How does radar work?

[Drake]

Developed and "light year ahead" are not the same as invented. The basis of modern computing and computers come from various places. Yet it was the Americans that really DEVELOPED the computer as we know it today.

Ok, I had misunderstood the "develop" part from your post as original invention.
Of course did GB develop Radarsets of all kinds. Light years ahead is still wrong though. A funny anecdote about the electronic war is that the germans sent a zeppelin with measuring equipment to check out whether those towers from Chain Home were Radarsets or not and figured they weren't because they couldn't detect any transmission. This was because Chain Home (High) worked in the Radioband which they didn't measure cause they considered such bandwidth unsuitable for the task (Which is both right and wrong. It is completely unsuitable for what we understand as radar today yet it served exactly the purpose the british intended, to give them early warning). So the fact that used inferior system at the beginning of hostilities saved them possibly some trouble later in the BoB.

[Topor]

Where Britain WAS far in advance of others was in the development of the Cavity Magnetron - essential for accurate radar, such as that installed in later night fighters. The first prototype was actually constructed using two English pennies to seal the tube!
The cavity magnetron put us way ahead of other nations, as it enabled the development of centimetric & later, millimetric radar.
Another British invention using Radar was the "VT" proximity fuse for AA shells: so called as the initials stood for "variable timing" - a deliberate misnomer to obscure the true nature of the fuse.
There was an embargo on the use of VT fuses outside the UK until December 1944 & the Battle of the Bulge, where they were fitted to artillery shells to cause air bursts above enemy infantry concentrations. The embargo was aimed at preventing the Germans from acquiring a fuse & copying it, as this would have had serious consequences for RAF & USAF Bombers.

[Drake]

Where Britain WAS far in advance of others was in the development of the Cavity Magnetron - essential for accurate radar, such as that installed in later night fighters. The first prototype was actually constructed using two English pennies to seal the tube!
The cavity magnetron put us way ahead of other nations, as it enabled the development of centimetric & later, millimetric radar.
Another British invention using Radar was the "VT" proximity fuse for AA shells: so called as the initials stood for "variable timing" - a deliberate misnomer to obscure the true nature of the fuse.
There was an embargo on the use of VT fuses outside the UK until December 1944 & the Battle of the Bulge, where they were fitted to artillery shells to cause air bursts above enemy infantry concentrations. The embargo was aimed at preventing the Germans from acquiring a fuse & copying it, as this would have had serious consequences for RAF & USAF Bombers.

Very True my friend , german radar research was based on the klystron, thats why the british managed to gain an advantage during the war as cavity magnetrons proved to be the better technology path in this crucial time.
But that was yet another deliberate decision by the german military officials which proved to be stupid (They were good at that, hehe, most of the top notch Nazi had no clue about technology, luckily). Hollmann build a multi-cavity magnetron in 1935 which was patented November 29, 1935. The british and americans made what the japanese did later with european and american electronics they copied the design and improved it.
The germans only managed very late in the war to catch up again with the allies, but only theoretically, as they had no means left to actually field the developments whereas the allies had centimeter wavelength radar en masse and were beginning to field millimeter radar. What I intended to point out with my original post was the impact of Hollmann on this entire topic. Without his work in the 1930ies no radar of any significance in WW2, not in germany, not in england, nor anywhere else.
Radar today btw is based on either Klystron(mostly groundbased) or Travelling Wave Tube (mostly Airborne).
The travelling wave tube is btw. a invention by Rudolf Kompfner an austrian jew, but he made it in good old england during the war .

[Carl Schwamberger]

Another British invention using Radar was the "VT" proximity fuse for AA shells: so called as the initials stood for "variable timing" - a deliberate misnomer to obscure the true nature of the fuse.
There was an embargo on the use of VT fuses outside the UK until December 1944 & the Battle of the Bulge, where they were fitted to artillery shells to cause air bursts above enemy infantry concentrations. The embargo was aimed at preventing the Germans from acquiring a fuse & copying it, as this would have had serious consequences for RAF & USAF Bombers.

Theres a excellent book called 'The Deadly Fuze', written by one of the US electricl engineers involved in developing the US versions of this weapon. The inital chapters outline the early British work in inventing the VT or proximity fuze for their antiaircraft rockets. Prximity fuzes small enough to fit on cannon shells for anti aircraft came soon after.

The fuzes were authorized for naval antiaircraft use, as it was unlikely the enemy would be able to recover fragments or duds from the sea for inspection. In 1943 the Allied ships begain using these against Japanese air attacks in the Pacific with devastating effect. I dont recall when the prox.fuzes were first used in the Atlantic or Mediterranian for antiaircraft artillery.

The version for the field artillery was debated, and eventually authorized for production. It was originally intended for first use in a large scale attacked scehduled very close to new year of 1945. But, the German Ardennes operation effectively canceled that. The extremely accurate air bursts rendered possible by the VT fuze were a morale breaker for the German infantry. Its said German intellegence officers initially speculated the Allies had developed a infra red detection fuze that was triggered by the body heat of the soldiers.

[Clave]

I was in the RAF for 12 years, 8 of which were on Ground Radar and 4 on Bloodhound Missiles (also heavily radar dependent) as part of UKADGE (UK Air Defence Ground Environment)

Pretty much all the stuff I worked on (70s and 80s) has been disbanded and/or replaced, so feel free to ask anything, as I think my 'Top Secret' classification is now redundant...

Oh, and yes, I do have a profile of a Bloodhound...

[Major Walter Schmidt]

Ur.. its the HORTEN 229. Its just a mistake by Revell.