The National Electronics Museum has nine permanent exhibitions and one rotating temporary exhibit. The galleries display breakthroughs in electronic history in the areas of communications, radar, countermeasures, electro-optical, underwater and satellites.
Preview the galleries with a virtual tour!
Fundamentals Gallery
- Use our hands on equipment to generate electricity and experiment with magnetism
- Learn how electromagnetic waves power our cell phones, cook our food, and help us see into space
- Become part of a human battery
Communications Gallery
- The development of the Morse telegraph and the Bell Telephone
- Marconi's pioneering wireless experiments
- Reproduction of an early amateur radio spark gap "shack"
- An operational amateur radio station (operated by the Amateur Radio Club of the National Electronics Museum/K3NEM) capable of worldwide communications by voice, Morse code, digital modes, and television.
- The AN/PRD-1 in the Vietnam War: Early in the Vietnam War Army Security Agency forces were deployed “in country” with the AN/PRD-1 Direction Finder to find and track enemy insurgents. Learn how the use of technology in war time became a battle with the technology itself.
Early Radar/WWII Gallery
- Learn how the British built a radar to detect enemy aircraft in the late 1930's
- See the type of radar that detected the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941
- See the American radar-controlled anti-aircraft gun that fired shells packed with electronics to shoot down the buzz bombs launched against London in World War II
- Read descriptions of Allied and German radars used in World War II
Cold War Radar Gallery
- See a U.S. Navy shipborne fire-control radar
- Learn how radar led to the household microwave oven
- Learn how Doppler radar would be used to direct American missiles toward Soviet bombers
- See how the Doppler effect was adapted to measure the speed of your car
- See Air Force and Navy airborne fire-control radars
- Learn how side-looking radars developed in the 1950's could map the ground in all kinds of weather
Modern Radar Gallery
- A TPS-43 ground based tactical surveillance radar in an outside exhibit area.
- An AWACS antenna including a mock-up of the radome
- Radar tracks of incoming flights at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport
- A hands on demonstration of phased array beam steering
Countermeasures Gallery
- See World War II Army Air Force and U.S. Navy jamming and receiving gear
- Hear an enemy SA-2 (SAM) missile lock on to its target
- Learn how chaff and decoys are used to fool enemy radar
- Examine modern multi-configurable counter measure pods
Underseas Gallery
- Fundamentals of underwater sound transmission
- Air-dropped sonobuoys
- Interactive demonstration of passive and active underwater sounds
- Display of antisubmarine warfare systems and future Bow Conformal SONAR arrays
- "Shadowgraph" towed vehicle for imaging mines using acoustics
Electro-optical Gallery
- See the famous Norden bombsite of the WWII era
- Explore the inner workings of the Pave Spike system
- See yourself in infrared!
Satellites: Transforming Our Lives Gallery
- See a 1:1 scale model of the Boeing 702SP Satellite
- Explore the Satellite Hall of Fame on one of several touch screens in the gallery