FOR SECOND FRONT

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24877, 26 April 1944, Page 3

FOR SECOND FRONT

MOBILE RADIO STATIONS j .ROYAL AIR FORCE READY In readiness for when the time comes, | to play its part in the "second front" | fighting, the R.A.F. has a wide range !of mobile radio stations which can be I ready for operation within a few I hours of arrival, writes the aeronautical correspondent of the Times, London. The equipment is such that it can easily be transported so as to keep pace with the rapid movements of 1 oven the most mobile units. It ranges from sets carried in five- j ton trucks and light vans to sots which i I two men can carry. Units known as j heavy piobile wireless stations employ I diversity receivers and a transmitter I with an aerial power of skw. These i provide high-speed wireless-telegraphy (W/T) communication. These units can be got working with n a very few hours and are capable of handling a tremendous quantity of "traffic" between the operational command they serve and the home bases. Mobile equipment also covers requirements for high-frequency communication between ground and aircraft, and it can be used in conjunction with very high-frequency direction-finding (D/F) stations. Even transmitters with an aerial power of lOkw. lmvo successfully been made mobile. , Another tvpe of radio winch wiIJ plnv its part "in the forthcoming operations is the pack set. 'lhe It.A.l*. model is larger than the portable set used by the Army, but it can he carried for | short distances by two men. This equipment. is required to give reliable 24-hotJr communications under all conditions over distances up to TOO miles, without | the erection of aerials. Though the pack set is primarily intended for use "in the field." it is also held in reserve by most R.A.F. units as an emergency stand-by to the main communications installation. • ' This wide adoption of W/l comrnumeations enables the R.A.F. to operate without the use of landlines, which are seldom available in the early stages of .a campaign and cannot be supplied in sufficient quantities for some time after the occupation of new territories. OPERATIONAL FLIGHTS WOMEN RESEARCH WORKERS SOLV ING AIR FORCE PROBLEMS LONDON, Aprii 22 Women scientists now fly operation.aily with the R.A.F. as part of their duties. They are on the staff of the operational research groups attached to R.A.F. commands, and if the problems they are tackling can be solved only under flight conditions, then they fly. Most of their flying naturally has been on flying-boats and bombers adapted for long-distance reconnaissance work. These craft carry a great deal of ivdio installation and apparatus for the detection of U-boats, and women scientists and physicists liavo carried out a lot of the research work connected with them. They have also gone up 011 ballistic tests. They have not been allowed to go on bombing operations, and are never likely to. Women workers make up roughly n sixth of the large body of scientists recruited from industry, teaching, colleges and universities to staff the research groups attached to Bomber. Fighter, and C'oastal Commands, as well sis to the Admiralty, the War Office, particularly the Anti-Aircraft Comttuttid, «4ud VMiam