Word: radars
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...skunk," in Navy parlance, is any unidentified ship that pops up on a radarscope. Last week a bad odor lingered over four such radar contacts. They were the blips that appeared in the Tonkin Gulf a fortnight ago and drew the fire of two patrolling U.S. destroyers-and, since then, the fire of innumerable Republican sharpshooters. Were the skunks really North Vietnamese torpedo boats or gunboats, as the destroyer captains believed? If so, were they really indulging in "hostile" behavior-preparing to attack U.S. vessels as they had on two earlier occasions? What damage was really done? The Pentagon...
...four pursuers shadowed the destroyers, matching them zig for zag. At a range of 11,000 yards-5½ nautical miles-the destroyer captains decided that the pursuers were "hostile," opened fire with their radar-controlled 5-in. guns, although they still could not see their targets by eye. Why did they begin shooting at such a great distance? After the first Tonkin incident, when the U.S.S. Maddox sank one of three at tacking torpedo boats, President Johnson had been scornful of the lone destroyer's marksmanship, so this time the skippers wanted to get in as many ranging...
...yards, when the blips kept closing in, the destroyers began firing for effect. The torrent of impacting 5-in. shells sent spouts of water skyward, creating a whole new set of momentary blips on the radarscopes. The attacking boats disappeared in the welter of the new radar images. When the scopes cleared, only one moving target remained. Neither destroyer spotted torpedoes or answering gunfire, but two lookouts claimed they spotted the bow of a boat. A thorough search of the area next day turned up none of the debris-life jackets, cans, splintered wood or bodies-that would be expected...
...touch with Soviet agents before his visit to Russia. Had Oswald been recruited as a Russian agent while he was still in the Marines, it is most improbable that he would have been encouraged to defect. He would have been of greater value to Russian intelligence as a Marine radar operator than as a defector...
Brief, high-power pulses of electrical energy throbbing through intricate circuitry are the heartbeats of modern radar. But they are the bane of many an electronics engineer. Sometimes the high-frequency currents that are crammed into a pulse swirl through a simple resistance as if it were also a small coil (inductance); sometimes the pulses treat the resistance as if it were a capacitor. Either way, coil or capacitor, those unwanted effects introduce annoying problems...