Talk:H2S radar

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[edit] Origin of H2S name

There are a number of spurious explanations for how H2S received its name (some for understandable reasons) however, according to A. P. Rowe, who was at TRE at the time, the real reason is this:

When H2S was first being developed it was initially referred to as the Town Finder or TF, as that was the purpose of the system, i.e. to allow RAF Navigators to find their target towns at night and in all weathers, however it was realised that this name might be too obvious and so would eventually need changing for security reasons. At around this time Lord Cherwell (Professor Lindemann) was being shown round TRE and was shown the TF equipment and on seeing it he enquired as to it's purpose. On being told that the device would show a picture of the ground below in all weathers and at night (this was something akin to Science Fiction then) he replied incredulously: It stinks, it stinks! As a private joke the researchers from then-on referred to the TF system as H2S - the name of the foul-smelling gas given-off by rotten eggs (Hydrogen Sulphide) Some time later, Cherwell re-visited TRE and the TF system had by then been officially named H2S and the joke almost forgotten, but Cherwell on seeing the system again and hearing it called 'H2S' enquired why it had such a name. Quick as a flash, some bright-spark, remembering the 'It stinks' episode and wanting to save embarrasment on both sides, replied Home-Sweet-Home


Ian Dunster 13:31, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

According to Prof. R V Jones (Chief of Air Scientific Intelligence), the H2S was a reference to the cavity magnetron itself. Again the credit went to Lord Cherwell on seeing the unbelievably simple construction of the magnetron, said that stunk that no-one had though of it before. 20.133.0.13 12:25, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

The part of the article that describes the German's investigation of H2S does not square with the facts. The Germans were well aware that a 10cm radar was a desireable thing to have. The Germans were also aware that Britain had a fully working 10cm (actually 9.1cm) radar system (H2S), but were unable to fathom out how we were generating the transmitted signal at such unbelievable power. How do we know that the Germans were aware of our radar? Their version of window, the bundles of alluminium strips dropped from aircraft to blind radar (which the Germans had codenamed Düpple) were specifically cut to blind a 9.1cm radar system, of which H2S was the only example. The Germans eventually found the magnetron and built their own version of H2S, but by the time they got it into service, the only thing it detected was defeat. 20.133.0.13 12:25, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

magus732 4:05PM 6/2/2008 (ET) Don't know how important for the article this is, but in the listed radar systems, accourding to just about evry book and website I've seen, it says that the 2 should be subscripted, meaning it should be a 2, not a 2.