Status of the Kapuskasing and Goose Bay Radars
Raymond A. GREENWALD Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory, USA.
Over the past year there have been minor improvements in the operation of the Kapuskasing radar and fairly major changes at Goose Bay. The principal Kapuskasing improvement involved the discovery, after several years, of the reason for improper operation of one of the antennas. The basis of the fault was that one of the feedline clamps had not gripped properly, resulting in arcing and an open circuit in one feed line. At Goose Bay, after another frustrating year of poor on-site support, we notified the Air Force Research Laboratory that we were now longer satisfied with our partnering arrangement at the Goose Bay Field Site. We specifically noted the poor on-site technical support and our inability to monitor portions of our equipment during winter months. Although sympathetic to our concerns, subsequent developments at Goose Bay actually heightened our concerns that the situation would deteriorate further. Consequently, we constructed a new equipment building at the center of our main antenna array and moved the entire radar into it. In addition, we hired a new person to maintain our radar and we notified AFRL that we would no longer require the services of their support staff. During the past year, the operation of the Goose Bay radar was vastly improved. There were no significant periods when the radar was not in operation and the data quality was good. We hope to continue the upgrade of the radar with help from the University of Leicester.
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