Low-tech communications

[Keith Enge]

I have recently reread Lundstrom's "The First Team" and noticed a communication method. I wonder how unique it was, how long it lasted, and if other navies did the same? Early in the war, if a plane was near the carrier and didn't want to break radio silence, it dropped a message in a bean-bag onto the flight deck. This seems viable because the flight deck makes a very large and flat target. Later in the war, high frequency radios were available which were inherently short range and thus very likely undetectable by any enemy. Therefore, I imagine that bean-bags weren't used in the later war years. Anyway, I wonder if scout planes from non-carrier warships ever did anything similar? Also, did other navies do something similar?

[RF]

An interesting proposition - but why use bean-bags when the said plane can land on the carrier?

[dunmunro]

An interesting proposition - but why use bean-bags when the said plane can land on the carrier?

It might not be CV capable or have a pilot onboard familiar with flight deck operations. For example not all USMC pilots were carrier certified, even though they flew carrier capable aircraft. Also a landing entails risk to both the aircraft and the ship.

[lwd]

Droping a message also wouldn't require the carrier (and formation) to turn into the wind and come up to speed. If it was a time sesative message dropping the beanbag might be considerably quicker.

[USS ALASKA]

Sirs, high frequency literally means just that - High Frequency (HF). HF refers to the spectrum band of 3.000 to 30.000 MHz. HF is known for it’s long distance coverage due to skywave propagation. A whole bunch of factors go into just how far and where it can be received but High Frequency is generally understood to be a VERY long distance communications freq band. (Think BBC, Voice of America, Radio Moscow) If what you meant by ‘high frequency’ was higher frequency bands like VHF (30.000 – 300.000 MHz) and UHF (300.000 MHz – 3.000 GHz) then that would be more correct since they are Line-of-Sight (LOS) communication bands. Although atmospherics can do strange and cool things to them also, the effects are not as predictable and repeatable as those effects on HF. Also, VHF / UHF transmissions can be made that are low probability of intercept (LPI) using directional antennas but I believe that aircraft comm transmit antennas for US carrier aircraft of WWII were omni-directional (Yes / No ?). So anyone within LOS of the transmission can detect them with the proper equipment.

Why not just land on the carrier? If I’m already flying, I have a good aircraft (hopefully). If I land it takes me longer to get back on station, I could break, I could crash and foul the deck, just easier to drop the message and continue on with the mission.

Cheers

[RNfanDan]

Although atmospherics can do strange and cool things to them also, the effects are not as predictable and repeatable as those effects on HF.

ARRL DXCC 50MHz.

73