Where did it go?

[Alisoncc]

Ian, and I recollect this quite clearly, the issue with attempting to tune the klystron on Green Satin was that the screw that needed to be adjusted was very close to the magnetron EHT. The screw was quite stiff to turn and well down in the guts of the unit. A normal metal screwdriver would be pulled off the klystron adjustment on to the EHT by virtue of the strong magnets that were part of the maggie. So a metal screwdriver was necessary to turn the adjustment screw, but one that would not be effected by the magnetic field. - hence copper. In those days there was little in the way of non-conducting materials strong enough to be able to adjust the klystron tuning screw. The screw itself used to alter the dimensions of the klystron cavity, hence it's stiffness.

Alison

[Pontius Navigator]

Alison, indeed, LH seat.

Ian 16th, we had frequent Green Satin Mk 2 unlocks at height in the Med. The Decca Dop 72M was better and more reliable and we were freed from the tyranny of the Green Satin aerial alignment which was offset from the centre line by something like 15 feet 2 1/2 inches +/- as each aircraft was different.

[ian16th]

Re both the two items, I never heard of Green Satin Mk2 before today! Remember I was demobbed in Feb 65.
Alison, which version are you refering to? I have memories, maybe mythical after all these years, of turning a 'vernier' type knob to tune the klystron.
PN, Yes the Vulcan had the Aerial offset, it was in the port wing, all the a/c I worked on had the aerial mounted on the centreline. We had to set them up when the a/c went on a compas swing or if the aerial was changed.

An odd ode; one of the PR9's on 13 Sqdn had a built in airframe problem, the a/c flew slightly sideways. When flying straight in still air the heading and track were different by about 1.5 degrees. We adjusted the GS aerial syncro to neutralise this. A large note on the GS indicator warned Navs that they were flying in an 'odd' a/c.

As you were the 'NBS Guy', I assume that you went through the course at Lindholme.
Was there an NBS simulator there, with 2 large 'negatives' of mythical terrain that one 'flew' over?
I'm wondering because I was assigned to help the EMI team that installed such a machine in 1955, just before I went to Yatesbury on my fitters course.

[Pontius Navigator]

Ian, indeed, it was called a fish fryer. We saw the terrain map once but for some reason it was never used routinely, The fish fryers were also installed at Cottesmore, Waddington and Scampton and later Akrotiri. Probably also at all the other bases too. The maps to accompany them had loads of 'Russian Style place names such as Yblihp, Nanelcm and Ssegrub and some probably after the guys who designed it.

I can't remember the exact differences between the two marks except the Mk 2 had a green and an orange light. Green for locked and tracking and orange for memory not tracking IIRC.

[ian16th]

Ian, indeed, it was called a fish fryer.

Thats what we named it in 1955!

[Alisoncc]

Re both the two items, I never heard of Green Satin Mk2 before today! Remember I was demobbed in Feb 65.
Alison, which version are you refering to? I have memories, maybe mythical after all these years, of turning a 'vernier' type knob to tune the klystron.

I have also never heard of GS Mk2. After my two and a half year stint with Vulcans I moved on to Twin Pins, Beverleys, Phantoms, Hunters and Javelins - Muharraq, Sharjah, etc., and then Lightnings - Leconfield, I last played with GS late 1965, and was last inside a unit in 1963. But have no recollection of a vernier. A klystron was a throw-away item when it failed, and weight would have been an issue, hence a simple screw head. Thus the screw was integral to the klystron whose adjustment caused the internal cavity size to change and hence it's central tuning frequency. The AFC would then track it either side to follow the magnetron as it heated up.

PN, Yes the Vulcan had the Aerial offset, it was in the port wing, all the a/c I worked on had the aerial mounted on the centreline. We had to set them up when the a/c went on a compas swing or if the aerial was changed.

Not sure whether the Vulcan B1's were different to the B2's. I have memories of standing on the main undercarriage wheels, Dzus key in hand to do up any Dzus's that may have popped on the antenna dielectric cover, on urgent instructions from a crew chief as the pilot played with the throttles in a hurry to get going.

Alison
PS Did find exactly the same klystron being used on RCA's AVQ10 weather radar some years later.

[ian16th]

Very selfish of me, I know, but this makes me very happy that I got of my arse and became a Boy Entrant in 1952.

[ricardian]

Seen on Farcebook just now, something for the truly weird...

[ian16th]

May 22nd again!

66 years ago today, the 16th Entry of Boy Entrants took the Oath of Allegiance and the Queens Shilling.

[ian16th]

Alison,
I've just re-read some earlier posts of this thread.

My references to a vernier adjustment on the GS klystron, I should have said 'micrometer'!

Must have been a senior moment.

[ricardian]

More recently RAF Swinderby 1992

[ian16th]

Now 67 years ago!