Basic info. re. RADAR @ EGLL

[Lost_luggage34]

Anyone have any good references or links wrt RADAR ? I appreciate some info may be a little sensitive.

Have trawled the Internet with poor response - particularly interested in range, coverage wrt to EGLL as I live nearby.

Just curious about what the big red & white rotating thing can actually see, for how far, to what altiutude for example, how do the overlapping radar beams interact ? Understand the basic principles about primary & secondary RADAR. Info about the new ground RADAR system at EGLL would also be welcome.

Often hear craft being passed off to Farnborough, or Solent for example, would like to get a better understanding of how it all fits together.

Now where is Heathrow Director when you need him !! ?

[120.4]

The big red and white thing rotates at 15rpm and is of 23cm wavelength. Although it is designed for longer range work this radar is used principally for Heathrow and the London area and in this configuration it can "see" to about 80 miles (would be considerably more if configured differently). The Secondary is gated to about 75, if I remember correctly.

Overlapping radar beams can cause problems but there are technical aspects of their design which limit that.

ATCO 2 is the man to speak to about the Tower's surface radar.

Point 4:)

[Spitoon]

Don't know about Heathrow particularly but many countries can supply radar data that is merged from a number of sources. If you have access to this data you can effectively look at any part of the airspace covered by any of the radars. In practice most displays with access to this data are configured only to show specific areas.

An approach controller used to be limited to working up to 42 miles or so from the airport but this limitation has recently been lifted - presumably because modern radar systems are far more capable than those of old. The limiting factor to the amout of airspace that an approach controller looks after now tends to be workload or other airspace.

[ATCO Two]

Lost Luggage 34,

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