Posted:
By: Clyde Mings
On: 03/31/2006
|
Paul- you are correct about the ADF radio compass. The loop antenna inside the streamlined tear drop shaped housing automatically rotated and drove the syncho motor that turned the needle and gave the bearing to the station. It was used by the navigator and when we were in deep trouble in North Germany, for some reason the needle always seemed to be pointing toward Stockholm Radio! The B-17 radio operator could only listen to the radio compass audio and monitor the signals- not tune them.My next tour was on C-46's and 3 man crews and the radio op had the radio compass 3 station fixes and early Loran to keep us plotting a fairly accurate course on the Africa-India runs. We always got there, so it beat nothing!
|