ghost targets on our 11 yr old eurocat
Our radar has been seeing ghost targets lately. Yesterday i spotted a vfr traffic squawking 1200 holding over a nearby airport (CLARK) 50nm from Manila. Altitude readout:FL183 and right along my climb and descent area. This traffic is on my controlled airspace. MLA en route alt is from FL130 to unl.
When asked, Clark App reported having a traffic holding overhead their stn at 4500. MNL Approach Radar also confirmed seeing a target over Clark at 4500. One arrival and 1 departure traffic did not see the mysterious tffc on their tcas...except one: as my 3rd arrival was passing thru fl180 for fl160, he reported seeing a tfc on his tcas 300ft above, 12 o'clock.
My super asked Clark to adz their vfr tfc to turn off his transponder coz it's messing with our radar and some aircraft's tcas.
1. Is it smart to ask a pilot to turn off his transponder when something like that happens?
2. What's the best way to deal with this situation? (besides providing vertical separation)
3. Why do you think only our secondary radar (eurocat) plus 1 out of 3 aircraft saw this ghost target while two primary radars (clark's selex and Mnl app's nec) saw the target as it really was?
3.1 what do you think is common between my radar and the 3rd aircraft's tcas?
**hope you get what i mean to ask...english is not my primary language. Big Thanks!
Last edited by radarbloke.ana; 27th August 2009 at 10:09.
Reason: typos