YouTube - The Secret History of Silicon Valley

This 56 minute video covers Radar systems of World War 2 through to spy satellites of the 60’s and describes how Radio Ham Fred Terman and Stanford University worked with government agencies (including the CIA and NSA) to help
build the Silicon Valley we know today.

When Allied bombers flew over Europe they faced the Nazi Integrated Air Defence Network. This network had Early Warning Radar systems such as Mammut (130 MHz) and Wasserman (250 MHz) along with Wurzburg radar controlled Anti-Aircraft guns. These resulted in heavy losses to Allied bombers.

But it wasn’t just bombers the Allies flew over Europe, in 1942 they were flying aircraft packed with receivers covering 50 MHz to 3 GHz.

The video includes Black and White clips showing the aircraft at that time.

As a boy, Fred Termans favorite hobby had been Amateur Radio which led him directly into electrical engineering. He held the call signs 6FT and 6AE.

His early interest in radio proved useful when during the war he headed Harvard Radio Research Laboratory (HRRL) which developed electronic warfare techniques.

When the war ended Fred Terman set up the Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL) at Stanford followed by the Applied Electronics Laboratory (AEL) for classified research programmes. These later merged to form the Systems
Engineering Laboratory (SEL).

Among the useful snippets of information are that the U2 Spy Planes were packed with radio equipment operating at up to 40 GHz and Moonbounce was used to catalogue Soviet radar frequencies in the cold war.

This enthralling presentation is given by Steve Blank and you can watch the Google Tech Talk video - The Secret History of Silicon Valley at http://youtube.com/watch?v=hFSPHfZQpIQ