Radar System Engineering

SEC. 77] CLOSE CONTROL ll-ITII SCR-584 239
Figure i’. 16 also gives an idea of the compact operational organization
of a control SCR-584. Range and PPI operators sit at the radar panels,
behind the controller. The controller works alone, in full charge of the
operation once an aircraft or a flight has been handed over to him by the
FDP. The man at the right has communications lines tha~ connect him
with the radio truck associated with the SCR-584 station, ~vith a radio
direction-finding station, and with the FDP under ~vhich the SCR-584 is
operating.
The 180° plotting table used with the SCR-584 was admittedly a
FIG. 716.-Interior
of SCR-5S4 modified for close control, showing lSOOplotting board.
Near Cologne, December 1944.
makeshift, and there was later designed a plotting board, shown in Fig.
7.17, which embodied many improvements. It plots in rectangular
rather than in polar coordinates, contains “smoothing” circuits that
greatly improve the accuracy of the plotted aircraft position, and draws
an ink record of the position of the aircraft being tracked, so that the
controller has a knowledge of the aircraft course, as well as position, at
all times. Thk device also plots in ground range rather than in slant
range.
The range at which aircraft can be tracked by the SCR-584 can be
greatly increased, and the accuracy of tracking somewhat improved, if an
airborne beacon (Chap. 8) is carried in the aircraft under control, Such a