Allies do not adopt Hedy Lamarr's frequency hopper imvention

acgoldis

"A new military technology invented by a bombshell actress and composer? Yeah, right. That's really going to fly. Don't bother funding it."

Makes you wonder if the Germans try jamming American torpedoes ITTL (maybe they had planned to do so but the invention caused them to give up)
 

The Tai-Pan

acgoldis said:
"A new military technology invented by a bombshell actress and composer? Yeah, right. That's really going to fly. Don't bother funding it."

Makes you wonder if the Germans try jamming American torpedoes ITTL (maybe they had planned to do so but the invention caused them to give up)
Click to expand...
'In 1942, actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil received U.S. Patent 2,292,387 for their "Secret Communications System", an early version of frequency hopping using a piano-roll to switch among 88 frequencies to make radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect or jam. The U.S. Navy rejected the idea, then seized it as "alien property" in 1942 (Lamarr was Austrian) but filed it away with no record of a working device being produced.'

Sadly, looks like OTL.
 

Cockroach

Given the electronics available during WW2 I'm not sure frequency hopping is that practical. And a system that uses a piano roll (and associated mechanical gubbins) to control the frequency hopping is also not a very practical solution. For instance, you're using the system for radio comms between brigade or division levels HQs (as the piano roll setup isn't gonna be that portable), how well can you keep the two piano rolls in sync? Bugger up and suddenly your transmitter and receiver are jumping frequencies at different times and your 'call' keeps cutting out...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top