VERLORT Radar

The VERLORT radar at Muchea:
Photo - ???

The VERy LOng Range Tracking (VERLORT) radar was an extended-range version of the SCR-584which was often credited as "the radar that won WW II". The Verlort range was increased from 650 Km to 4000 Km and the dish diameter from 1.8 m to 3 m to give the radar space tracking capabilities. The Red Lake (Woomera) Mercury tracking station used the more accurate AN/FPS-16 radar previously installed at Woomera for otherspace activities.

The VERLORT radar reinstalled at Carnarvon just beside the AcqAid antennas:
Photo - Alan Gilham

The Verlort radar performed reliably for the six Mercury orbital missions. It was then relocated to the new Gemini tracking station at Carnarvon as an acquisition aid and back-up for the even more accurate FPQ-6 radar installed there.

Although the Verlort was kept operational for the first few Carnarvon missions it was soon removed from the operational list because the FPQ-6 proved very reliable and other acquisition methods were entirely sufficient.

Helical scan mechanism: Image – ‘Electronics’; Fig 2, Dec ’45, p.104

The SCR family of radars, developed at the MIT laboratories, was remarkable for the innovative MIT solutions to radar operations now met in modern radars using electronic methods.

The VERLORT Plan Position Indicator (PPI)

A conical scan beam: Image – ‘Electronics’; Fig 1, Nov ’45, p.104

Nutating antenna dipole feed:
Image – ‘Electronics’; Fig 5, Dec ’45, p.107

For a detailed technical description of the SCR-584 radar published in the November & December 1945 issues of ‘Electronics’ magazine refer to http://www.hamhud.net/darts/scr584.html.