HISTORY OF RADAR

DELJITH C.DAVIS
14EC63R12

Radar is an electromagnetic system

principle to pulse radar at frequencies in the

for the detection of reflecting objects such as

vicinity of 455 MHz. He demonstrated that

aircraft, ships, spacecraft, vehicles, people

radio waves behaved the same as light

and the natural environment. It operates by

expect for the considerable difference in

radiates energy into space and detecting the

frequency between the two. He showed that

echo signal reflected from an object or

radio waves could be reflected from metallic

target. The reflected energy that is returned

objects and refracted by a dielectric prism.

to the radar not only indicates the presence

Hertz

of a target, but by comparing the received

recognition for his work, but he did not

echo signal with the signal that was

purse its practical applications. This was

transmitted, its location can be determined

left to others. The potential of Hertzs work

along with other target related information.

for the detection and location of reflecting

It can operate in darkness, haze, fog, rain

objects - which is what radar does was

and snow.

advanced by another German, Christian

received

quick

and

widespread

Hulsmeyer. In 1900s he assembled an

ORIGIN OF RADAR

instrument that would today be known as a

The basic concept of radar was first

monostatic pulse radar. It was much

demonstrated by the classical experiments

improved over the apparatus used by Hertz.

conducted by the German physicist Heinrich

In 1904 he obtained a patent in England and

Hertz

Hertz

other countries. Hulsmeyers radar detected

experimentally verified the predictions of

ships and he extensively marketed it for

James Clerk Maxwells theory of the

preventing

electromagnetic field published in 1864.

demonstrated his apparatus to shipping

Hertz used apparatus that was similar in

companies and to the German navy.

from

1885

to

1888.

collisions

at

sea.

He

Although it was a success and much

the detection of ships and aircraft. There

publicized there apparently was no interest

were additional reported detections of

for collision avoidance device. His invention

aircraft and other targets by the CW wave

and his demonstrations faded from memory

interference method in several countries of

and were all but forgotten. Radar would

the world; but this type of radar did not

have to be rediscovered a few more times

have, and still doesnt have significant

before it eventually became an operating

utility for most applications. It was the

reality.

appearance of the heavy military bomber

During the 1920s other evidence of

the radar method appeared. S.G Marconi the

well-known pioneer of wireless radio,
observed the radio detection of targets in his
experiments and strongly urged its use in
speech delivered in 1922 before the Institute
Of Radio Engineers. Apparently unaware of
Marconis speech, A. Hoyt Taylor and Leo
C. Young of the U.S Naval Research
Laboratory in Washington D.C accidently
observed in the autumn of 1922, a

aircraft in the late 1920s and early 1930s

that eventually gave rise to operational
military radar. After world war I, the
bomber was transformed from a fabriccoated biplane with open cockpit to an allmetal, single wing aircraft with enclosed
cockpit, which flew at high altitude over
long distance with heavy bomb load. Long
range warning of the approach of the heavy
bomber became an important military need.
In

the

1930s,

radar

rediscovered

ship passed between the receiver and

simultaneously

transmitter located on opposite sides of a

independently in the United States, United

river. This

wave

Kingdom, Germany, Soviet Union, France,

interference system. But today it is known as

Italy, Japan and Netherlands. These radars

bistatic CW radar. In 1925 the pulse radar

operated at frequencies much lower than

technique was used by Breit and Tuve of the

those generally used in modern radar. Most

Carnegie Institution in Washington D.C to

early radars employed frequencies in the

measure the height of the ionosphere. The

vicinity of 100 to 200 MHz ; but the British

Breit and Tuve apparatus was indeed a

Chain Home radars operated at 30 MHz, the

radar, but it was not recognized at the time

low end of the pre-war radar spectrum,

that the same principle might be applied for

while the German 600 MHz Wurzburg

called a CW

developed

was

fluctuating signal at their receiver when a

was

and

the

and

almost
essentially

radars represented the highest frequencies

recommendation a project was established at

used operationally early in the war.

Naval Research Laboratory in January 1931

The first incident that led ultimately

to radar was the accident observation by
Taylor and Young in September 1922 that
ship interrupted some experimental high
frequency radio communication across the
Potomac when it intercepted the propagation

for Detection of Enemy Vessels and

Aircraft by Radio. Work on this project
continued for several years. The beat
method was employed, in which transmitter
and

receiver were widely separated and

shielded from each other.

path between transmitter and receiver.

The required wide separation of

Taylor and Young had for many years been

transmitter and receiver precluded the use of

employed by the Navy, and were keenly

the beat method on ships and limited its

aware of the problem of screening Naval

usefulness to the protection of large land

forces from penetration by other ships in

areas such as cities and military bases. Since

darkness

this was exclusively the responsibility of the

and

proposed

that

fog.

They

high

immediately

frequency

radio

Army, it was proposed in January, 1932, that

transmitters and receivers be installed on

the Army take over the development for its

destroyers to detect the passage of other

use in that function. Subsequently, Navy

ships between any two destroyers in radio

interest in the problem lagged until Young

contact.

suggested to Taylor that the pulse method be

The second incident was another

accidental observation, this time by Hyland,
a colleague of Taylor and Young. During
experiments

on

high

frequency

radio

direction finding in June 1930, he detected a

severe disturbance of the propagation field
by an airplane flying overhead. Hyland was
also an experienced Navy employee, and
was sensitive to the potential threat of
military aircraft and the need for warning
device

against

them.

On

Taylors

tried. Young's proposal combined for the

first time all five elements essential to radar.
Ultimately, Taylor accepted the proposal
and assigned to the author, working under
Young's supervision, the task of developing
pulse radar. The author's work on this task
was started on March 14, 1934.
The first step was to develop an
indicator

to

display

the

outputs

of

transmitter and receiver. A suitable sweep

circuit was built for a commercially
produced 5-in cathode-ray oscilloscope. The

next step was development of a pulse

transmitted pulse caused the receiver to ring

transmitter. The transmitter frequency of 60

for 30 to 40 sec. However, when a small

Mc was chosen because that was the

airplane flew across the beam at a distance

frequency then used in the beat method.

of about a mile, the received signal caused

Pulse length was slightly under 10 sec, and

the receiver output following the transmitted

pulse spacing, 100 sec, these being chosen

pulse to fluctuate violently between zero and

as appropriate experimental values. The

saturation. This test was completed in

keyer was an asymmetric multivibrator. The

December 1934.

antenna was a single half-wave horizontal

The second design requirement was

doublet with a single resonant reflector. The

to minimize the ring time of tuned circuits

pulse power was estimated to be between

from the transmitter-induced high signal

100 and 200 w. The first question to be

level. This was achieved by returning grids

resolved was whether echo pulse energy

to cathodes without bias, thus limiting the

could be detected during the intervals

level to which the circuits could be driven

between

by the transmitter. The third requirement

transmitted

pulses,

since

synchronous detection, characteristic of the

was fast response to amplify the short pulse

beat method, was known to be more

echoes. This meant tailoring the Q values of

sensitive

all tuned circuits so that the composite Q of

than

characteristic

asynchronous
of

method.

the receiver would match the pulse length.

Autocorrelation and cross correlation were

This was accomplished with the help of the

unheard of in those days, and the trade-off

appropriate equation published by Mesny.3

between time and bandwidth disclosed by

The fourth requirement was complete

Hartley, as well as the significance of

absence of regenerative feed-back in the

average

well

presence of high gain. A communication

understood. The only sure recourse was to

receiver of that day was considered stable if

try it, and skepticism was great. A broad-

it did not oscillate. Equivalent Q, however,

band

experimental

is a sensitive function of feed-back, and

communications receiver was borrowed and

response characteristics are readily altered

connected to a second antenna similar to the

by feed-back long before the point of

transmitting antenna. Coupling between the

oscillation is reached. This requirement was

two antennas was appreciable, and the

met by using a super-heterodyne receiver,

energy

the

were

high-gain

pulse

detection,

not

too

limiting volt age gain on any one frequency

to reduce the size of the equipment so it

to one thousand, and changing intermediate

could be used on ships. The 28.6-Mc

frequency as required to accomplish an

antenna was about 200 ft square. Reduction

over-all voltage gain on the order of 10. In

in directivity of antenna pattern was not

addition, extreme precautions were taken in

desired. A smaller antenna therefore meant

shielding, filtering, and common

point

higher frequency. On July 22, 1936, a small

grounding. The receiver was intended for a 5

radar was put in operation on 200 Mc. In

sec pulse. The over-all response was 90 per

that same month the first radar duplexer was

cent of steady state in 5 sec. This

successfully tested, also on 200 Mc,

characteristic was independent of gain up to

enabling both transmitter and receiver to use

the point where thermal noise at the input

the same antenna.

filled the cathode-ray screen. A new

transmitter

of

the

self-quenching

or

squegging type was built to go with the new

receiver. The transmitting antenna was a
4X4-wavelength curtain array with resonant
reflector. The receiving antenna was a single
half-wave doublet with single resonant
reflector. The frequency was 28.6 Mc with
pulse length of 5 sec aid pulse recurrence
rate of 3720 per sec giving a range scale of
25 statute miles. The system went on the air
in April, 1936. The receiver recovery to full

(Original 28-Mc radar transmitter with

sensitivity following the transmitted pulse

synchronizing keyer, April 1936)

appeared to be instantaneous. Beautifully

In 1934, the French Emile Girardeau

sharp echoes from aircraft were observed

started building a radar system and installed

almost at once, and within a few days they

first devices on board of the cargo

appeared all the way to the 25-mile limit of

ship Oregon and

the indicator. The spectacular success of the

liner Normandie the year after. Meanwhile,

experiment was followed by a greatly

in the USSR, P.K. Oschepkov built an

intensified effort. A primary objective was

experimental apparatus capable of detecting

of

the

ocean

an aircraft 3 km away. During the same

years, Hungarian technology on radar was
moving in the same direction with Zoltan
Bay, which succeeded in producing an
operational

radar

device,

working

in

cooperation with Tungsram Ltd. research

laboratory in 1936.
In December 1934, Robert M. Page tested in
the United States an experimental 60MHz pulse-modulated radar tracking a plane
1.6 km away. A year later, Page received a
federal grant of US$100,000 to support
radar research. By 1936, Pages group had
( SCR 270)

developed a 28.6-MHz device that could

detect planes as far as 40 km away. Over the
years, Page maintained a key role in the

scientists to investigate electromagnetic

development of American radar, serving as

wave energy. They stated that the death ray

the director of the U.S. Naval Research

was science fiction, but they also asserted

Laboratory. In 1940, the U.S. Navy created

that it was possible to use EM wave for

the

aircraft

acronym Radar which

comes

from

detection

and

ranging.

radio detection and ranging. By 1937,

Robert Watson-Watt developed

independent research was underway at the

working prototype that was patented in

U.S. Signal Corp, which eventually lead to

1935. It was from this prototype that the

the development of the SCR-270 ground

famous early warning defense radar system

based radar that was operative in July 1941.

known as Chain Home was set up from

A few months later, one of them detected

1937. At the start of WWII, the Chain,

the incoming Japanese raid at Pearl Harbor.

consisting of 19 stations, played a key role

In the same year, Great Britain,

Thus,
radar

in the Battle of Britain. At this time, the

afraid that German scientists could develop

device was known as RDF in Great Britain.

death rays, an idea first claimed by Nikola

Germany,

Tesla many years before, appointed British

electromagnetic technology, was equally

leader

in

the

field

of

investing

time

radar

years later would pay off in unexpected

development. Early research was started by

areas. The second limitation stemmed from

Rudolf Kuhnhold and Hans Erich Hollmann.

the limited power and frequency of the

The former obtained first successful results

transmitter generators, which restricted the

in 1934 using a continuous wave system fed

detection

with 600-MHz split anode magnetron. In

antennas.

1934, microwave expert Hollmann built the

magnetrons derived from the 1921.The

first

use.

cavity magnetron, devised in 1940 by John

Innovative development appeared in 1937,

T. Randall and Henry A.H. Boot at the

leading to pulsed type radars as the Freya

University

ground based model (120130MHz), the

breakthrough, having the capacity to operate

shipborne Seetakt (600, 500, and 390 MHz),

at much higher power and frequencies (3.3

and

GHz),

operating

the

and

radar

Telefunken

effort

for

in

naval

Wurzburg (553

566 MHz) which were operative by 1940.

range

and

Generators

of

thus

called
in

for
use

Birmingham,

allowing

large

much

were

was

shorter

wavelengths (9.1 cm), suitable for small

antennas of airborne radars. The first model,
British H2S, was operative in the beginning
of 1943 and played a key role in the bomber
raids on German cities.

REFERENCES
1. Introduction to radar systems third
edition, Merill I. Skolnik
(Wurzberg

2. History of radar,Guarnieri M,IEEE

mobile radar)

Magazine V.4 ,2010

The performance of the first radars

was restricted mainly by a couple of
technological limitations. The first was from
the rectifiers needed for visualization on the
receiver

screen

and

promoted

an in-

depth understanding of crystal growing that

3. Early history of radar, Page, R.M,

Proceedings of IRE V.50 ,1962