Danger of being located by radio triangulation when sending messages

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Fatboy Coxy
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Danger of being located by radio triangulation when sending messages

Post by Fatboy Coxy »

Hi all,

For ships and/or submarines operating in hostile waters during WW2, how dangerous was it sending radio messages back to your HQ. By using triangulation of a radio signal from two, or more different listening posts, the transmitters’ location could be determined. But how dangerous was this, how quickly could a ship/submarine be located, enabling local forces to track it down and destroy.

Regards
Fatboy Coxy
Regards
Fatboy Coxy

Currently writing https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/ ... if.521982/
dunmunro
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Re: Danger of being located by radio triangulation when sending messages

Post by dunmunro »

Fatboy Coxy wrote: Wed Nov 10, 2021 11:30 pm Hi all,

For ships and/or submarines operating in hostile waters during WW2, how dangerous was it sending radio messages back to your HQ. By using triangulation of a radio signal from two, or more different listening posts, the transmitters’ location could be determined. But how dangerous was this, how quickly could a ship/submarine be located, enabling local forces to track it down and destroy.

Regards
Fatboy Coxy
The probability was actually quite high:

https://uboat.net/allies/technical/hfdf.htm

but even before HF/DF the RN had efficient shore based long range DF gear.
OpanaPointer
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Re: Danger of being located by radio triangulation when sending messages

Post by OpanaPointer »

The USN put a IJN carrier division near Johnston Island based on radio direction tracking. This caused our carriers to be sent south instead of north (the reciprocal of the real direction) when we detected radio signals attributed to Nagumo Kido Butai.
Fatboy Coxy
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Re: Danger of being located by radio triangulation when sending messages

Post by Fatboy Coxy »

dunmunro wrote: Thu Nov 11, 2021 2:46 am
The probability was actually quite high:

https://uboat.net/allies/technical/hfdf.htm

but even before HF/DF the RN had efficient shore based long range DF gear.
Hi dunmunro, thank you for this

Clearly the British, and per se, the Americans had the technology to use HF/DF on a tactical scale, but I read very little from the German point of view, and nothing from the Japanese.

The location of US submarines in the Pacific theatre would have been of immense use to the Japanese, is this another example of their failure to take anti submarine warfare seriously, or am i missing something

Regards
Fatboy Coxy
Regards
Fatboy Coxy

Currently writing https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/ ... if.521982/
OpanaPointer
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Re: Danger of being located by radio triangulation when sending messages

Post by OpanaPointer »

Look up Japanese Monograph 118, available on Hyperwar and elsewhere. 500+ pages on Japanese radio doctrine, should have something you can use.
Fatboy Coxy
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Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2018 5:18 am

Re: Danger of being located by radio triangulation when sending messages

Post by Fatboy Coxy »

OpanaPointer wrote: Tue Nov 16, 2021 11:07 pm Look up Japanese Monograph 118, available on Hyperwar and elsewhere. 500+ pages on Japanese radio doctrine, should have something you can use.
OK so I typed into Google, Hyperwar Japanese Monographs, and where have you taken me to......

An absolute Aladdin's cave of info, I'm gonna be here weeks!

Which just goes to show, it not what you know, tits who you know, and boy am I glad I 'know' you

Thank you OpanaPointer

Regards
Fatboy Coxy
Regards
Fatboy Coxy

Currently writing https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/ ... if.521982/
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