Twenty Years Before the Antenna Mast

The Predictor was the latest radar manufactured by Marconi Marine in Chelmsford. It was one of the first Radar's to be able to predict the outcome of any maneuver and display it on the screen within a few seconds. It displayed tracks of any number of targets in true or relative motion, and contained the latest technology for video processing and noise reduction. It was the Marconi answer to Digiplot from Raytheon, which contained a digital computer and though very good, could only display a limited number of tracks. The training course took place at the company headquarters at Elettra House in Chelmsford. Again, I could stay at home and enjoy home comforts. The instructors were sometimes the development engineers themselves, or top technical staff. It was very thorough and technically first class. We were a small "elite" group, as the equipment was still very new, expensive and not many were presently fitted.