Radio in the field

[centurion]

In the light of some recent discussions I thought it might be instructive to create a chronology of some of the milestones in the use of radio in the field.

1896 (May) - Marconi demonstrates wireless telegraphy to the British army and RN

1896 (late) - Wireless demonstration is made to the British army on Salisbury Plain by Sir William Preece, Chief Engineer of the Post Office

1899 Kaiser William, instructs German experts to experiment with the wireless system, for the benefit of the German army and navy.

1899 Transvaal Army orders lightweight radio sets from Siemens (Siemens receiver, Marconi transmitter).

1899 Marconi radio sets arrive in SA for use by the British Army, these are portable and are installed in Australian sprung wagons. The intention is for wireless wagons to accompany mobile columns keeping in touch with a stationary set at a rail head. Initially successful (up to 80 miles) but problems with aerials and atmospheric static makes them unreliable at greater distances. Problems included splitting of bamboo aerial poles and inappropriate aerial lengths when balloon and kites used.Balloon aerials

1900 Russian army commences experiments with use of wireless for battlefield communications using sets developed by the Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovitch Popov (1859 – 1906)

1901 to 1908 Major George Owen Squier US Signal Corps Chief Signal Officer in the California district carries out studies in the use of wireless in the field.

1902 British army begins further experiments in use of wireless telegraphy in the field

1903 German army introduces portable wireless equipment

1905 Towards the end of the Russo Japanese War a wireless department is formed in St Petersburg under Capt I A Leontiev. Two companies with 16 wireless sets arrive at the front in May 1905

1906-1909 radio communications equipment developed by the U.S. Army is installed in Cuba, and tested under actual campaign conditions (during the second US occupation).

1906 British army in conjunction with Marconi develops a new portable wireless set

1906 Netherlands army begins experiments with wireless

1907 RE Wireless Telegraph companies are formed using the new sets

1907 Canadian Army Wireless Telegraph companies are formed

1907 Transmission to and from British Army balloons is achieved

1908 Gustave-Auguste Ferrié begins the development of mobile transmitters to enable French military units to stay in radio contact with Paris

[joseph]

Cutting edge technology, have you any of the test/experimentation results to see how they fared.

Regards Charles

[per ardua per mare per terram]

This is a fascinating list. I have some questions: what was the definition of light weight and portable? What ranges were they achieving by 1908?

[centurion]

I think from looking at the equipment, if you could get it in an ordinary army wagon it counted as light weight and portable, ie it could accompany a force in the field. Even the Boer War stuff met this criteria

Later in WW1 portable came to mean - could be carried by two men - as some of the sets towards the end of the war could be. The biggest problem seems to always have been the power source as battery technology was always running to catch up and you could be lugging the equivalent of car batteries around. One of the early RE sets carried a petrol run generator in the wagon. Aerials were the next problem.

[truthergw]

The French had a powerful transmitter in the Eiffel Tower which caused heavy interference to German transmission. As Centurion says, a portable set in 1916 required 3 men, two for the set and one for the bits and bobs. The Russians made heavy use of radio and this fact told against them as they transmitted vital orders in clear allowing the Germans full knowledge of the battle plans. Spark transmitters had very respectable ranges but were omnidirectional and so inherently insecure. Batteries were usually wet cells with a petrol engine for recharging. This took some time so a station would require several sets of batteries charged and recharging. Fragile and high maintenance with carboys of acid and distilled water to top them up. This sort of ' accumulator' was still in use in domestic wireless well after WW2. Every neighbourhood had a shop where accumulators were recharged.

[centurion]

The German airships actually used the Eiffel tower transmitter (and others) as a navigation aid. This was turned against them. I wrote a piece on WW1 electronic warfare some time ago for Landships - e warfare that covers this

[joseph]

How easy was it to have wireless in the field in 1914, what were the parameters of the available sets;

In 1914 the use of wireless was largely restricted to large relatively permanent land installations and ships. The inhibiting factor was both the lack of portability of the equipment itself (particularly the receiving units) and the size of aerial needed to have any sort of effective range.

I pulled that statement of the web;

The Royal Navys history;

http://www.rnmuseumradarandcommunications2...g.uk/index.html

Have you any test results?

Regards Charles

[NigelS]

Hi Centurion

Any idea of when earliest experimental radio communications with planes took place and when it came into practical use; presumeably it would have been one way first (ground-air), then two way (ground-air & air-ground), and finally includng air-air? Weight must have been a real problem, probably more so once planes started to have transmitters on board?

NigelS

[centurion]

NigelS

Let me come backto you on this - from memory experiments began sometime arounnd 1909 ish although the British army had been doing things with Balloons around 1907 and the Germans and Americans with airships even before then. BTW the spark gap transmitters were not as heavy as the receivers.

Charles.

By 1914 it seems to have been relatively easy to have wireless behind and right up to the lines (especialy if one was content with a tactical range of say 20 to 100 miles) as the kit could be fitted in a normal sized wagon (and provided one limited oneself to morse and no voice). Getting it further forward was the problem (one reason for the wireless tanks). However by 1916 even this was becoming less of a problem (see this photo of a wireless post in the trenches at Pozieres Aug 1916) More later.

[joseph]

By 1914 the Royal Navy were well advanced with Radio Telephony, when did the army start using voice communications?

Regards Charles

[1st AIF]

Hello all,

My grand father Sgt W.C. Kelly was in the AIF. He is being recorded as being in 2^nd Army Wireless Company then the 1st Anzac Wireless Section (attached to K Corps) and then the Australian Corps Signal Company. He never spoke about the war to my dad and to this day we still don't know much about his day to day job or whereabouts in France/ Belgium he toured.

I have read some good stuff on the web and know a little about power buzzers and amplifiers. Does anyone have any idea what his duties may have been? Was he near the front line or an echelon wallah?

Thanks,

Len

[grantsmil]

A very good book on the subject is "WITH HORSE AND MORSE IN MESOPOTAMIA" printed in 1927. The histories of the 1st Australian Pack Wireless Signal Troop, the N.Z. Wireless Signal Troop, the 1st Cavalry Division Signal Squadron, the Light Motor Wireless Sections and others are described.

[6th Hauraki KIA KAHA]

You seem to have forgotten the capture of Samoa by New Zealand, of the Telefunken station in 1914.

also the building of the Telefunken stations in New Zealand in 1913 over Marconi.

Jonathan

[centurion]

OK here are some milestones in airborne wireless - a mite Britcentric I'm afraid so any further detail from France Germany the KuK and the USA (not to mention Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc ) welcome

1910 (Aug 27) First ever air to ground transmission is made by Canadian J D A McCurdy in a Curtiss over Long Island signal picked up a mile away.

1910 (Sept 27) First transmission to a military installation is made by the actor Robert Loraine (later a Major in the RFC) who transmits from an aircraft to Larkhill experimental station on Salisbury Plain.

1910 The Royal Aircraft Factory (RAF) at Farnboro begins airborne wireless experiments using a Flanders monoplane.

1911 First US military air to ground transmission is carried out by Lieutenant Paul W. Beck as a passenger on a Wright model B using equipment made by the Western Wireless Equipment Company. Signal picked up at a range of 40 miles Wright

1912 First two way wireless (air to ground and ground to air) signalling is performed by Captain Dawes of the Air Battalion using a Marconi set.

1912 Major Herbert Musgrave is placed in charge of the newly formed RFC's experiments. This included research into how wireless telegraphy could be used by military aircraft.

1912 Marconi in conjunction with the RAF develops a transmitter specifically for aircraft

1912 The BE1 is fitted with the Marconi set and piloted by de Havilland is used for trials

1912 A BE2 is fitted with the same equipment

1913 A BE 2a (later numbered as 240) is fitted with a Rouzet wireless set and aerial drum

1914 (August) BE2a no 336 equipped with the Rouzet wireless set and no 240 (see above) fly to France with no 4 Squadron. No 240 written off a week later but 336 continues into 1915.

1916 A Lightweight aircraft receiver and a Marconi half-kilowatt ground transmitter is developed for the RFC. Trials start in May and pilots report that signals were clearly heard up to ten miles. By November the range has been increased to twenty miles

1916 (by end of) the RFC wireless organisation has 200 officers and 2,000 operators. Many of these are attached to artillery units

1917 At the Battle of Vimy Ridge the RFC deploys 30 wireless equipped aircraft which carry out 406 shoots

1917 The Royal Flying Corps began to equip some planes with air-to-air continuous wave voice radio.

1918 (Nov) the number of wireless aircraft in the RAF has risen to 400 plus (possibly 500) with 1000 ground stations and 18,000 wireless operators. Aircraft fitted with wireless include the FK8 (Big Ack), RE8 and Bristol Fighter

[centurion]

You seem to have forgotten the capture of Samoa by New Zealand, of the Telefunken station in 1914.

Yes I failed to pick that one up - as is always the case having written an article one always finds a few things one would like to add or change afterwards. Unfortunately there is no way I can access the article and up date it - I've tried by e mailing the Landships site owner but at least that forum does have a place for articles etc so shouldn't complain.

[NigelS]

OK here are some milestones in airborne wireless - a mite Britcentric I'm afraid so any further detail from France Germany the KuK and the USA (not to mention Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc ) welcome

Centurion - great stuff, thanks

I realise now that my comment on weight being a problem was probably a bit dumb; I was thinking of batteries, but, of course, there was an aero engine nearby more than capable of being harnessed to generate a few volts. With suppression techniques, like radio itself, still being in its infancy RF interference from engines' ignitition systems must have caused significant problems.

This, which might be of interest, is from the 169th Brigade Instructions (dated 14th Aug.'17) for the failed attack on Polygon Wood by the 2nd (RF), 5th(LRB), 9th (QVR) & 16th (QWR) Londons on the 16th which, although it gives that the contact planes were equipped with wireless infantry units, without its benefit when on the attack, still had to resort to the more traditional, low tech methods of communicating with them.

and from the account of the same attack in the History of the LRB 1859-1919:

....though the battalion suffered many casualties from the machine guns in Inverness Copse. "A" Company, which was leading, with the race-course for its objective lost Capt. Butcher, who was known to have been killed after passing Nonne Boschen Wood (J.8.d), but beyond this nothing is certain, except that contact aeroplanes reported that "flares were lit on the south-west end of the race-course# and our troops were digging in," and that later in the day a pigeon brought in an untimed, unsigned message, "we are surrounded.

#Polygon Wood

NigelS

[centurion]

I realise now that my comment on weight being a problem was probably a bit dumb; I was thinking of batteries, but, of course, there was an aero engine nearby more than capable of being harnessed to generate a few volts. With suppression techniques, like radio itself, still being in its infancy RF interference from engines' ignitition systems must have caused significant problems.

The power was usually taken from a small generator (rather like a large bicycle dynamo) driven by a propeller in the slip stream rather than directly from the engine. Interference from the unsuppressed spark plugs was primarily a problem for incoming messages. Despite the development of lightweight receivers many aircraft still operated in send only mode only having a transmitter so this wasn't such a problem. It was however the reason why promising developments in producing radio controlled explosive laden drone aircraft (sort of early cruise missiles) failed (although by the mid 30s these were revived).

Interesting the arrangements for contact patrols as these are almost identical to approaches used by the Germans.

[Moonraker]

On 27/06/2008 at 14:40, centurion said:

1910 (Sept 27) First transmission to a military installation is made by the actor Robert Loraine (later a Major in the RFC) who transmits from an aircraft to Larkhill experimental station on Salisbury Plain.

 

In 1910 Lord Howard de Walden presented two Marconi pack sets to the Westminster Dragoons, the first sets in the army being those of the Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry. This postcard postmarked July 21, 1910 published by A F Marett of Shrewton shows an aerial some 35 feet tall. A message on the card states that it is “the only mounted Marconi in army”.

 

I don't know if the card shows "Larkhill experimental station" - Shrewton is only a couple of miles away. I can find nothing more on the Web, not even on the unit's website, nor in the "Short History".

 

[Chasemuseum]

 

On 11/06/2020 at 02:34, Moonraker said:

In 1910 Lord Howard de Walden presented two Marconi pack sets to the Westminster Dragoons, the first sets in the army being those of the Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry. This postcard postmarked July 21, 1910 published by A F Marett of Shrewton

 

An excellent photo of the initial 1910 model. 

 

The similarities to the 1913 Marconi pack set are obvious.

 

As an extract of the above photo

 

please compare this with the images of the 1913 pack set at this thread

 

 

The antenna is actually an end fed horizontal wire (two wires about 3 feet apart), nominally about 375 feet long raised on two 30 foot masts, each mast dismantles as 6 sections.

 

The major difference of the 1910 to the 1913 is that the 1910 does not have the wheel assembly attached to the generator to produce the synchronous spark. Presumably it has a mechanical vibrator. Also the receiver used a "soft" Fleming valve detector, which was replaced by two perikon crystal detectors in the 1913 model. 

 

 

 

 

[Chasemuseum]

On 28/06/2008 at 06:06, centurion said:

The power was usually taken from a small generator (rather like a large bicycle dynamo) driven by a propeller in the slip stream

 

Surviving example at the Science Museum London (top level).  The top floor of this museum is a must if you are interested in WW1 aviation. An unbelievable collection of aero engines and a superb collection of other early aviation items.

 

 

 

[Moonraker]

On 10/06/2020 at 17:34, Moonraker said:

In 1910 Lord Howard de Walden presented two Marconi pack sets to the Westminster Dragoons, the first sets in the army being those of the Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry. A  postcard postmarked July 21, 1910 published by A F Marett of Shrewton shows an aerial some 35 feet tall. A message on the card states that it is “the only mounted Marconi in army”.

Forlorn hope, but I wonder if anyone can provide any contemporary information about the Westminster Dragoons' use of the Marconi equipment on Salisbury Plain in 1910? (I gather that there are histories of the Dragoons that were privately published).

Edited 27 February by Moonraker

[Chasemuseum]

Thanks for reviving this thread. Have not seen any new information in the last 4 years. 

[Moonraker]

What would have been the range of the 1910 sets? The Westminster Dragoons were at Pond Farm Camp in July 1910 but, as far as I know, the publisher of the postcard, A F Marett of Shrewton did not venture that far, concentrating on the camps to the east of his village (Fargo, Rollestone and Lark Hill). So I'm guessing that one set may have remained at Pond Farm Camp and the other taken seven miles to the south east.

[KizmeRD]

Hard to establish what precise specifications the Marconi Pack wireless sets purchased for the Westminster Dragoons in 1910 might have had, but assuming a 60 ft. pole arial and a power output of 0.3 kw operating on a wavelength of 450/600/900 metres, I’d expect that you might possibly obtain a range of 45 miles by day (depending on conditions) and a little more at night, say 80 miles. Technological improvements were continually being developed, and performance was getting better year by year.

MB

Edit -  the 500W pack set was adopted in 1913 and was the one that saw service during WW1.

Edited 29 February by KizmeRD

[KizmeRD]

I was just searching Internet Archive and came across this…

The Cavalry Journal Volume 19 1929

https://archive.org/details/cavalry-journal-1929-vol19/page/548/mode/1up?q=marconi+pack

The regular cavalry brigades exercising on Salisbury Plain in 1910 made use of a limber wagon wireless set with a stated range of 50 miles, whereas ‘a Yeomanry Regiment’ had a lighter pack set which was said to have a range of 15 miles.

MB

Edit - Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry!

 

Edited 29 February by KizmeRD