Recording of radar data as in Annex 11 paragraph 6.4.1
 

ICAO Annex 11 paragraph 6.4.1 states that radar data of primary, secondary, ADS shall be recorded and retained for a period of at least 30 days.

DSB states in the final report on MH17 that Russia does not comply to Annex 11 because they did not save primary radar recordings. Instead Russia handed over a video recording of primary and secondary radar recordings.

Does Russia indeed not comply? I have not found any rule which states the format of archiving.

Nobody is seriously suggesting that filming the controller's screen constitutes the "automatic recording of surveillance data" required by Annex 11.

What methodes of saving radar data are used in the field and what is the percentage ?

I do not know what system is employed now as I am retired. When I first started in ATC old-fashioned magnetic tape was used for R/T and telephone recording but I'm not sure if the radar was recorded. In more recent times radar was recorded and could be replayed instantaneously using a digital process.

I am under the impression most modern civil aviation radar sensors record the echo's in raw format (asterix). That makes most sense as it allows to replay for investigation purposes and show on display what is interesting and what is not.

A tape recording what has been displayed at the controller display in a one-off. The video cannot be modified for example to add more details.
Also the video will likely require more storage space than the raw digital data in binary format.

Curious which/how many ATC centers are using video for archiving radar data.

The digital recordings which were in use at LATCC during my times there also included SSR data

what was the format of that digital recording? Was it a computer file/database with raw radar data such that radar tracks etc could be replayed?
Or was it a video recording ?

It was digital and not photographic.

At LATCC it was a digital recording of the incoming digital radar data. It could be replayed on the Radar Replay System now housed at the National Museum of Computing - Bletchley Park

Air Traffic Control | The National Museum of Computing

CAP670 states radar recordings must be captured 'through the wall' and 'at the glass' so it is recorded in the form it arrives to a tower or centre from the radar site, it is also recorded from the display that the controller can see. CAP670 states it should be stored for 30 days I believe.
The through the wall data is pretty raw but most recorders now have a very simple inbuilt RDP (radar data processor) to make sense of the raw radar feed.
MLAT can also be recorded through the wall or at the glass.

Yours,

tels

CAP670 also has some interesting info on Annex 11:
Note 1: The ICAO Standard for “Automatic recording of surveillance
data”, set out in paragraph 6.4.1 of Chapter 6 in Annex 11 “Air
Traffic Services” (Thirteenth Edition, Amendment 43), requires
the automatic recording of “surveillance data from primary and
secondary radar equipment or other systems (e.g. ADS-B, ADS-C)
used as an aid to air traffic services”.
Note 2: Surveillance data used “as an aid to air traffic services” shall
mean all surveillance data displayed to the controllers either as part
of a surveillance display or safety nets for which visual indications
will be provided to controllers on screen, derived from surveillance
data.

What ICAO means is that an ATC service should record surveillance data (primary radar, secondary radar) and radio transmissions such that it can help in incident and accident investigtion.

ICAO does provide some guidance, however it is by no means prescriptive .

I am 100% sure DSB is writing nonsense in the Appendix.