Editing Chain Home (section)

===Planning the chain===
[[File:Bawdsey For Wiki Russ.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|right|Watson-Watt suggested using [[Bawdsey Manor]] in Suffolk as a development site, after Wilkins noticed it on a Sunday drive while working at [[Orfordness]]]]

In August 1935, [[Albert Percival Rowe|Albert Rowe]], secretary of the Tizard Committee, coined the term "Radio Direction and Finding" (RDF), deliberately choosing a name that could be confused with "Radio Direction Finding", a term already in widespread use.{{sfn|Watson|2009|p=50}}

In a 9 September 1935 memo, Watson-Watt outlined the progress to date. At that time the range was about {{convert|40|mi|abbr=on}}, so Watson-Watt suggested building a complete network of stations {{convert|20|mi|abbr=on}} apart along the entire east coast. Since the transmitters and receivers were separate, to save development costs he suggested placing a transmitter at every other station. The transmitter signal could be used by a receiver at that site as well as the ones on each side of it.{{sfn|Watson|2009|p=51}} This was quickly rendered moot by the rapid increases in range. When the Committee next visited the site in October, the range was up to {{cvt|80|mi}}, and Wilkins was working on a method for height finding using multiple antennas.{{sfn|Watson|2009|p=51}}

In spite of its ''ad hoc'' nature and short development time of less than six months, the Orfordness system had already become a useful and practical system. In comparison, the [[acoustic mirror]] systems that had been in development for a decade were still limited to only {{cvt|5|mi}} range under most conditions, and were very difficult to use in practice. Work on mirror systems ended, and on 19 December 1935, a £60,000 contract{{efn|Bowen puts the sum at £1,000,000.{{sfn|Bowen|1998|p=21}}}} for five{{efn|Gough says seven}} RDF stations along the south-east coast was sent out, to be operational by August 1936.{{sfn|Gough|1993|p=3}}{{sfn|Watson|2009|p=51}}

The only person not convinced of the utility of RDF was Lindemann. He had been placed on the Committee at the insistence of his friend, Churchill, and proved unimpressed with the team's work. When he visited the site, he was upset by the crude conditions, and apparently, by the box lunch he had to eat.{{sfn|Bowen|1998|p=20}} Lindemann strongly advocated the use of [[infrared]] systems for detection and tracking and numerous observers have noted Lindemann's continual interference with radar. As Bowen put it,

{{quote|Within a few months of his joining the Committee, what had previously been an innovative and forward-looking group became riven with strife. It was strictly Lindemann versus the rest, with his hostility to radar and his insistence on totally impractical ideas about intercepting enemy aircraft by means of wires dangled from balloons, or by infrared, which at that time simply did not have the sensitivity to detect aircraft at long range.{{sfn|Bowen|1998|p=20}}}}

Churchill's backing meant the other members' complaints about his behaviour were ignored. The matter was eventually referred back to [[Philip Cunliffe-Lister, 1st Earl of Swinton|Lord Swinton]], the new Secretary of State for Air. Swinton solved the problem by dissolving the original Committee and reforming it with Appleton in Lindemann's place.{{sfn|Watson|2009|p=51}}{{sfn|Bowen|1998|p=20}}

As the development effort grew, Watt requested a central research station be established "of large size and with ground space for a considerable number of mast and aerial systems".{{sfn|Watson|2009|p=51}} Several members of the team went on scouting trips with Watt to the north of Orfordness but found nothing suitable. Then Wilkins recalled having come across an interesting site about {{convert|10|mi|abbr=on}} south of Orfordness, some time earlier while on a Sunday drive. He recalled it because it was some {{cvt|70|–|80|ft}} above sea level, which was unusual in that area. The large [[manor house]] on the property would have ample room for experimental labs and offices. In February and March 1936, the team moved to [[Bawdsey Manor]] and established the [[Air Ministry Experimental Station]] (AMES). When the scientific team left in 1939, the site became the operational CH site [[RAF Bawdsey]].{{sfn|Watson|2009|p=52}}

While the "ness team" began moving to Bawdsey, the Orfordness site remained in use. This proved useful during one demonstration when the new system recently completed at Bawdsey failed. The next day, Robert Hanbury-Brown and the new recruit Gerald Touch started up the Orfordness system and were able to run the demonstrations from there. The Orfordness site was not closed until 1937.{{sfn|Heazell|2011|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=FrUTDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT275 280]}}