Research into pacific theater WW2 technology

[darklight]

Hi,

I'm not even sure if this is the right place to ask, but I've got to ask somewhere!

I'm researching WW2 pacific operations for a project of mine. I have lots of questions, the two that are forefront in my mind are:

• What technology was in use by the japanes & us navy to allow pilots to find the carriers when over the sea? I think the US used a radio transmission of some type, but I'd like details, and for both sides.
• What sort of lights were used to illuminate airfields and carriers for night operations (if at all)? What was the protocol around turning these on & off - i.e. did a pilot have to radio in to get them turned on?

So if noone can answer these questions here, can anyone reccommend another forum, or internet source? Or even books to read, so I can learn more about these sorts of things?

I'm not having much luck with google, the signal to noise ratio is low...

Thanks for any help!

 

[PRB]

Hi darklight,

Was looking up some stuff about the US Navy's YE homing beacon, and ran across the answers you received to these questions at the ww2f site. Very detailed answers there, and drawn from the same two books I was just now looking through – The First Team and Shattered Sword! Very good books those.

I did find some data on the frequencies of these radio systems here:

http://www.jproc.ca/rrp/rcn_comm_equip_inv_1956.html

Look at the bottom of the list, they cover specs for the YE and the YG, evidently used on shore stations for the same purpose. The link to the photo of the YE on USS Cowpens has me a tiny bit worried that the circle is not circling the correct antenna, but I'm not sure about that yet...