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Bagful and Carpet

Page history last edited by Alan Hartley-Smith 2 years, 1 month ago

Early Days

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This was essentially the start of ELINET or Signals Intelligence gathering and interpretation, which together with the corresponding 'Jamming' of enemy transmissions (in WW2 known as Carpet Ops) was the beginning of what we know today as ECM.

 

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Bagful Receiver/Recorder R1622

Developed by Ted Cooke-Yarborough who headed 'Bagful' & 'Carpet' development during WWII.


The R1622 operated in the Frequency Bands 300-420 Mhz, 355-475 Mhz and 450-590 Mhz (during WWII these were Radar Frequencies).

The R1622, usually carried by a Wellington/Halifax, was a self-recording search receiver designed to provide an automatic scan of a given frequency band and to record the signals received. A three-inch wide roll of dry electrochemical paper was used to record any transmissions. The data collected was analysed by intelligence officers to gain knowledge of the enemy’s radio and radar capabilities, thus allowing counter-measures to be developed/deployed.

 

See <https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/3339xi/elint_aircraft_in_world_war_ii>

 

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Bagful is a self-recording search receiver designed to provide an automatic scan of a given frequency band once per second and to record the signals received. Manual tuning can be used by releasing the clutch and a headphone jack is provided. In the initial version 300-600 Mc/s were covered in three stages. The transmissions were recorded on a roll of dry electro-chemical paper about three inches wide. Calibrating signals injected into the receiver every five minutes were also recorded on the same paper - it recorded radio frequency, duration, and time of interception of all radar signals incident on the aircraft. Up to 24 hours of recording could be accommodated. [TNA KewfileAVIA 26/601,TRE Report T 1599Bagful.]

 

Early Days

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Comments (1)

Steve Kay said

at 9:34 am on Feb 15, 2022

After the war, Ted Cooke-Yarborough worked at AERE Harwell and, with Dick Barnes, designed the Harwell Dekatron computer (1951). This was approximately the 14th stored program computer in the world. It still exists and still works and is housed at TNMoC (www.tnmoc.org/witch). It is registered by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest working digital computer.

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