Most Modern Radar Navigation Aid In Liverpool Harbour

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 39, 10 January 1949, Page 6

Most Modern Radar Navigation Aid In Liverpool Harbour

Liverpool has the honour of being the first seaport to possess the most modern aid to navigation in the new radar station opened recently. The station, which is in the northwest corner of Gladstone Dock, never actually controls a vessel that is being helped on its way into the Mersey port, but its object is to assist the Master and Pilot in navigation through the rather narrow and busy channel. It is possible for a pilot in fog to obtain the position and number of ships in the channel and thus to decide whether to proceed and what course to take. The equipment has a high discrimination and the radar console is fitted with six viewing screens. A pilot needing help contacts the station by radio. At the station the operator switches on his cathoderay tubes and the shipping situation in the channel is revealed. The details are passed by radio to the pilot. In the same way the pilot can ascertain his own position. The operator presses a button, and numbered grid lines form on the screen. These correspond to a chart carried by the pilot who, on receiving the details, is thus able to check his position. The rotating radar aerial is mounted on a concrete tower, 80 feet high, which has a commanding view over Liverpool and the harbour entrance.