Ballistic measurement systems: Data registration on papertape (1969)

 

Data registration on papertape with POCON (1969)

 

POCON punch tape converter for recording measurement data
POCON punch tape converter for recording measurement data

Because the Commission of Trials (CvP) of the Royal Netherlands Army switched to automatic data processing, it was necessary to record the measurement data, such as projectile flight times, projectile velocities, fire speeds and the gas pressures in the combustion chamber of a cannon on an information carrier. In 1969, the TNO Physics Laboratory developed Paper tape converters (POCONs) to record the measured ballistic data in papertape. The POCON converts the decimally coded measurements that appear on the transmit contacts of the IBM output writer into CCITT-2 the telex code. The Siemens parallel papertape perforator No. 17 connected to the POCON punches data into a papertape.

Four POCONs were built, one for the magnetic velocity measuring equipment, one for the optical velocity measuring equipment, one for the Doppler computer (DORA), and one as a spare unit

 

Doppler-computer console
Operator console of the Doppler-calculator (DORA)

 

DORA console electronics
DORA console electronics

 

Doppler computer
The Doppler computer (DORA)