while we all know of Tesla and his dominance of electrical energy, we tend to forget about Armstrong. He invented the oscillator, the superheterodyne, and the FM system. We still depend on the modern developments of these inventions for almost every communication device we use. Radar and almost all communications can not exist without the superheterodine and the oscillator. Armstrong invented the FM discriminator circuits in about 1933. He alone was the major factor in getting the US military to standardize its communication equipment for at least short range battle field in the noise reducing FM modulation. This decision was made by the military in the late 1930, and like the decision to back Radar were both bold and critical decisions that in turn lead to major impacts in the war that soon arrived. The Germans instead stayed with AM modulation and due to both that choice and the lack of a device similar to our "walkie talkie" never had communications with their moving front line troops. An American soldier could see a German tank, report it on his radio and it was heard in real time by his platoon leader who had a back pack radio. This in turn allowed the platoon leader to contact Company, they regiment, and then division. In less than a minute artillery or air support could be ordered. Once the first shells arrived the individual who had the enemy in sight, could call in corrections over the established radio link in seconds. The German system required that the individual sen a runner back to the nearest field phone or radio. Usually if the unit was on the move, forward or retreating, that was about a 5 minute delay They then went up their chain and unless direct observation was available, made the decision to fire the artillery. If the object was a tank or vehicle on the move, it was too late. Any correction of the fire also took 5 minutes to report and took another man out of the fire team as the first runner hadn't made it back. Each correction of indirect fire not controlled by an forward controller, had a delay of at least minutes. The peak of all of this came to a head during the Marine invasions in the Pacific Islands and the invasion of Normandy. Here you had individual soldiers reporting both targets, and thru the control system, directly controlling both naval bombardment and air strikes, Neither the Germans nor the Japanese ever were able to do this. The following clip develops that thesis. It as well states the fact that one of the major advantage we had was a couple hundred thousand radio hams that were not only excellent trained operators but they usually built their own equipment and had a deep technical knowledge of their radios. The other nations for reasons of national "security" had restricted the ham radio and thus had radio operators with a few weeks training at best and no real operation of their equipment. If you click on watch on YouTube, it will transfer you to their system, they get the money, and play it. Stupid I know, but it works. And here is a report on how the US artillery defeated the Germans and was a major reason we won. The whole system was totally dependent on radio communications. The spotting aircraft could spot a target, report it on radio and in that instant the clock began, a couple minutes a shell could land and in real time be corrected. In 6 min or so dozens of shells could arrive at the same time. The spotter aircraft or forward observer was connected in real time to the guns by radio, no going thru a series of steps to reach the guns. The observer had to use radio, as did the control from the central fire control to the guns. We had it, the Germans and Japanese never did. Kind of long winded, but gives a background on radio and artillery in a better format than I have seen before. We won WW2 but not only out producing our foes, but by in many senses out smarting them . Radio, radar, better and a lot more airplanes, first good landing craft, more and better ships, atomic bomb, etc. We had the proximity fuse that made air bursts possible for land and anti aircraft and that multiplied the effect of the shell many times. It was a small radio transmitter that used the capacitance effect to change the oscillator frequency. All it required was a detector that could see that change, when that change was correct, initiate a signal that would set off the explosive charge to explode the shell at the right point. A couple other little problems. It must have a battery that will be capable of being stored up to a couple years in wild storage temps and withstand a few hundred g"s when fired out of the gun and reach full operating power in a fraction of a second in the technology available in 1942. Then it will operate with radio tubes, resistors, capacitors, and no printed circuits or transistors. They don't exist in that period. Then the whole unit must be small enough to fit on the nose of a conventional shell and not require a external antenna. I may be beating a dead horse and no one else may find this applicable to a survival blog, but I find the process that others have used both useful in developing concepts out of the box and thought provoking entertainment. I also see real world applications to survival as well. The government still uses the forward observer to look for the individual and still uses the same system to capture or kill that individual. The Cub aircraft with an observer has been replaced by a helicopter with an IR system and soon may be replaced by a drone. But until such time as an AI is trained to make the decision, the tools used in past wars will still work. Next generation is still a work in progress. At present the US military and its use of radio and night vision rules both the day and night. In the past then sheer amount of data limited their choices of action. Now with AI sorting thru the data and presenting an alert on the useful input, we have a whole new world to exist in. On the individual survival point, TV system to monitor your survival site is useful, but to monitor multiple cameras 24 hours a day and stay alert is at least optimistic. Add something, a very limited form of AI, as a motion detector that sets off an alarm to look at the camera , is a game changer. Now if the TV camera detects heat, it is both stealthy, no IR sources required, and will give you an effective 24 hour coverage. The tools available to the prepper on a retail basis were not available in a useful form to even the military 30 years ago. Now they are in many cases in common usage by not only the military but by local businesses and your local law enforcement.
