Gordon, you'll not be surprised to hear that LBA is still a swamp in certain locations. A few years ago after a spell of torrential rain there was a river crossing the 32 threshold which had its source on Horsforth Golf Course. I don't recall anything landing that evening.
I assume the 430 was a brand new installation then. I was always under the impression that it had been purchased second-hand from Luton but I confess I don't know where I got that idea. The installation farce sounds like a Keystone Cops scenario. These days there'd be risk assessments, hard hats, hi viz, clipboards and so on in order to prevent all that nonsense, not to mention all the fun.
What made LBA choose the 430 over, say,the Marconi 264 ? I guess the 424 was proving not too satisfactory for general surveillance but ok for SRAs. Thinking about the soft ground at LBA, the 264 radar head could well have sunk altogether
