Mike T. wrote; I came along too late for the radio ranges, but I've read
about them many
times in old books and articles.
I was around for radio ranges. You can see the antenna in the old
movies. It's the little round ring that you see sticking out of the top or
bottom of the fuse. This was replaced by the A-N range which sent out four
signals in four different directions. If you were flying in the signal beam,
you would get a steady tone in the radio. If you drifted off to the right of
the center of the beam you would get a dash dot from the radio. If you
drifted to the left you would get a dot dash. the main problem with this
system is that you could pick up the signal as much as 60 miles away if you
were high enough. The spread of the beam was about 3 degrees and at 60 miles
out the beam was 3 miles wide and you could fly in a circle and have a
steady tone all the way. The omni range came next. Before the Radio range
there was a system of light towers across the nation and before that there
were large concrete arrows on the ground pointing the way for the Air Mail
pilots. All of these systems worked into each other so at one time you had
the light towers, the radio range and the A & N system into the fifties and
all of them were still working when the first omni ranges came along. Point
of interest, there is a light tower on a hill on the East side of Saint
Paul, MN downtown airport. It is the only light marker still in operational
use.
Patrick Driscoll
Saint Paul, MN
patrick36 at usfamily.net
www.pensbypat.com
If you can read this, Thank a teacher
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