire which he thereafter directs. The usual height of an observer's flight is 4,000 to 6,000 feet; flying in circles and figure 8s, he sends by wireless a report of the effect of each shot and directions for greater accuracy. A word or two, such as "right," "left," "too short," and so on, is the extent of the direction given, and so skilled are gunners and observers nowadays that it seldom takes more than three or four shots to score a hit on the enemy battery emplacement. At night the positions are revealed by the lights required by the gunners and by the flash of the gun. While special knowledge is required for night flying, fire spotting in the inky darkness is really safer for the aviator, because of the consequent ineffectiveness of enemy anti-craft guns. The wonderful accuracy with which a target is located is mainly due to the carefully prepared maps given to observers. These maps are divided into squares representing 1,000 yards a side and numbered. Subdivisions of these squares into four parts are assumed, and given the letters a, b, c, d. Thus the first report of a location might be "4c," the principle being then extended by further subdivisions of the sides of squares into 100 parts, the calculations being based upon the southwest corner as the point of origin, the first figure giving the distance east along the southern side and the second figure the distance north along the western side. Thus a corrected signal, "2732," would locate the enemy battery twenty-seven parts east and thirty-two parts north of the southwest corner of the map's square previously signaled. When it is realized that such an observation, accurately made, gives the location within ten feet, the airplane wireless man's great importance in war is realized more fully. The maps are similar in appearance to those which appeared in the September article on map reading, in this magazine under "Signal Officers' Training Course." The method of communicating with the airplane observer is one of great interest. While it is reported that great strides in improvement of receiving sets have been made. the problem of overcoming the noise of the machine. and similar difficulties has meanwhile led to the adoption of visual means of transmitting directions to airmen. This is accomplished by white strips of cloth, 6 feet long by 1 foot wide, laid on the ground to form letters and symbols. These are easily visible from a height of 3,000 feet. Assuming that the observer is serving three batteries and has been given the general direction and the nature of the enemy emplacement before rising, he will watch for specific directions as he ascends to the required height in safety behind his own batteries. The strips are then seen formed in the shape of the letter Z. which may mean "observe for time shrapnel," or perhaps a P, meaning, "observe for high percussion," or LYD, for high explosives. Later, at his post of observation he may note any one of these symbols prefixed by an X, meaning "change to." or maybe two strips in parallel, which tells him, "am not receiving your signals." Both methods and codes change continuously, but the basic principles are as just outlined, from which it can be seen that the mastery of manipulation of the wireless and the air machine itself are the principal difficulties ir preparing a military aviator for service. Apr. 6, 1942 World Wide Wireles ΤΗ THE FUTILITY OF IDLE COMPLAINTS HE wireless man with the grievance is with us. He appears before the National Amateur Wireless Association by proxy regularly. Represented by a letter usually, his plea is that the closing down of his station, which at first seemed an injustice, has assumed the proportions of a tragedy. And then he airs his complaint and calls for drastic remedy, forgetting that we all of us Stand by the Government. The law must be obeyed. The nation is at war, and its interests ours. Everything that the President asks for must be given cheerfully. And it must not be forgotten that the experimental field in this country has been extended more privileges in peace times than is given by any other nation. A renewal of these privileges at the conclusion of the war is of paramount interest. To hold the recognition, amateurs must demonstrate unwavering. unquestioning loyalty in this hour of emergency. This is no time for complaints. Instead of wasting energy by bemoaning his fate, the experimenter should realize that he should be engaged in intensive study. Development of the art under war conditions is proceeding so rapidly that the well-informed man of today knows little tomorrow, unless he readjusts his point of view to embrace the new applications. To those who cannot conceive existence without radio, the course is clear. The Navy needs you. The Army Signal Corps wants you. Where physical and age limitations put up the bars to active service, there is always the field of the instructor to consider. But instruction is preceded by study. WIRELESS SIGNALING FROM MILITARY AIRPLANES HE extensive application of wireless to aircraft with which Mr. Marconi dealt so interestingly in the September issue of THE WIRELESS AGE opens up a wonderful field of new possibilities. The combination of flying with radio phenomena is unquestionably the most fascinating one which Fate could have devised for the American mind. Since the publication of the Marconi message to American amateurs, one of the most prominent military. aeronautical engineers in the country has stated his belief that "the day is just around the corner when all aviators must be wireless operators, as well." Thus an amplification of the present method of spotting artillery fire trom airplanes should be of interest. The observer in aircraft at the fighting fronts must have, aside from his knowledge of wireless, some grasp of the fundamentals of artillery fire. He must know, for example, the trajectory of shells, or the arc they describe, and be able to distinguish between the use of field guns for barrage fire and howitzers for destruction of heavy guns. This knowledge is required because in locating his piece's objective he may have to fly low, and, after reporting the enemy location, ascend to a safe height above the trajectory of the shell fire which he thereafter directs. The usual height of an observer's flight is 4,000 to 6,000 feet; flying in circles and figure 8s, he sends by wireless a report of the effect of each shot and directions for greater accuracy. A word or two, such as "right," "left," "too short," and so on, is the extent of the direction given, and so skilled are gunners and observers nowadays that it seldom takes more than three or four shots to score a hit on the enemy battery emplacement. At night the positions are revealed by the lights required by the gunners and by the flash of the gun. While special knowledge is required for night flying, fire spotting in the inky darkness is really safer for the aviator, because of the consequent ineffectiveness of enemy anti-craft guns. The wonderful accuracy with which a target is located is mainly due to the carefully prepared maps given to observers. These maps are divided into squares representing 1,000 yards a side and numbered. Subdivisions of these squares into four parts are assumed, and given the letters a, b, c. d. Thus the first report of a location might be "4c," the principle being then extended by further subdivisions of the sides of squares into 100 parts, the calculations being based upon the southwest corner as the point of origin, the first figure giving the distance east along the southern side and the second figure the distance north along the western side. Thus a corrected signal, "2732," would locate the enemy battery twenty-seven parts east and thirty-two parts north of the southwest corner of the map's square previously signaled. When it is realized that such an observation, accurately made, gives the location within ten feet, the airplane wireless man's great importance in war is realized more fully. The maps are similar in appearance to those which appeared in the September article on map reading, in this magazine under "Signal Officers' Training Course." The method of communicating with the airplane observer is one of great interest. While it is reported that great strides in improvement of receiving sets have been made. the problem of overcoming the noise of the machine and similar difficulties has meanwhile led to the adoption of visual means of transmitting directions to airmen. This is accomplished by white strips of cloth, 6 feet long by 1 foot wide, laid on the ground to form letters and symbols. These are easily visible from a height of 3,000 feet. Assuming that the observer is serving three batteries and has been given the general direction and the nature of the enemy emplacement before rising. he will watch for specific directions as he ascends to the required height in safety behind his own batteries. The strips are then seen formed in the shape of the letter Z. which may mean "observe for time shrapnel," or perhaps a P, meaning, "observe for high percussion," or LYD, for high explosives. Later, at his post of observation he may note any one of these symbols prefixed by an X, meaning "change to." or maybe two strips in parallel, which tells him, "am not receiving your signals." Both methods and codes change continuously, but the basic principles are as just outlined, from which it can be seen that the mastery of manipulation of the wireless and the air machine itself are the principal difficulties. ir preparing a military aviator for service. |