General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
Re: Navigation
Posted by:
Theo Horsten
()
Date: November 17, 2001 12:47PM
<HTML>The Consol hyperbolic radio navigaton system was developed in 1938 by a Dr. Ernst Kramer, working for Standard Elektrinik Lorenz. and was used from the beginning of WW2 onwards. It was a very simple system that required an ordinary radioreceiver only. The transmitters were in Norway (Stavanger), France and Spain and after the war in Bushmills, Northern Ireland and also in the USA, New York and San Francisco and in the USSR. The range was about 1000 miles. The accuracy depended on your distance from the transmitter and was about 3 miles at maximum range.
The system was developd specially for aircraft flying over the Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay between Norway and France and for the U-boats in the same area.
Consol worked on 300 Khz and yhe only thing you had to do was count the dots you heard, followed by the so called "equisignal" and then a serie of dashes. After that you could plot yiour position on a special Consol chart which had the pattern printed on it, or find the bearing(s) to the station(s) from special tables.
In the 50's I have been using Consol many times to give me a (rough) position say, in the Bay of Biscay. The last Consol station went of the air in the 90's. The only nice thing about Consol was, that it was so simple. Even in very bad weather, on a small ship, rolling and pitching like crazy, you could still count dots and dashes on your normal radio, after listening to the BBC weather forecast on 200 Khz, sitting with your back to the central heating!
In other areas the sub had to use RDF - Radio direction finding, taking bearings of 2 or 3 radio beacons or astronomic navigation.</HTML>
The system was developd specially for aircraft flying over the Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay between Norway and France and for the U-boats in the same area.
Consol worked on 300 Khz and yhe only thing you had to do was count the dots you heard, followed by the so called "equisignal" and then a serie of dashes. After that you could plot yiour position on a special Consol chart which had the pattern printed on it, or find the bearing(s) to the station(s) from special tables.
In the 50's I have been using Consol many times to give me a (rough) position say, in the Bay of Biscay. The last Consol station went of the air in the 90's. The only nice thing about Consol was, that it was so simple. Even in very bad weather, on a small ship, rolling and pitching like crazy, you could still count dots and dashes on your normal radio, after listening to the BBC weather forecast on 200 Khz, sitting with your back to the central heating!
In other areas the sub had to use RDF - Radio direction finding, taking bearings of 2 or 3 radio beacons or astronomic navigation.</HTML>
| Subject | Written By | Posted |
|---|---|---|
Navigation
|
Bill Watt | 11/14/2001 04:13PM |
|
Re: Navigation
|
Bram | 11/14/2001 05:01PM |
|
Re: Navigation
|
Antonio Veiga | 11/14/2001 08:59PM |
|
Re: Navigation
|
Parade | 11/14/2001 09:24PM |
|
Re: Navigation
|
Theo Horsten | 11/17/2001 12:47PM |
|
Re: Navigation
|
Theo Horsten | 11/17/2001 01:13PM |
|
Re: Navigation
|
jim king | 11/17/2001 10:39PM |