Naxos, the history of a German mobile radar direction finder
1943 - 1945
(pdf)
Introduction
Technological history is often old mans’ memories, and
mainly focuses on the person himself. Shortly after the War technological
publications were offering information to (enhance) the glory of the country as
well as often to the entrepreneur himself. In a retrospective view, very little
is known about what former enemies, like the Germans, were doing technologically.
Of course, the traumatic experience of two World Wars within not yet half a
century, was certainly debit to this. But, more than fifty years after this
devastating period, the time has come to study Germany’s, nearly unknown,
technological history.
Naxos in relation to Radar will perhaps not sound quite unfamiliar, but, what it
looks like will be a closed chapter, for many of us.
When Britain authorized (enabled) the use of H2S over German held territory,
within one week, the Germans knew about the consequences and reacted soon after.
One of their first counter measures was the design and construction of a
direction finder annex homing system for cm radar signals, code-name “Naxos”.
Several details were quite unique in those days, like the use of a
dielectric
loaded antenna, also known as “Polyrod” antenna. Although, dielectric loaded
radiators were already explained earlier, their application in the field
practically did not occur in Germany or in the US, where scientific, but often
empirical, research took place. Both countries were desperately keeping their
results secret.
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