The Chain Home system was simple and basic by 1935 standards and 'primitive' by modern ones since it had been rushed into production by Sir Robert Watson-Watt's Air Ministry research station near Bawdsey on the Suffolk coast of eastern England. ![]() After the Battle of France in 1940 the network was expanded to cover the west coast and Northern Ireland. By the outbreak of war in September 1939 there were 21 operational Chain Home stations. The lessons learned and techniques of fighter control evolved were applied directly to operations in the ' Battle of Britain' in 1940. By 1936 the first five stations were commissioned in the south east of England to protect the Thames estuary and London, and the reporting system for the stations was tested using aircraft from RAF Biggin Hill. The name given to the project was 'Chain Home'. This successful demonstration resulted in immediate funding for a chain of RDF stations around the British east coast from Orkney in the north to Weymouth in the south. The concept demonstration in Britain was in February 1935 outside the town of Daventry. However, there were major technical problems to overcome, and it was not until the 1930s that practical Radio Direction Finding (RDF) began to be developed simultaneously in several countries (Germany, Japan, the USA and USSR). The concept of detection of objects by using radio waves had long been known, and the first 'radio location' patents were issued to Christian Hülsmeyer in 1904. CHEL was the first RAF centimetric radar system working on a frequency of 10 cm rather than the 12 m HF band Type 1. CHEL was in operation by 1943 under the designation Type 13 / 14. This was further refined by the addition of Chain Home Extra Low, which gave cover down to 50 ft (15 m) but at short ranges of only approximately 30 miles (50 km). This system had shortcomings in not being able to detect aircraft at lower altitudes and thus was used in conjunction with the Chain Home Low system, or AMES Type 2, which could detect aircraft flying at minimum altitude level of 500 ft (150 m). The installations were known as 'stations' and were designed to provide long-range detection of aircraft. The radar transmitted on the HF 12 m frequency band between 22-25 MHz depending on operational requirements. The system otherwise known as AMES Type 1 ( Air Ministry Experimental Station) consisted of fixed cable array antennae slung between three or four 360 ft (110 m) steel towers. It was one of the first practical radar systems and the main component of the world's first integrated air defence system. Chain Home was the codename for the ring of coastal Early Warning radar stations built by the British before and during the Second World War.
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