CALCULATION vs SURVEY
 

Do the sums on just what the decimal places after about 8 really mean in terms of accuracy!!

I once had a client tell me to stop preparing profiles for a radar flight trial as the position of the radar head was "incorrect". When they sent me the change the difference was in the order of the thickness of a couple of sheets of paper.

No concept of practical application or understanding of the real meaning of the figures these days on the part of the "surveyors" who calculate rather than measure.

Bah, humbug!!

MJG

Agreed , ..I'd have been happy with three places :) , but I mentioned the level of accuracy to underline the fact that the CAA were prepared to release the information into the public domain.

Uksatcomuk: I don't suppose you've looked at the Transponder Landing System (TLS)? It's a method of positioning aircraft via their transponders with ground equipment sending a signal to the aircraft's ILS receiver in order to carry out a precision approach; commercially available and trialled at Farnborough in the late '90s.
It used a single non-rotating interrogator coupled with 5 receiving stations in order to calculate the 3D position of the aircraft.

Thats an interesting concept , but we are concentrating on a wide area network based on Mode-S and Mode A/C at 1ghz

Its a while since I updated this thread. Over the last few months further progress has been made locating Mode A/C radar sites and also developing
further tools to show Mode C climb/descent profiles

Of course the ultimate test is to track an a/c which sends no mode S and can only be identified by SSR code.

There are a number of examples here

http://satcomuk.yolasite.com/blank.php which demonstrate how the PP BFplus system locates and tracks the U2s which enter UK airspace every few months on rotation.

St Annes Radar Station
 

can someone help me to find some info on the radar station just east of blackpool airport?

I know its an en route radar for nats but i cant find anymore info about it!

does it give a feed to an airport? is it primary or secondary radar?

someone somewhere must have a bit more info?

cheers, Max

The site of St Anne's Radar belonged to the RAF where they had a couple of Marconi's which formed part of the defence network. The current system is both PSR and SSR, 10cm I think.

I'm not sure if any Airports have a feed from it.

St.Annes is now a Plessey Watchman. Manchester Centre, and approach had access to the data from it. EGCC approach still may have this facility, in case their locally sited equipment is on maintenance.
The area centres at Swanwick and Prestwick both use St. Annes information as part of multi-radar tracking.
It used to be a Marconi 264A, which was initially fed to PATCRU via the microwave repeater station on Winter Hill.
I believe the radar head is now on display at Hack Green.

Here's the latest ICAO data

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q...-7KXdpsODL2sDA


You can see how these sites interact with a/c in some of the animations here...

http://satcomuk.yolasite.com/blank.php

St Annes
 

St Annes Watchman has been replaced by a Raytheon ASR10, a similar fate as to other NATS Watchman radars (Gatwick, Heathrow, Allanshill, Stansted, Cromer and Manchester).

Warton, Liverpool, Manchester, Blackpool (?) and ScATCC at some point took/take a feed. As indicated Swanwick take a feed into their Multi Radar Tracking.

Over the years St Annes site has contracted from the large field supporting two Marconi 264 50cm radars to a compound for one ASR10.

Was it ever a Military site??

RADAC.
Many thanks for the update. I knew there was a plan to replace it. I must go and take a look next time I'm over that way. Incidentally, under stormy Wx conditions, the Watchman would sometimes show the waves on the sea-surface west of EGNH.