These photographs were included in a 1956 photo scrapbook describing the work performed at the Navy Electronics Laboratory (NEL). NEL was created in 1945 from the Navy Radio and Sound Laboratory and the University of California Division of War Research (UCDWR). It continued the electronics and underwater acoustics work performed by those laboratories, and was renamed the Naval Electronics Laboratory Center (NELC) in 1968. In March 1977, NELC and the Naval Undersea Center were consolidated as the Naval Ocean Systems Center, the predecessor organization of NRaD. In 1997 NRaD became the SSC San Diego. For more detailed information on NEL history, see NOSC TD 1940, Fifty Years of Research and Development on Point Loma, 1940- 1990, September 1990, which is available online.
See also "SSC San Diego Historical Overview," a presentation prepared by the SSC San Diego Public Affairs Officer.
| At these compact piers were berthed NEL's seagoing ships and smaller craft such as barges. Buildings in upper left housed oceanographic laboratories and supporting service shops, including boat facilities. File Number C109 | 
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| Navy Submarine USS BAYA and research vessel PCE(R) 855 (in background) were part of a small but active fleet of ships used by NEL in its oceanographic investigations. FileNumber A2268 |
| These Navy "frogmen" were at home in any sea. Their knowledge of underwater demolition came in handy on one NEL research voyage to northern waters. File NumberC464 | 
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| The graceful wood-hulled yacht USS SALUDA played its useful part in NEL ocean-going research. Its wooden construction and freedom from motor noises afforded needed quiet in acoustic research operations. File Number A2268 |
| The special net or trawl used in this scene enabled NEL scientists to bring up fish and animal life from the sea not usually obtainable with ordinary nets. File NumberC29 | 
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 | Exemplary of the widely diversified projects in which NEL could be of assistance was the Lake Mead (Hoover Dam) evaporation and circulation survey leading to a review of the evaporation theory and development of instrumentation. The work was planned in concert with the U.S.. Geological Survey and other government agencies. FileNumber A2127 |
| The placid waters of Sweetwater Lake near San Diego were excellent for acoustic experimentation. The barge shown here contained equipment used in testing underwater beacon performance.File Number 9852 | 
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| Desert facilities like this lonely Arizona tower were used in NEL atmospheric propagation experiments. FileNumber A1753 |
| From this control room NEL scientists calibrated ranges and checked communication systems and equipments on models "operating" on its antenna ranges, which can be seen through the window. Communications research here saved the Navy considerable time, money, and material through use of carefully scaled models of new ships under design or construction. File Number B1655 | 
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| Of outstanding importance to U.S. defenses was research in submarine warfare and countermeasures. This photo shows a corner of an NEL laboratory wing equipped as an Anti-Submarine Technical Evaluation Center. File Number E1281 |
| The large units in center and at right of this photograph depict the NEL-developed problem generating sonar trainer used in the Laboratory's Anti-Submarine Technical Evaluation Center for study of a developmental shipboard trainer. File NumberE1277 | 
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