Iron Sonata of World War II

2Chapter 16 Paradigm Switching

"During the thousands of years before the advent of the Age of Discovery, there were only regional powers in the world but no global powers, because under the technical conditions at that time, even if they were as powerful as the Roman Empire, the Arab Empire, or the Tang Empire, they would not be able to It continues to project power to areas other than its own surroundings. Therefore, under the geographical barriers formed by remoteness, distance and rough roads, although there will be collisions between various regional powers, the strength of the collisions is generally very limited. Yes." Helena jumped away from the specific issue of Ethiopia, and then plunged into the larger framework of world history.

Helena's jumping thinking that occurs from time to time is sometimes difficult for people to adapt to, but Hitler, who has a long-term communication experience with Helena, is not surprised. He knows that Helena's seemingly unconstrained speech is actually very logical if you listen carefully. Sexual, so he did not immediately express his doubts.Helena went on to say: "However, as the great voyages and the industrial revolution have increasingly connected the world as a whole, the buffering effect of geographical barriers on major regions has been greatly weakened."

"The wave of globalization has brought about the emergence of a truly world-wide power, and even made the former Netherlands and the current United Kingdom a global hegemony. This phenomenon of a specific country dominating the international order was unimaginable in the classical period. The byproduct of this is that the buffering effect of geographical distance on the major powers has been greatly weakened, and the contradiction between emerging powers and established powers has become far more acute than in the classical period.”

"Looking at the history of the struggle between emerging powers and established powers in the past few hundred years, the only cases where emerging powers successfully broke through under the suppression of established powers are the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. More often, emerging powers fail in the process of challenging established powers. Shensha. I would like to ask Your Excellency, what is the reason for this phenomenon in your opinion?" Helena finally asked this question that has troubled countless politicians and historical researchers for a century. problems faced by the motherland.

After all, in the more than 500 years from the Age of Discovery to the time before Helena crossed over, there were only three major changes in the dominance of the international order: it was the first time that the Netherlands became independent from Spain and became the overlord of maritime trade; It was the second time that the Anglo-Dutch war finally defeated the Netherlands and led the industrial revolution, and the third time was that the United States gradually established world hegemony after the war.

In addition to the above three examples, whether it is Napoleon’s France, Hohenzollern’s Germany, Normanov’s Russia, the Third Reich under the Nazi Party, Japan after the Meiji Restoration, or the socialist Soviet Union, All once rose like a rocket, but soon fell like a meteor.Many analysis articles that Helena read in her previous life attributed the failure of these countries to some specific decision-making mistakes, or simply believed that these countries were not tolerant enough in the process of rising, as if as long as the emerging powers kept pretending to be stupid It will not attract the attention of the established powers.

This is not to say that it is useless to hide your strength and bide your time. It is indeed not wise to attack everywhere when one's own strength is insufficient.But you must know that the dense grass may be able to hide the rabbit's hole, but it will never be able to hide the elephant's body.The established powers and the emerging powers will one day sit at the poker table and play face to face. At this time, what kind of game strategy the emerging powers should adopt requires serious consideration by policy makers.

"Maybe it's because the strength of the established power is too strong, and the strength of the emerging power itself is not enough?" Hitler thought for a while and said, but then he felt that since Helena raised this question so solemnly, the answer should not be so simple and straightforward .So Hitler returned the question to Helena: "Miss Helena must have a different view on this question? Can you tell me your answer to this question?"

"Actually, my answer is no different from that of the head of state. The established power can withstand the challenge of the emerging power must be because it still has the strength to deal with this challenge. Isn't there an old saying in the East that says 'a rotten ship still has three catties of nails' 'Well, it is obvious that even a well-established power in decline should not be underestimated." Helena smiled and said, "But for an emerging power like Germany, the first thing to understand It is where and why established powers have advantages over emerging powers.”

"When scholars from various countries study the game between emerging powers and established powers, they can't help but regard it as a back-and-forth contest between two boxers. They often compare the strength, speed and Boxing skills, but the factor of the boxing ring itself is often ignored. The sports field in sports competitions is generally fair to both players, but the stage of the game of great powers may not be so fair, and the stage of this game is the world The paradigm of how the economy works."

The term "paradigm" of economic operation that Helena proposed to Hitler here borrowed the concept explained in "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" published by the philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn in the previous plane. Describing a recognized model or pattern in scientific research, Helena uses it to describe the structural forms that are generally recognized and used in the operation of the world economy.After Helena's explanation, Hitler quickly accepted this new concept.

"I don't know if Your Excellency the Head of State has noticed. In history, every time an emerging power challenges an established power successfully, it means a shift in the paradigm of world economic operation. Although the replacement of Spain by the Netherlands and the Netherlands by the United Kingdom seem to be just a reincarnation of history, in fact the three The operating paradigm of the world economy dominated by one country is completely different."

Helena paused and continued: "On the surface, these three countries are robbing colonies around the world, but the Spanish colonization is only to rob precious metals such as gold and silver for consumption, and these gold and silver have not been fully converted into industrial and commercial industries. capital; the Dutch colonization was to establish commercial networks around the world, so the Netherlands established a world commercial and trade empire; overlord."

"So in my opinion, the offensive and defensive game between established powers and emerging powers, as well as the transmission of world dominance between major powers are just superficial, and the deeper driving force is the cyclical transformation of the world economic operating paradigm. When the last one When the paradigm of world economic operation becomes unsustainable, there will be a rare window period, and whether this window can be fully utilized will determine whether the emerging powers can successfully challenge the established powers!"

……

Helena: "I remember Mr. Lu Xun once said that as long as you stand on the wind, pigs can fly!"

Lu Xun: "I have never said such a sentence."

2Chapter 17 Flipping the Table

"In the past hundreds of years, the economic operation paradigm dominated by Britain and France, which obtained markets and raw materials by establishing colonies around the world, has become increasingly difficult to meet the needs of economic development today. This severe global economic crisis , it is the external manifestation that the old colonial economic paradigm cannot accommodate the new productivity. Worldwide colonial activities used to be a powerful boost to the British Industrial Revolution, but now the huge colonial system is becoming a heavy burden on the British neck. shackles."

Although Britain can rely on the imperial preferential system to reduce the impact of the crisis, those industrial sectors that rely on the exclusivity of the colonial system to survive are uncompetitive.This will cause the UK as a whole to lose the motivation to innovate technology and continue to miss the wave of new technological revolutions.The result is that Britain, which has a colony of more than 3000 million square kilometers, has a declining share of industrial output in the world.Now Britain's industrial output value not only lags behind the United States and Germany, but also lags behind the rapidly developing Soviet Union.

"At this time, if any emerging power wants to follow the old path of Britain and France and participate in international competition through colonial expansion, in my opinion, it is tantamount to competing for seats on a sinking ship, and this is what Italy and Japan are doing now. What a stupid thing to do!" Speaking of Italy and Japan, Helena curled her lips in disdain and said, "Fortunately, even being a fool has its advantages. The contradictions between colonial countries, like the contradictions between Britain and France, are of great use value for our future international maneuvers."

"So in the future, Germany should make full use of the contradictions between the two old colonial empires of Britain and France, as well as the contradictions between emerging colonial countries such as Britain, France and Japan and Italy, but it should not form an alliance with any of these colonial countries. And you shouldn’t pursue establishing your own overseas colonial system, is that right?” Although Helena hadn’t fully figured it out yet, Hitler had already expressed what Helena wanted to express.

"Your Excellency's summary is really incisive!" Helena was very happy that Hitler could come to this conclusion by himself.Every time she communicates with others, she rarely directly throws out conclusions, but tends to spend a lot of time analyzing the situation first, hoping to guide the other party to find the answer to the question by themselves.Because this sense of participation in the thinking process will make the other party feel that this conclusion is the conclusion of his own thinking, rather than a cold suggestion unilaterally put forward by Helena, which greatly reduces the difficulty for the other party to accept his point of view.

"Although using overseas colonial expansion to drive the country's industrialization has been the main paradigm for industrial powers to develop their economies in the past few hundred years. But Germany cannot dream of defeating its opponents at the poker table set up by its opponents according to the rules set by the opponent. Because Britain and France are Vested interests in the world colonial system have a huge first-mover advantage over latecomers. If we take the initiative to participate in this game of fighting for colonies, we will inevitably face the dilemma of having far fewer cards in our hands than our opponents."

"What's more, at this poker table, apart from Japan and Italy, two countries eager to re-divide the world's colonies, I am afraid that no significant power will be willing to team up with us." Helena said and got used to it. He blackened Japan and Italy: "Your Excellency, the heads of state of Japan and Italy, you also know that the combined industrial output value of the two countries is only [-]% of that of Germany, but they have ambitions that are completely out of proportion to the weak industrial strength. "

"If Germany forms an alliance with them, you can't expect such a country to give Germany any help. Germany itself will bear a heavy political burden like it did in the last world war. Because when the time comes, the enemies provoked by Japan and Italy will be It will automatically become an enemy of Germany. Therefore, Germany must not sit on the table of colonialism and play against its opponents, because the rules of this table are extremely unfavorable to Germany. More than 2000 years ago, there was a man in the East called Mencius A thinker, he regards time, location, and people as the three conditions for acting. Now the places in the world that can and are worthy of being colonized have been basically divided up by the colonial countries, and the competition for the colonies by the colonial countries has become a costly It’s a zero-sum game, so the time for colonial expansion is no longer on Germany’s side.”

"Germany has a long border on land and borders many powerful countries, while at sea it faces the relatively closed North Sea and the even more closed Baltic Sea. In this geographical environment, our land defense is under great pressure and the connection with overseas colonies is easily cut off. Therefore, Germany does not have a favorable geographical environment for colonial expansion, that is to say, the geographical advantage is not on Germany’s side.”

"More importantly, since the last world war, the national consciousness of the colonial people has been rising. Now anyone with a discerning eye can see that even the old colonial empires like Britain and France have become weaker in suppressing the resistance of the colonies and semi-colonies. It’s getting tighter and tighter.”

"As for late-haired colonial countries like Japan and Italy, the situation they face in their colonies is even worse than that of old foxes like Britain and France. Japan's colonial activities in Northeast China were intended to alleviate the domestic economic crisis, but their investment there Because the local people’s overt or covert resistance did not get the expected return, but brought serious inflation to the country. Therefore, the current colonial activities will be very passive in terms of people and harmony.”

After hearing Helena's words, Hitler pondered: "Are the current rules on the poker table inherently unfavorable to Germany? Then Miss Helena thinks we should..."

"Now the answer is obvious, Your Excellency the Head of State. Since the rules on this card table are not good for Germany, Germany should directly overturn this card table. Anyway, the colonialism card table is already crumbling, so Why doesn't Germany still maintain this old paradigm that is obviously not good for itself?" Helena blinked and said: "And the facts of the past few years have proved that direct colonial expansion is not the only way to gain benefits from overseas, In the past few years, the economic benefits we have gained from the Jews who moved to Palestine far surpassed that of the British who directly colonized Palestine. So for Germany, opposing colonialism and supporting national liberation is a good business for both fame and fortune, isn’t it? ?”

"So Miss Helena is treating Ethiopia as another business after the Jews?" Hitler touched the mustache under his nose and said, "Well, I think you have convinced me, Miss Helena. But say To be honest, I feel a little sympathetic to that poor Mr. Mussolini in the south now, and I will have a detailed discussion with my staff later on how to operate the Ethiopian affairs.”

……

Helena: We must let the black and red flag be planted on every colony and semi-colony in the world!

Hitler: A black and red flag?Do you mean the flag of the National Socialist Party?

Helena: Nope!I'm talking about the flag of Linden Wan (the transliteration of Leader one, the general of the rebel army in the P agency game is always called this name, his flag is black and red)!

Hitler: ...

Chapter 248 Franchising

In the past few years, large-scale infrastructure construction has always been the main driving force for Germany's economic recovery. Although compared with the peak of the economic crisis, Germany's job market and industrial production have improved greatly, and have even exceeded However, this does not mean that the German economy has been on the right track since then. Against the background of the globalization of the world, it is difficult for Germany to rely on endogenous power to maintain economic operation, so the soup of infrastructure construction It can never be disabled.

However, relying on large-scale infrastructure construction to stimulate the economy requires massive financial support, although Schacht and Helena can create credit by issuing bills similar to "Meyford Bonds" or "Labor Bonds", thereby short-circuiting the currency. The labor force and the means of production are recombined, but these bills still need to be endorsed by government finances.That is to say, infrastructure construction driven by government-issued bills still needs to be constrained by the government's future financial repayment ability.

"Beautiful Miss Helena, you said that if there is a magical way to expand investment in infrastructure construction without increasing the government's fiscal deficit, how wonderful it would be!" Earlier this year, looking at The newly compiled financial balance sheet for the current year, Hitler once joked to the visiting Helena half-jokingly.Although he knew that this was just an impossible fantasy, the government debt, which was close to 20 billion marks, was still Hitler's heart disease.

"Actually, such a method exists, Your Excellency the Führer." Helena replied.With the strong recovery of the German economy, although the government's fiscal revenue has grown rapidly, the growth rate of public expenditure is faster than that of fiscal revenue.Historically, Germany's financial revenue in 1935 increased by 1932% compared to 29.6, but the growth rate of public expenditures in the same period reached 61.6%. The number of places has also increased a lot, so the fiscal deficit and government debt have not decreased much compared to the previous plane.

"What did you say just now, Miss Helena?" If Helena's words were not correct, Hitler would have thought that there was something wrong with his ears: "You mean that there is no way to increase the fiscal deficit and expand the base?" How to invest in facilities? I know that Miss Helena's financial talent is amazing, but you can't make fun of me with this kind of thing." Then Hitler leaned forward in disbelief, and asked cautiously: "Helena Does Miss really have such a method?"

Although Hitler's economics is a wild way, so that sometimes he doesn't think highly of those rich and poor orthodox economists, but rather hits it off with Helena, who is also full of wild ways, but this time Hitler still finds it hard to believe Helena can come up with such a miraculous method, after all, it is really incredible.

"Your Excellency the Head of State has been with me for so many years, you should know that Helena never jokes about national affairs." Helena replied solemnly: "I am preparing to submit a plan to you, Your Excellency the Head of State, which will propose a brand new foundation The facility construction financing model, which allows the government not only to spend no money on these construction projects, but also to make a small profit. I privately call this model the 'build-operate-transfer' model." Helena The financing model mentioned is the common BOT model in later generations. The proper noun BOT is actually the acronym for the three English words Build (construction), Operate (operation) and Transfer (handover).

"We can consider handing over planned specific industrial projects or infrastructure to private or foreign investors, considering that most domestic investors are busy updating their production equipment, this option is actually mainly for foreign investors The investor will obtain the franchise right of the project for a certain period of time in the future. The income obtained during the franchise period will be used to pay the investor’s construction costs and obtain profits. However, after the expiration of the franchise period, the investor still needs to The facility is completely returned to the government. In this process, the government not only does not need to spend a single mark, but can instead get a considerable amount of concession fees." Helena enthusiastically promoted her plan.

"Under this financing model, since the government does not need to bear the cost of infrastructure construction, there is no need to worry about repaying debts, and all investment risks are borne by investors. In this way, our government not only reduces public spending It can also concentrate limited funds on those construction projects that cannot produce obvious economic benefits but have huge strategic value, which can be said to serve multiple purposes.” Helena said.

"This sounds like a good suggestion, but foreign investors can get a lot of profits during the franchise period, right?" Hitler seemed to be moved, but he was a little unwilling to think that investors from other countries would take away a lot of profits , Helena felt quite amused by his pained face, so she smiled and said: "Foreign investors will invest in our construction projects precisely because they think it is profitable, and smart businessmen will not do it." It's a loss-making business."

"But we can't think that if foreign investors earn money, we lose money. Many construction projects, especially infrastructure construction projects, have strong spillover effects. For example, foreign investors build a railway or a dam in our country. They may take five million marks in profit during the concession period, but the economic boost of this railway or this dam may be ten times that amount."

"Now that the tariff barriers are so high, the building materials and equipment needed by foreign investors to complete construction projects can only be purchased from Germany, and the construction workers can only be recruited from Germany. Is this driven by foreign investors' money? Our domestic demand? And after the construction is completed, there will be more convenient transportation and more sufficient power supply, will it improve the market competitiveness of our domestic enterprises? Besides, after the franchise period ends, the construction project will return In our hands, all foreign investors can take away is some profits." Helena spread her hands and said.

"Actually, this model has a hidden benefit." Seeing the clear smile gradually blooming on Hitler's face, Helena immediately hit the iron track: "Once foreign investors join our 'build-operate-transfer' project, There is no way to choose to quit halfway. Because we will only open infrastructure and some industrial fields, their investment must be transformed into physical objects such as roads, ports, airports, and industrial facilities. There is no way to take away the assets, unless they are transferred to the Chinese government or individuals in advance. That is to say, once foreign investors join our project, they will be tightly bound to Germany during the entire franchise period.”

Helena went on to say: "I think every foreign investor who joins our country's 'build-operate-transfer' project will sincerely pray that their country will not have a military conflict or even war with Germany, otherwise their projects in Germany will be destroyed. Because large investors often have a lot of political power in their own country, this will make countries that invest heavily in Germany through this model more cautious and even It is timid. This will in disguise increase our room for maneuver internationally in the future."

"This is really a magical solution, Miss Helena, you are a genius!" Hitler slapped his thigh and said, "But why didn't Miss Helena come up with such a good suggestion earlier? If you put forward this plan earlier, the three years The government debt will not increase to almost 20 billion marks so quickly."

"Premature implementation of this plan will not achieve good results, because foreign investors' willingness to invest is closely related to their expectations for the future of the German economy. Please forgive me, Your Excellency, in the early years, several foreign investors would believe that Will the German economy have a bright future, so that their investment in German infrastructure will be adequately rewarded?" Helena said with an innocent wink.

"Hahahaha, it's really interesting! But now they should all believe that the German economy has a bright future. It seems that we have to set a higher price for the transfer of franchise rights. These rare investment opportunities in the economic crisis cannot be sold at a low price. "Even Hitler was amused by Helena's expression.

In fact, Helena's plan will bring about a side effect, which she didn't mention, that is, if investors from the United States, Britain, France and other countries invest more funds in Germany's BOT projects, it will hinder the renewal of fixed capital in the country's industrial sector. , and will cause the funds that should have flowed to the Soviet Union in the previous plane to be intercepted by Germany (because investing in Germany seems safer than investing in the Soviet Union, and the potential return on capital is also higher).However, this will be a subtle process, and its impact may take several years to be released.

Chapter 249 Radar Dawn

As if it was a predestined fate or a robbery, in the same year that the Wright Brothers successfully tested the first aircraft in human history, "Aviator One" in the United States in 1903, the German Christian Hosmeyer Invented a ship collision avoidance device known as the "electric mirror".This device can emit radio waves and use the reflected echoes of obstacles encountered by radio waves to measure the distance between the ship and the obstacle.Although this device was invented as crude as the Wright Brothers' airplane, the importance of this invention is no less than that of the airplane, because the descendants of this device have a more "electric mirror" in later generations. More household name - radar.

Although radar was born almost at the same time as the aircraft, it is different from the aircraft that flourished immediately after it was invented and soon occupied an important position in the military and civilian fields.In the first 30 years after radar was invented, although the technical level was still tenaciously developed in twists and turns, the radar during this period was generally just a big toy for technology geeks from all over the world to spend money on. Limited, and in many cases it is not as easy to use as the naked eye of the watchman.

The reason for this embarrassing situation is that radar was actually a premature baby compared to the technical reserves at that time. At this point in 1903, even electronic components such as vacuum triodes, which seemed to be so common in later generations, were not available. It would not be invented by de Forest until three years later in 1906.From the transmitter to the antenna system to the receiver, the early researchers of radar faced countless technical problems. At this time, if they want to develop a practical radar, it is tantamount to building skyscrapers on soft sand. Even the most inventive inventors could not have accomplished this task.

However, the treasure of radar will not sleep forever. When the pages of history are turned to the mid-1930s, with the advancement of electronic technology, many front-end technologies that once restricted the development of early radar have been broken through. The chrysalis, which has been around for more than 30 years, is finally about to usher in the moment when it emerges from its cocoon.

In the history of the last plane, one of the key figures who contributed to the practical application of radar technology was Robert Watson Watt, then director of the British Radio Research Institute. In 1935, this man led his research team to test them. Designed radio transmitting and receiving equipment, and obtained the reflection echo of an aircraft flying 12 kilometers away in the test.

On the other side of the English Channel, the pace of the Germans was not slow at all. In the same year, the Gema company established by Dr. Hans Eric Holman tested a radar system with a transmission power of 8 kilowatts. Bomber-sized targets can be detected at a distance of 28 kilometers.Radar, a premature toddler, walked out of his long childhood and entered a rebellious and wild adolescent stage.

Although Helena has a clearer understanding of the importance of radar in future warfare than anyone in her contemporaries, but Helena poured too much resources into the development of radar without coming up. Most of the past ten years At that time, her investment in the field of radar research and development was not out of the scope of funding enthusiasts, but compared with ordinary folk technology geeks who were purely for fun, the teams supported by Helena generally had higher scientific literacy.

This is not because Helena is not clear-headed and dares to be short-sighted in such an important research field, but because it is impossible for a single soldier to advance in the research of the radar field without a large number of front-end technologies. Just like even if the best car designer team travels to the Han Dynasty, they cannot apply the technology at that time to manufacture cars.Under such circumstances, what Helena needs to do is of course to concentrate on breaking through the basic technology that restricts the development of radar, and at the same time ensure that there is always a high-level team in Germany to carry out theoretical exploration and experience accumulation in radar.

However, with Helena's long-term and unremitting R&D investment, Germany has made decisive progress in the fields of high-gain antennas and high-performance vacuum electronic devices in recent years, which has laid a solid foundation for the development of practical radars.So after the time entered the 30s, Helena, who had been focusing on front-end technology, finally decided to promote the transformation of radar from "making it natural" to "making it natural". What gave Helena the most confidence was Germany's multi-cavity A huge advance in the field of magnetrons.

The author has something to say: Radar is a difficult field for the author to write about, mainly because from World War II to the present, although the mechanical field has developed, the basic structure of many devices has limited changes, but the evolution of the radar field is too great. , if you don't pay attention, the problem of Guan Gong fighting Qin Qiong will appear, and there is not much information that can be checked on the radar during World War II.The author deeply feels that the knowledge reserve in this area is insufficient, so he has to write slowly to prevent major technical defects. Please forgive me.

2. Chapter [-]: Microwave Transmission

We know that radar generally has three basic components, namely transmitter, antenna system and receiver.Among them, the transmitter is the most complex and expensive part of the radar. It is responsible for providing the radar with a modulated radio frequency signal.The radio frequency signal is input into the transmitting antenna through the feeding device, and it is converted into radio waves radiated in a specific direction.The echo formed by the radio wave being reflected by the target is received by the receiving antenna (often the same set as the transmitting antenna), and then converted into a radio frequency signal and transmitted to the receiver.After the receiver demodulates these signals, we can obtain useful information such as the target's azimuth and distance.

If the aero engine is the heart of the aircraft, then the transmitter is the heart of the radar.The power and quality of the RF signal generated by the transmitter directly determine the upper limit of radar detection performance.For quite a long time after the invention of radar, the performance of the transmitter was the main restrictive factor for the development of radar technology. However, with the invention and improvement of the multi-cavity magnetron in the 20s, the development of practical radar finally became an engineering challenge. possible.

As a special electronic tube, the magnetron is basically shaped like a square box, surrounded by a metal protective shell on the top, bottom, left, and right sides of the box, except that the front and rear directions are transparent, and you can see the inside from there. Layers of heat sinks, and the cylindrical objects wrapped by these heat sinks are the core components of the magnetron, which is the so-called die.The middle of the magnetron tube core is a cylindrical cathode, and the cathode is surrounded by an anode with multiple concave cavities (resonant cavities). There is a ring magnet or electromagnet at the upper and lower ends of the tube core, and the vertical antenna on the top It is the energy exporter of the magnetron.

The main function of the magnetron is to make the electron flow in the magnetic field resonate in the resonant cavity, thereby converting the input electrical signal into a microwave radio frequency signal output.We might as well make a rough comparison to the magnetron: the magnetron is actually like a microwave whistle blown by electric current, but when we usually whistle, the input airflow will oscillate in the resonance cavity of the whistle , and then converted into an acoustic wave signal output, while the input current will oscillate in its resonant cavity when the magnetron is working, and then convert the microwave signal output.

If you put a pulse modulator in front of the magnetron and connect them to a power supply, the simplest single-stage oscillator radar transmitter is formed.At this time, you only need to input a timing signal to the pulse modulator, and the pulse modulator can convert the timing signal into an electrical pulse signal and then input it to the magnetron, and the magnetron can then convert the electrical pulse signal into an electromagnetic pulse signal to feed the transmitting antenna. electricity.

Helena knew that in the field of military radar in the future, more advanced main-oscillator amplified transmitters would become a more mainstream type of transmitter than single-stage oscillators.The working principle of this transmitter uses a quartz crystal oscillator to generate stable continuous wave oscillation, and then amplifies and modulates it through an amplification chain composed of two or more stages of power amplifiers.This kind of transmitter can have greater generating power, higher frequency stability and more complex waveforms, and can also easily perform frequency agility.However, because many technologies including klystron and traveling wave tube have not yet made breakthroughs, so now only theoretical exploration can be carried out.

Although the technical potential of the single-stage oscillator transmitter is not as good as that of the main oscillator amplifier transmitter that appeared later.However, because the early radars used simple rectangular pulse modulation signals, and the requirements for signal stability were not high, so the radars developed in Germany now use this type of transmitter.Fortunately, after Helena's unremitting investment and the efforts of scientific researchers for many years, Germany's technology accumulation in high-power multi-cavity magnetrons has become relatively mature, and it is now possible to manufacture kilowatt-level or even ten-kilowatt-level magnetrons. This opens the door for the development of radar transmitters.

In order to commend the contributions of all the magnetron developers, Helena also ingeniously presented a microwave oven to every researcher involved in the development of the microwave oven. This is also a by-product of the magnetron development process. A radar transmitter of kilowatts or even hundreds of kilowatts, and a magnetron used in a microwave oven only need a few hundred watts of power.The playful Helena clicked on this little invention that is convenient for life.

However, due to the tragic lifespan of magnetrons in this era, the microwave oven Helena made didn't work for a long time, and the magnetron inside would go on strike, so Helena had to open a special window on the microwave oven to facilitate replacement. Magnetron, and the expensive magnetron made it impossible for this laboratory product to be put into the market on a large scale.Still, Helena was serious about making it as perfect as possible.

For example, the microwave generated by the magnetron passes through a high-speed rotating metal stirrer before entering the furnace cavity through the waveguide. Through the reflection of the blades of the stirrer, the microwave will be evenly sprinkled in all directions in the furnace cavity; Place on a glass tray and turn slowly for more even heating.Another example is to install a glass observation window on the oven door to check the situation of the food at any time. There is also a metal shielding net on the observation window to prevent the microwaves in the oven cavity from escaping and so on.

However, what made Helena dumbfounded was that the microwave oven on this plane was used as a prize for the first time for a week of trial use.The winner made all the mistakes that future generations can make when using microwave ovens: heating eggs in the microwave and frying all over the oven, misplaced metal plates in the microwave and caused sparks to fly everywhere. , and the most pitiful one was Dr. Hans-Erik Holman who was trying to boil water in the microwave. Dude's arms were covered with blisters.

Dr. Holman probably did not carefully read the instruction manual written by Helena. Clean water heated by a microwave oven often does not boil even if the temperature exceeds 100 degrees Celsius due to the lack of internal convection and no crystal nuclei.And when Dr. Holman added coffee, the superheated water that had acquired crystal nuclei would suddenly boil, so the poor Dr. Holman was caught off guard and inevitably fell into the trap...

What makes Helena a little embarrassed to see Dr. Holman so far is that after she heard about this incident, when she met Dr. Holman with a white gauze on his arm and a bitter expression on his face the next day, she was originally She planned to go up to him to comfort the injury on his arm, but in the end she couldn't hold back and burst out laughing in front of Dr. Holman. Helena, who was extremely ashamed, quickly waved her hand, explaining without silver 300 taels here, saying I have absolutely no intention of gloating at his misfortune.

"It's okay, Miss Sektor. If you want to laugh, you don't have to hold back." Dr. Holman scratched his head with his uninjured arm and said, "Because Miss Sektor is the No. 12 thinker today." The one who can't hold back the laughter." As he spoke, he couldn't hold back a burst of laughter: "See, Miss Helena. Now I am one of the thirteen people who can't do it today. No one can hold back." Dr. Holman said bitterly.

Chapter 251 The Big Sky-watching Eye

Because Helena carried out a very forward-looking scientific research layout many years ago, Germany has obtained many major breakthroughs in the field of electronic technology, including magnetron technology, by 1934. These breakthroughs in front technology are undoubtedly It cleared the way for Germany to develop a radar with practical value.Although Germany hadn't made any shocking achievements in the field of radar development at that time, Helena knew that German designers had already won at the starting line.

And the progress of the next thing was indeed as logical as Helena expected. With the military's investment in radar development projects gradually increasing, Gema, Telefunken and Siemens all came up with usable radars in 1935. products, and the performance of these products has greatly exceeded the level they achieved in the same period on the previous plane.Among them, what satisfied Helena most was the artillery sighting radar named "Wurzburg" developed by Telefunken.

Telefunken's "Wurzburg" series radars are famous in history, because Germany produced more than 4000 sets of "Wurzburg" series radars in the last plane, which were responsible for guiding German ground air defense firepower during the war. main equipment.The jamming and anti-jamming operations surrounding this radar are also topics that military fans of later generations have been talking about.

The most amazing of these topics is that in 1942, the British used airborne raids to attack a "Wurzburg" radar station deployed by Germany near the French coastline, and before the German support troops arrived, The core equipment such as the transmitter of this radar was removed, and then loaded on the landing craft that came to meet it and shipped back to the UK.After urgently studying the performance characteristics of the radar, the Allied forces took many effective electronic countermeasures, which greatly increased the penetration probability of the bomber fleet.

The "Wurzburg" radar, which has played such an important role in history, is naturally not a mediocre person. The "Wurzburg" developed in 1938 is a decimeter wave radar with a wavelength of about 53 centimeters. Its peak power can reach 8 kilowatts, and the maximum detection distance can reach 42 kilometers. The "Wurzburg" radar has a collapsible parabolic antenna with a diameter of 3 meters, so the entire radar can be loaded on a wheeled trailer for mobility.

During World War II on the last plane, the Germans usually combined two such "Wurzburg" radars with a "Freya" with a detection range of 160 kilometers or even more than 200 kilometers, but relatively low detection accuracy. The two-coordinate meter-wave early warning radar cooperates to form an air defense unit called a "four-post bed". Countless such air defense units are connected to each other to form the German air defense network with ground radar as the core.

Later, Germany felt that the detection range and accuracy of the "Wurzburg" radar could not fully meet the needs of the air defense forces, especially the need to guide the accurate shooting of anti-aircraft guns, and developed the "Grand Würzburg" radar on the basis of the "Wurzburg" radar. "Fort" radar has greater transmission power and an antenna diameter increased to 7.5 meters. Its maximum detection range can reach about 80 kilometers. Ability to conduct road maneuvers.

In Helena's view, although Germany's ground air defense radar system in World War II on the previous plane had some tactical and technical problems, for example, Germany allowed the two "Wurzburg" radars in each air defense unit to separate It is responsible for tracking enemy aircraft and guiding interception, so that each air defense unit can only attack one target at the same time, leading the Allied forces to quickly develop targeted "filing" tactics, thereby greatly reducing the penetration loss of the bomber fleet.However, as far as the overall idea is concerned, the air defense idea of ​​Germany in the last plane is quite remarkable, so Helena is not going to completely overthrow this structure, so the "Wurzburg" radar is located where Helena is. Not only did this time and space still appear, but the time was also slightly earlier than the previous plane.

However, the "Wurzburg" radar in this plane is not exactly a replica of the previous plane.We know that the higher the operating frequency of the radar transmitter, the more difficult it is to achieve the same power.However, thanks to Helena's continuous investment in the field of multi-cavity magnetron technology over the years, the magnetrons in Telefunken's hands on this plane can obtain greater power at higher frequencies. Under the same circumstances, a higher operating frequency is very beneficial to improve the detection accuracy of the radar.

Compared with the 8 kW peak power and 560 MHz operating frequency of the "Wurzburg" radar in the previous plane, the telefunken company's "Wurzburg" radar has a peak power of 12 kW At the same time, the operating frequency has also increased to 1330 MHz, so the wavelength has also been reduced from 53.5 cm on the previous plane to 22.5 cm, which is the so-called L-band.At the same time, Telefunken also slightly increased the antenna from 3 meters in the previous plane to 3.35 meters, so as to obtain higher antenna gain while retaining the road mobility similar to the previous plane.

These improvements have not only increased the maximum detection range of the "Wurzburg" radar on this plane from 42 kilometers to 50 kilometers, but also have far better ranging accuracy than the previous plane, making this radar able to independently guide anti-aircraft guns Shooting missions.However, the "Wurzburg" in the previous plane was somewhat reluctant to face this kind of task, and usually needed the assistance of various optical and acoustic means to better complete the task of guiding the anti-aircraft gun.

This will undoubtedly be of great benefit to the mobile deployment of the German air defense forces in the future. It must be known that although the upgraded version of the "Great Wurzburg" radar on the previous plane has obtained sufficient detection accuracy with a larger antenna diameter, it can only be installed On a concrete base or an anti-aircraft tower, the radar must be disassembled into several parts in order to transport it, and then reassembled at the destination.However, the products in this plane still use foldable antennas and road-mobile trailers, which combines the ability of the "Great Würzburg" radar in the previous plane to guide anti-aircraft artillery shooting with the mobility of the ordinary "Wurzburg" radar. combined.

In addition to using multi-cavity magnetron technology to improve performance, the "Wurzburg" radar on this plane also absorbed a lot of experience gained by Germany in the process of improving the "Wurzburg" radar on the previous plane.

One of the most important technical improvements is the adoption of the conical scanning technology that was only used on the "Wurzburg D" model that entered service in 1941 on the previous plane. Early radars required the operator to turn the handle to align the radar with the target. direction, while the "Wurzburg" radar on the home plane installs the feed on a device called a "stirrer" and rotates at a speed of 25 revolutions per second, thus forming a rapid scanning within a cone. Beam, if the target deviates from the center of the cone, the strength of the signal in each direction will be different, and the radar will automatically turn to the direction with stronger echo.

At Helena's suggestion, Telefunken also installed the PPI (Plan Position Indicator) plane display device called "Panorama" on the "Wurzburg" radar for the first time, which is also the most common radar in later generations Display method.There are multiple concentric circles and a series of radial lines on the display screen. The center of the concentric circles represents the position of the radar antenna, the scale of the concentric circles represents the distance from the radar antenna, and the scale of the radial lines represents the azimuth angle to the radar antenna.In this way, when the radar receives the reflected echo of the target, as long as the position of the target is displayed in this coordinate system, the operator can know the position of the target relative to the radar.

Chapter 252 The Combination of Movement and Stillness