20-10-2015, 04:50 AM
Drew Phipps Wrote:There was another (older) thread on this forum discussing communications in Dallas.
Does AF1 come with its own transmitter?
Hi Drew - thanks for pointing that out, I'll try to find the thread.
Yes of course AF-1 has its own transmitter. Let's see, as a quickie intro, it's my best understanding that in 1963 we were dealing with frequencies in the HF range, not with microwaves or gigahertz frequencies. The key issue is "large antennas", and at the time the tradeoff was one of efficiency, so if you had a larger transmitter (and you matched your line properly) you could use a smaller antenna and still get "approximately" the same performance. In the 15-meter range your antenna might be 20-ish feet, which is an easy mount on a big jet. Going the other way, you could look at a character like radio man, who actually had to "wear" his antenna (or stick it right next to his head) - and the problem there, is if you touch an HF antenna while it's transmitting at any appreciable power, you'll get fried - your finger will burn from the inside, like a microwave oven, so by the time you feel any pain it's way too late. There's a whole lot of interesting communications issues in play on the day!
