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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Shortwave radio and the evolution of celestial navigation
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 2018 Jun 12, 22:46 -0700
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 2018 Jun 12, 22:46 -0700
In 1931 Ralph Bagnold and some friends set out in a stripped down Model A Ford into the "Western Desert", which is essentially the Eastern Sahara. They had been on several trips into the desert before, but the innovation for this trip was a theodolite and some watches to determine latitude and longitude, and a Phillips short wave radio to correct watch time. The radio can be seen in a padded wooden box bolted to the running board of the car. They went to great efforts to lighten the cars, but it can be seen how important this 'innovation' was to them that they were prepared to add the radio and associated vibrator power supply - which probably weighed a hundred pounds or more - to the weight budget.
Geoffrey Kolbe GM4LPJ
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