http://www.pwsrcac.org/docs/d0044000.pdf

The Huelsmeyer device is thought to have worked at 40 to 50cm
wavelength while S-band is 10cm. The RRE has a factor of wavelength
squared, so the drop in RCS with wavelength will be 4 squared or 12dB.
In the reference above the RCS of icebergs is at worst 20dB less that
the same sized ship. So, the losses due to the reflectivity of ice,
and the longer wavelength used, add up to 32 dB, very close to the
value I assumed (1/1000 or 30dB down). It still means the improved
device would have detected the iceberg in plenty of time, and the
original device may have given enough warning to turn sooner and avoid
even the glancing blow.


Snipped a bit...

Interesting what you can find on the net eh;-?..

Still in practice they would for a fair bit of the time would have had
to cope with "clutter" thats the misc odd reflections off the tops of
waves etc and I rather doubt that was sophisticated enough in those days
for that. Course a WW2 bomber of a convenient wingspan flying up in the
clear another matter and several years on..

Interesting all the same I'll have a look at that paper later when SWMBO
has calmed down about what I should be doing on a Bank Holiday
weekend;!...

Question.. do they use radar specifically for iceberg detection
nowadays?..

Evidence suggests that the lookouts saw the iceberg at about 500m, and
at the speed it was travelling Titanic could come to a stop in 850m.

Indeed so many small things could have made this outcome rather
different. Do you know if they had a phone from the crows nest or had to
shout down to the bridge or even worse climb down?. I read that they
didn't have binoculars with seems bloody stupid squared..


Terry Fields

Which was the stupid thing they we're doing. Note the Carpathia coming
to the rescue dodging the bregs whilst the Titanic was warned it carried
on at a too high rate of knots.

Who was to blame?, only the one man the Captain Mr Smith;!...

Especially considering the wealth of information available to him via
the wireless.

Terry Fields

--
Tony Sayer