"Jay in the Mojave" wrote in message
...
Hello Magnum:

The RDF (Radio Direction Finding radio) was a blessed tool in the days
before GPS in small boats.

My Dad use to chase after the Albacore Tuna, in the 60's and 70's in a
small 22 foot boat. Many times where several miles off the coast. And
many times I would see him take bearings off his Bendix RDF to check his
position, and figure fuel quantity vs range stuff.

Yeah we had a compass all right but the RDF was used the most. One could
take a bearing off the noise that a city like San diego or Los Angles
would generate. The neat thing about taking a RDF bearing during the
night is that many times we where close enough to shore to see the light
reflecting off the atmosphere, or the light bending over the horizon,
verifying the RFD bearing was a good.

I have the old Bendix RDF today, that I use to RDF noise down from our
local power company noise generating power grid system. I use to have
the kid drive around in the truck and me setting on the tail gate taking
RDF cuts. Usually took a few circles around the neighborhood to find the
offending power pole.

Jay in the Mojave




The Magnum wrote:

It says its handy for being lost at sea. Hmmm. A compass would also be
good
;o) at least the batteries wouldn't go flat. Nice collectors antique
though...

Regards,
Graham

Sounds like an interesting device. I can see its usefulness, as far as
positioning offensive breakers I hadn't considered that but now you mention
it I can. We used to play a game with the larger CB club in our area in the
really early 80's called "Fritz von nastys" where a member of the opposing
club would kidnap someone and then transmit for 1 min every 10 mins for us
to try to track them down. We used positioning of vehicles and poundage
checks with maps and two of us actually had DF loops and it was a hell of a
lot of fun. I could see that device being useful for that too. Shame that it
has disappeared because it bought people closer together in a friendly
working atmosphere. Breakers these days just don't get involved with things
like that anymore. Well that's how it is in England anyhows.

Cheers Jay,
Graham

--
_._. _... ._. ._ _.. .. _ _ _

Radio is only a Hobby. Don't let it rule your life...

73's - Graham (www.open-channel.co.uk)