Author Topic: RAF WW2 AMES Units  (Read 17731 times)

Offline benwop

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Re: RAF WW2 AMES Units
« Reply #9 on: Saturday 31 October 09 21:55 GMT (UK) »
Pete, excuse delay, from your promp, THANKS, have checked Burmastar, phew, but nothing there, however, will post something similar in Burmastar.benwop.

Offline greensteam

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Re: RAF WW2 AMES Units
« Reply #10 on: Friday 04 June 10 13:16 BST (UK) »
Hi all,
My late father was in the RAF from near the end of the war and was in an AMES unit which went round the middle east setting the units up. He was a radar operator but I think they all had to drive the trucks and build the aerials and huts.

He was a trainee architect when he was called up and he did a series of pen and ink sketches and photos of the AMES set up and the unit people. Can anyone tell me which version of AMES these units would have been? They had a very tall thin aerial (very similar to the Festival of Britain Skylon in design) rather than a wide grid or rotating aerial. see pic below.

any info or pointers to books etc would be great.
thanks
Greensteam

Offline DeeBoneham

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Re: RAF WW2 AMES Units
« Reply #11 on: Saturday 19 June 10 17:15 BST (UK) »
You might like to add that to rafcommands.com forum too as they will be fascinated by that sort of thing too.
Dee  :)
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Offline greensteam

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Re: RAF WW2 AMES Units
« Reply #12 on: Monday 12 July 10 12:22 BST (UK) »
Thanks, Dee. I will get round to that!

Had a long chat with a local radar enthusiast here and we cannot really think what these units were. My father was setting these up in 1946, i.e. after the war was over, so why would there have been the same urgent need for the anti-aircraft types of AMES?

Since one of the few things my dad told me was that a whole load of these were being put in place then, I cant help wondering if these aerials might have been for radar beacons rather than early warning systems. Does anyone know if this is technically more likely for these lightweight framework aerials? From the pics I estimate the tower was about 60ft high and held up by guy wires, but it doesnt look capable of supporting much more than a wire, let alone an actual rotating type aerial.



Offline DeeBoneham

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Re: RAF WW2 AMES Units
« Reply #13 on: Monday 12 July 10 21:11 BST (UK) »
Hopefully someone with more knowledge will come back with that info... ;)
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Offline Brifos

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Re: RAF WW2 AMES Units
« Reply #14 on: Saturday 23 October 10 17:51 BST (UK) »
I have been searching for any mention concerning RAF WW2 AMES over the years & until recently, when suddenly, accidentally found myself in the RootsChat site, referring to Middle East operations.  My own involvement was in the Far East, attached to Radar Units as a wireless operator.  Firstly in India, Jessore, 100 miles or so from Calcutta, a fixed site, later moving out of Imphal, \state of Manipur, after the siege with a mobile radar unit into Burma, Mawlaik, on the banks of the Chindwin River, as the army moved further into Burma, we moved to Miektila where there was an airstrip, eventually to reach Rangoon.This unit-AMES 6178 181 Signals Wing.The years have passd, but there could be other elderly ex wops & other personnel who would have been involved ???.benwop.

Offline Brifos

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Re: RAF WW2 AMES Units
« Reply #15 on: Saturday 23 October 10 17:52 BST (UK) »
Google "Hoggy Foster" for my Burma Star entry.   My new email is brifos99@googlemail.com

Offline bill247

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Re: RAF WW2 AMES Units
« Reply #16 on: Tuesday 26 October 10 20:36 BST (UK) »
hi, bill from glasgow here. was very interested in the info on the ames unit,s as my Late Father was a radar operator in Malta from 1940/43 and they had brick building's to house the transmitter and receiver. the antenna was a 90ft wooden pole which had reflector receivers for to pick up the radio waves and then through a wire system to a cathode ray tube and produced a signal on an oscilloscope. iam wondering if anyone knows where i would find a military map of Malta around the 1940's period and would anyone know where i would find Ames 504 ORB's. any help would be useful.
           thanks.
                  bill.

Offline DeeBoneham

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Re: RAF WW2 AMES Units
« Reply #17 on: Wednesday 27 October 10 18:59 BST (UK) »
Bill
You might try the RAF Museum at Hendon, the Air Historical Branch and the Imperial War Museum for the maps.  Most of the F540s are kept at the National Archives in Air 27.
Dee
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