Originally Posted by
morton
FILO What exactly are you hoping to achieve?
p.s. Is the CCWR still called 'Cloud & Clunk' radar?
Yes, it was. Not sure why you ask, but from the 80s-on there could be little expectation of consistent CCWR performance. The VC10 had a dual-transmitter fit of the Lo-Power variant, but like (e.g.) Hercules, suffered from a lack of assets, so quite possibly a service mod was issued to allow a hybrid, with the Hi-Power transmitter. But that needed complementary mods elsewhere, which were seldom if ever embodied. Such as, different circuit breakers and anti-vibration mounts.
The other main issue was thermal. There was a mod to upgrade from Germanium to Silicon, but MoD decided to embody it in slow time, over a period of many years. Decades even. The latter allowed a different and less stringent cooling convention, but a Germanium LRU fitted to a 'Silicon' aircaft would inevitably fail. You'd get No Fault Found on the bench, and it would fail again when fitted. Similar problems at Culdrose on the Radar Procedures Ground Trainer, with 9 Control Indicators causing a lot of noise, and cooling fans were removed. You had to demand by mod strike off number, which was ok until 1985 after which the RN did not control its own assets. In January 1988, AMSO (RAF) ordered the destruction of all component spares. Then replaced them. Then scrapped them again. Then.....
It is because of this I have sympathy with the VSO who was visiting Emerson in the US, looked at their nice colour Weather Radar (the whole thing cost about half a CCWR Transmitter) and said 'I want that'. Emerson launched production. The VSO was quietly told by DG Contracts that he had inadvertently committed MoD to a contract, which was quietly cancelled.