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Old 9th Oct 2019, 18:28
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ORAC
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
 
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The Linesman/Mediator system fed from the signals from the T85s radars and HSA (High Speed Aerials - the passive detection part of the system triangulating jammers. by means of hyperbolic lays) at Neatishead, Staxton Wold and Boulmer, into the L1 building at West Drayton through microwave feeds. The core routing of the system was through the GPO tower off Tottenham Court Road.

The L1 was designed to have a computer based on the same technology as Colossus, but was overtaken by electronics - which is why if you went into the basement of the L1 you walked across acres of empty space to reach the small wooden portacabin that contained the computer. The cables then fed up the empty shafts at the side of the building to each floor - which is why it was a firetrap and and any alarm summoned every fire engine in West London.

The author is confused about the T64 consoles, they were the ones located at the actual radar heads, those in the L1 being totally different.

It is correct that the entire system was obsolete before completion. It was designed in the days of Tripwire to detect and scramble the V-Force, once NATO switched to Flexible Response then survivability meant a single site was non-viable and C3I was dispersed back to the MRS at Patrington, then Neatishead and Boulmer themselves. Staxton Wold became a CRP with a row of old T64 consoles inside the T85 building itself, where I spent an enjoyable two and a half years working with the Binbrook Lightning wing.

https://www.radarpages.co.uk/mob/linesman/pd.htm
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