Primary radar systems at British airports.
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The windfarm at Ovenden Moor is the largest and most obvious (I can see it from my home in Yeadon). I don't know its elevation but it can't be far off LBA's elevation of 682ft, if not higher.
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As far as I am aware, yes. The replacement program is scheduled to run until 2021 and involves the supply of 20 PSR and 4 SSR systems.
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The PSR at Prestwick is an EN4000, as NorthSouth correctly pointed out, a hybrid Watchman but it is being replaced by a Terma Scanter 4002. This has been on site for over a year but hasn't been flight trialed yet.
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I noticed on eBay yesterday a couple of radar heads for sale, a Watchman and a Raytheon. Both, apparently, unused. I think I'll pass !
Is there any market for used S-band radars or do they end up in the scrapyard ? I often wonder what happened to the old ACR430 that graced Leeds Bradford for more than twenty years. The Watchman has outlived it by some margin.
Is there any market for used S-band radars or do they end up in the scrapyard ? I often wonder what happened to the old ACR430 that graced Leeds Bradford for more than twenty years. The Watchman has outlived it by some margin.
I noticed on eBay yesterday a couple of radar heads for sale, a Watchman and a Raytheon. Both, apparently, unused. I think I'll pass !
Is there any market for used S-band radars or do they end up in the scrapyard ? I often wonder what happened to the old ACR430 that graced Leeds Bradford for more than twenty years. The Watchman has outlived it by some margin.
Is there any market for used S-band radars or do they end up in the scrapyard ? I often wonder what happened to the old ACR430 that graced Leeds Bradford for more than twenty years. The Watchman has outlived it by some margin.
By the way, the '430 is X-band (3cm) not S-band (10cm)
From memory, the 430 head was not dissmilar to the Watchman head, the difference being the 'guts'.
The 430 was a development of the 424/ACR7 which in turn was a development of a shipboard radar; the 424 only had a 'pencil' beam whereas the 430 had a pencil beam and a 'cosecant squared' beam same as the Watchman.
The 430 operated on a pulse generated by a klystron or magnetron whereas the Watchman used a 'Travelling Wave Tube' or 'twit'.
The 430 had no MTI, the Watchman had 'Adaptive MTI'.
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There was a Decca 424 at Leeds before the 430. It ended up at Brough.
Would Raytheon and Watchman spares be any good for a 424 ? It used to be Ford Anglia belts that were sought after !
Would Raytheon and Watchman spares be any good for a 424 ? It used to be Ford Anglia belts that were sought after !
From what TDM tells me, it's valves they're short of; but then none of you lot probably knows what a thermionic valve is.
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Oh so have they now decided that the Scanter will do the full job, without a replacement for the EN4000? I understood there was some doubt about providing the service with a radar that only has a range of 40nm
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Ha ha that's a good one! NATS sign up to a contract that doesn't cover its costs? I would have thought £1.5 billion would just about cover it. But they're already way behind the contracted schedule and not getting any quicker.
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Valves were what made 'steam' radios work. They were superseded by transistors in the early '60s and they have now been pushed aside by silicon chips.
Y'know those documentaries about the Bombes used to make Enigma decoding work? Did you see those funny shaped glass things like lightbulbs inside the Bombes?
They are valves.
Y'know those documentaries about the Bombes used to make Enigma decoding work? Did you see those funny shaped glass things like lightbulbs inside the Bombes?
They are valves.
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JT got a lot of radar theory across to a lot of students who wouldn't otherwise have got it! Most memorable and entertaining! I owe JT...
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Is a fluoride radar a green monochrome display, as opposed to an orange one ? They once had those at Blackpool, Stansted and Birmingham (Ferranti ?), as I recall, probably fed by any number of primary radar heads.
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