The Radio Warfare Project

In 1955 the CSF company in France developed, produced and sold freely the Carcinotron tube. It was immediately realized that this tube could readily be used as the power source of a noise jammer which could be used against the existing Canadian defence radars.

It was decided to establish in DRTE a Radio Warfare Section (referred to in one issue of the DRB Newsletter as the Radio Welfare Section) with the objective of funding what "quick fixes" could be applied to the radars. Again we found ourselves in the position of building up a group, with. very little expertise on which to base its work. Indeed Roy Dohoo (who was the section leader) and Frank Smith were the only two members of the section who had had any radar experience - and that was over ten years earlier during the war. Several other members of the staff of the old (microwave) fuze section moved into the radar work and within a couple of years some success had been achieved. Again during these years cooperation with the USA and the UK was close - British aircraft were flown to North America for trials and "Ground Band Monitors", developed at DRTE were made available to the British. During these years, too, we had close collaboration with NRC - and especially with Bill Brown and Bill Haley - where radar work had continued from the very large effort which was deployed in World War II.

Again, industry was closely involved and some success was achieved in the sale of counter-counter-measure equipments.

Roy Dohoo, 1973.

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The following timeline was provided by Frank Smith, 1973:

Aug.(?) 1955	- Fuze development at DRTE considered completed and responsibility for the Velvet Glove Fuze transferred to the CARDE Group - Most members of the DRTE Fuze Section commence Radio Warfare Work - R. Riordan joins section. - R. Cross builds first Canadian Dicke Fix Receiver under Roger Richards at NRC. - Paghis to D. Phys/R. - Dohoo becomes Section Leader.
Dec. 1955	- Smith completes theoretical work re. Fuze Servo System behaviour.
Jan. 1956	- DRTE involvement in exercise "Bracket".
March (?) 1956	- Formation of Napkin Committee.
April 1956	- Section moves from Montreal Road to Shirley Bay. - Active jammers and laboratory jammers - R.F. Nikkel. - Radar Simulation Facility for testing ECCM receiving devices. Rowlandson (1957?). - Reg Cross back at DRTE building improved Dicke Fix receivers.
Nov. 1956	- Smith issues first specification for a Ground-Based Monitoring System.
1957	- Exercise Burnt Cork. - DRTE Monitoring System - measures spectra of jamming systems - RAE system does not meet spec according to these measurements. - Monitoring system dismantled - Dohoo to Rand - Keith Brown heads section.
1958	- DRTE monitoring system MK II assembled at UK request for further Canadian trials on the UK jamming systems. - K. Brown went to the Alouette Project. Section Leader J. Meidzinski. (This may have been 1959). - Trial was successful - jamming specifications met. - UK requests Canada to develop L and S band monitoring systems. - Canadian Arsenals builds and delivers L & S Band Monitoring equipments to UK.
1959	- UK orders X Band Monitoring Equipment from Canadian Arsenals. - Canadian Arsenal builds mobile monitoring system for "Napkin". - First Composite Dicke Fix Receiver built in Canada by Rowlandson - Incorporated both Canadian and USA (Lincoln Labs) techniques. - Ground work commenced for University collaboration in the area of nonlinear signal processing, detection theory and stochastic processes (culminated in Queen's University Contract in 1960)
Nov. 1959	- Smith to J.S.S.C., Latimer, U.K.
1960	- Development of STAJE (First DRTE automatic equipment for measurement of the statistical assessment of jamming effectiveness of various ECM and- ECCM techniques – Lemay). - DRTE evaluation of all ECCM Receivers for DND trials.
1961	- Development of CFAR Dieke-Fix techniques - Smith and Cross.
1962	- Hansen becomes Section Head. - Main emphasis of work switches to Passive Intercept and ELINT.
1963	- Smith heads Signal and Data Processing Section