"christofire" wrote in message
...


snip

The antenna I'm trying to remember was receive only and was less than 6
feet
high. It had a shape that sort of resembled a squat wire basket.

Sal


Sal,

There's a directory of antennas used at one time or another by the US Navy
at http://www.combatindex.com/hardware/...nsor_main.html. Could
it
be the AS-2231?

No, that's called a sleeve, I think, but I moused over the MIL nomenclatures
and looked at each picture. The antenna I was thinking of is the
AS-2866/SRR. I am surprised to see in the write-up that it's only 24 inches
tall. I thought twice that.


I used that website many times when I was working (prior to June, 2007) and
was wishing I had saved the link on my home computer. Now I have it again
:-)))


I was aware that the discage in at least one of its incarnations had two
separate feed lines, and the combination of two antennas in one 'package'
gives rise to its particular shape. However, it has always intrigued me
that a single element of similar shape has been used since the early 50s
by
the British Navy in the AJE/UK-SRA-102:
http://middle-watch.com/communications.htm and
http://rnmuseumradarandcommunication...org.uk/AJE.pdf. This could be a
coincidence or it could be that F. A. Kitchen, the designer of the AJE,
had
been influenced by having previously seen a discage (his paper about
development of the AJE doesn't really explain where the shape comes from).
So I wonder when the AS-2802 'discage' came into use?

I think it was removed from USS Dubuque (LPD-7) during the ship's overhaul
in 1982/83. I was there but the memory gets a little hazy about such
details. If that recollection is correct, it predates the 1980s.