Guru
Joined: 07/09/2016
Location: United KingdomPosts: 2133
| Posted: 12:25pm 25 May 2020 |
Hey Paul, you OK?
*** warning thread drift, ignore if you want to
Plessey had a range of weather radars they gave to meteorological authorities around the globe on condition they got the data for the met office in UK so they could do their charts. 4 flights a day, midday/night and six morning/evening. The WF3 was just such a beast, very basic 60's/70's tech (paxolin tag strips with resistors across and tons of wiring).
There was a project (Aladdin) to refit some of them - changes to the head and radome, better electronics and a new microprocessor (Z80) based console replacing the processor which allowed us to modernize the kit and drastically reduce it in size while keeping 100% compatible. Such data was churned out in a standard FM32 PILOT message. Later we added a hardware module for flight data analysis and then PC based - including a very nice version on Amstrad CPC6128s, gutted and embedded in the console... they were a solid, cheap Z80 platform and with memory banking etc. and Floating Point built in the assembler solution was a lot easier to maintain and improve.
I wrote all the software for the meto-processing including sonde flights to churn out FM35 TEMP messages for what became the WF33. Sad case that I am, I still have the code!
It was these flights, saved to disc, that we later added an analysis module (with Commodore Amigas, gutted and embedded) that gave us the really good 3D projection of the flight as wire-frame. Got praise from Plessey and put the skids under VIZ and Visala (competitors) but ultimately was just seen as a toy by the brass. Shame, it was the dawn of visual analysis and modern systems later did it, we were doing it in 1988, but no conviction from the men with the money.
There is a small mention of WF3 (pale blue thing on the end of the bench was the controller we replaced) dunno what processor drove the thing (maybe you can tell from the photo?) and then our WF33 here https://woottonbridgeiow.org.uk/decca-legacy/chapter11.php#11.10
Edited 2020-05-25 22:39 by CaptainBoing