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National Electronics Museum, Linthicum, MD
39° 11′ 44.01″ N, 76° 41′ 4.69″ W
Electronic Defense and Countermeasures
The National Electronics Museum focuses on the application of electronics to defense, and has the most important collection of radar equipment in the world.
The museum begins with an introduction to electronics and magnetism designed for beginners. The Fundamentals Gallery explains the relationship between electricity, magnetism, and radio waves with hands-on exhibits. The Communications Gallery introduces radio communication, including Marconi’s experiments (more on Marconi is covered in Chapter 62), Morse code, and the development of the telephone (for more on Alexander Graham Bell, see Chapter 4).
Three galleries cover the history of radar, starting with British work in the 1930s through the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Second World War. The second radar gallery covers advances in radar to cope with the Cold War—Doppler radar was developed so that surface-to-air missiles could attack nuclear bombers, and eventually became the technology used to trap speeding motorists. The final radar gallery covers modern radar systems including the AWACS rotating dome, airport ...
