The Decca Radar company was a British manufacturer of

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

systems. There were originally two divisions, Marine and Heavy Radar, with separate product lines. The latter was sold to

Plessey The Plessey Company plc was a British electronics, defence and telecommunications company. It originated in 1917, growing and diversifying into electronics. It expanded after World War II by acquisition of companies and formed overseas compani ...

in 1965, and the term "Decca Radar" normally refers to the Marine division. That division remained with Decca until 1979 when it purchased by

Racal Racal Electronics plc was a British electronics company that was founded in 1950. Listed on the London Stock Exchange and once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, Racal was a diversified company, offering products including voice loggers and ...

to form Racal-Decca. After a series of further mergers and purchases, from 2000 the division is part of

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military techn ...

. Decca is best known for its marine radars, starting with 1949's Type 159. Their most successful line was the 1970s Bridgemaster series which continued sales into the 2000s. Under Plessey, the company was particularly successful in the US pleasure boat market. The Heavy Radar division produced the

AMES Type 80 The AMES Type 80, sometimes known by its development rainbow code Green Garlic, was a powerful early warning (EW) and ground-controlled interception (GCI) radar developed by the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) and built by Decca f ...

radars for the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

, and used that technology to develop the

Decca HF200 The HF200 is a height finder radar designed and first built by Decca Radar in 1957, and continuing sales into the 1970s after the division was purchased by Plessey in 1965. It was one of the company's successful heavy radar projects, winning the co ...

height finder radar. This led to the

Decca Air Surveillance Radar Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in We ...

, which spawned a number of adaptations for civilian and military use.

History

The Decca Company, a British gramophone manufacturer that, as

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ...

, released records under the Decca label, contributed to the British war effort during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. This

military engineering Military engineering is loosely defined as the art, science, and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and military communications. Military engineers are also responsible for logistics be ...

activity resulted in a number of commercial ventures after the war, in particular, the

Decca Navigator System The Decca Navigator System was a hyperbolic navigation, hyperbolic radio navigation system which allowed ships and aircraft to determine their position by using radio signals from a dedicated system of static radio transmitters. The system used ...

, and the Decca Radar company. Decca Radar launched its first marine

, the 159, in August 1949. The radar was named after the number of the London bus that passed the

Brixton Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th ce ...

laboratory where the radar was designed and manufactured. The company produced the first true motion radar (where the ship moves on the radar screen and the map is static in comparison where the map is moving and the ship is in the centre of the radar display), the first anti-collision radar and the first "Type Approved" colour radar. China, as the third-largest shipbuilder in the world, most ships it builds are equipped with navigation radars of Decca origin (either license-produced or directly imported).{{citation needed, date=April 2013 In 1959 Racal Decca, as the company was known then, launched a number of social and sports clubs.

Racal Decca RFC of Tolworth Racal Electronics plc was a British electronics company that was founded in 1950. Listed on the London Stock Exchange and once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, Racal was a diversified company, offering products including voice loggers an ...

still operates today, and plays at Kingston University Ground in Tolworth, Surrey. Decca Radar was bought in 1979 by

Racal Electronics Racal Electronics plc was a British electronics company that was founded in 1950. Listed on the London Stock Exchange and once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, Racal was a diversified company, offering products including voice loggers an ...

forming Racal-Decca Marine and related companies. Early Racal-Decca radars had dropped the Decca name, but it was later restored. At this time the business was run from

New Malden New Malden is an area in South West London, England. It is located mainly within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the London Borough of Merton, and is from Charing Cross. Neighbouring localities include Kingston, Norbiton, Raynes ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

. In the mid-1980s, Decca introduced the BridgeMaster series of radars, which used a

raster Raster may refer to: * Raster graphics, graphical techniques using arrays of pixel values * Raster graphics editor, a computer program * Raster scan, the pattern of image readout, transmission, storage, and reconstruction in television and compu ...

ized colour display. The BridgeMaster II series followed, with a

Motorola 68000 The Motorola 68000 (sometimes shortened to Motorola 68k or m68k and usually pronounced "sixty-eight-thousand") is a 16/32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessor, introduced in 1979 by Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector ...

CPU and software options like

vector Vector most often refers to: *Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction *Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematic ...

traces showing the trajectories of other ships as part of the automatic radar plotting aid package. In December 1996 the US corporation

Litton Industries Litton Industries was a large defense contractor in the United States named after inventor Charles Litton Sr. During the 1960s, the company began acquiring many unrelated firms and became one of the largest conglomerates in the United States. ...

bought Racal-Decca Marine, as well as

Sperry Marine Sperry may refer to: Places In the United States: *Sperry, Iowa, community in Des Moines County *Sperry, Missouri * Sperry, Oklahoma, town in Tulsa County *Sperry Chalet, historic backcountry chalet, Glacier National Park, Montana *Sperry Glacier, ...

and C.Plath, under the

Litton Marine Systems Litton may refer to: Places * Litton, Derbyshire, England * Litton, North Yorkshire, England * Litton, Somerset, England * Litton, Mississippi, United States, an unincorporated community Other uses * Litton (surname) * Litton Entertainment, an ...

name. The Decca name, engineering, and design continued to be used on the BridgeMaster II and, in 1998, the BridgeMaster E series of radars was launched. The Sperry section of Litton Marine Systems, based in

Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Cha ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, was already producing its own line of marine radars, the Rascar, at the time of the acquisition but this was replaced by the BridgeMaster E. The Rascar had been the American-made radar used in the American Navy and Coast Guard but eventually the BridgeMaster E made inroads there as well. Competitors at the time included Gold Star and

Furuno (commonly known as Furuno) is a Japanese electronics company whose main products are marine electronics, including marine radar systems, fish finders, and navigational instruments. The company also manufactures global positioning systems an ...

acquired Litton Industries in 2000 and this eventually heralded, in 2004, the end of the use of the Decca name on radars after a period of more than 50 years. In 2006 the VisionMaster FT series of marine radars replaced the aging BridgeMaster E series.

References

Information Sperry Marine
- Northrop Grumman's Decca radar heritage

External links

VisionMaster FT marine radar website
*http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/racaldecca1xv/ Aircraft component manufacturers of the United Kingdom British companies established in 1949 Companies based in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames Electronics companies established in 1949 Electronics companies of the United Kingdom Electronics industry in London Former defence companies of the United Kingdom History of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames History of the London Borough of Lambeth Manufacturing companies based in London New Malden

Radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

Racal Radar manufacturers Science and technology on the Isle of Wight World War II radars