30 Aug
2008
30 Aug
'08
2:49 p.m.
I've never had an opportunity to study early
radar stuff in depth.
You should get some manuals - they are mostly around, some are
downright cheap. The origins of computing, ENIAC, EDSAC and all, were
built on a huge foundation made by the both the radar people and the
punch card people. This is similar to the origins of networking
history, with its foundation made by The Phone Company.
I know pulse
circuitry developments were wrapped up with radar efforts and the original gate
design (the 'coincidence gate'), but what were counters beyond a few flip-flops
and decade counters being used for there?
Ranging. For fire control, very accurate ranging is very important, as
it is one of the biggest variables in ballistics equations. Getting
accurate range data out of the radars was thus extremely important, so
the range circuits were very precise, and often employed dividers and
flip flops and such to generate cursor information on the scopes for
the operators.
--
Will