My speciality. Овчинникова Т.Е - 7 стр.

1939-1954. Radar. In early 1939 reports reached the Australian government about
secret radar research being carried out in England by the Air Ministry. It was decided
that a laboratory be set up under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
(CSIR) to take up this research in Australia. It was called "Radiophysics" to cover its
secret activities and had a starting budget of $81.000 with Dr. D.F. Martyn as Officer
in Charge.
In June 1940 there were 19 staff, including 10 scientists. At the end of the war this
had risen to 300 and the annual expenditure was $150.000.
The Laboratory worked on twenty major radar projects. They included the
development of shore defence facilities, radar-contorlled searchlights gunlaying
apparatus, ship warning and gunnery, range measuring equipment, and ionospheirc
recorders.
Radio valve production was set up to produce Australian designed devices the
equivalents of which were unobtainable from overseas sources. An X-ray tube was
also developed.
The lightweight air warning "Rebecca-Eureka" radar system (LW/AWH) built around
an Australian magnetron gave succesful coverage of low flying aircraft. Its properties
of air and jungle portability, tropical weather resistance, and inbuilt protection against
the enemy jamming, made it probably the outstanding wartime achievement of the
Radiophysics Laboratory.
One of these units was used at Collaroy to investigate the reported "jamming" of
British radar sets by the Sun. Using improvised receivers radio noise was detected
from the Sun at 200 MHz on 3 October 1945. It came from a part of the Sun where
the temperature was about 1,000,000 °C, enormously higher than the surface (optical)
temperature of 6,000 ° C. Radiation at even higher temperatures seemed to be coming
from sunspots.
Immediately following the war Radiophysics developed the first airport control radar
and long-distance “airways” radar which was subsequently installed at all Australian
airports.
In 1954 Radiophysics supplied the NSW Police Force with its first Doppler radar
units.
1945-1955. Distance Measuring Equipment. Another result of radar experience was
the development of the air navigation aid, "Distance Measuring Equipment" (DME),
by J.H. Piddington and B.F.C. Cooper. With this device pilots could measure the
distance of their aircraft from a DME beacon at a known position. By using two
beacons (at different frequencies) the aircraft's position could be determined. It was
not until ten years after Australia's adoption of DME that a higher frequency version
was adopted for international use.
 Work was also done on determining bearing, as well as distance, and on long range
DME. The "Multiple Track Range", a short distance landing aid, was developed. An
airport simulator developed at the same time was given to the Department of Civil
Aviation in 1949 for air traffic controller training.
In 1955 the DME equipment was converted to transistor operation, vastly reducing its
bulk.