What is the round thin under the MAAM R4D-6's nose?http://www.airliners.net/open.file/234751/L

Also, in this picture;http://www.airliners.net/open.file/192235/L/Whats the circular pod under the engine, saw it on a catalina today and was just wondering.Cheers,

As far as I know, Oren's 'thing' is an ADF loop antenna ... your 'pod' is an oil cooler.Mark "Dark Moment" Beaumonthttp://www.swiremariners.com/newlogo.jpg

Yes, the loop antenna would be rotated by hand by the radio operator until the signal strength was the strongest and that was the `direction finder`. None of your modern day gadgetpointythings thank you. At least I think that was how it was described to me by an old hand at the flying club many moons ago (he's gone to the great airfield in the sky now, bless him).Trouble was, it could also be 180 degrees out as it only gave a bearing which could be to or from the source.I think there's a couple of downloads for FS that work that way, with a signal strength indicator for the ADF. Cant remember what they are though.Allcott

You're basically right, Allcott. I'll only add that the better DF loop sets could compare the signal received by the loop to the signal received by another antenna (usually the regular, whip-type, sense antenna) to resolve that 180 degree ambiguity. The set did it by electronically comparing the waveforms of the two signals. It was a trick to do it, tho, so there were sets that could only give you a line of bearing and it was up to the pilot to figure out which way the station was, usually by not getting completly lost in the first place!

Thanks guys, I thought it would be an antenna...Similar to my AM Loop Antenna on the AM.FM receiver...Oren Geva