CARSR-3 Punta Borinquen radar (1274,1332 MHz)

        A new CARSR (Common Air Route Surveillance Radar) is being installed at punta borinquen (remy airport, end of the runway). It is a Westinghouse ARSR-3 radar. We first saw the radar appear on 01apr13 (around 14:00) in the hilltop monitoring data. The measured freq are::
A similar radar will replace the faa radar. It will broadcast at
The punta borinquen radar is undergoing acceptance testing. It will be accepted on 15may13. At that time they have promised to blank in our direction. We need to see if they can do that during acceptance testing.

Links:
Punta borinquen carsr radar specs.

09may14: punta borinquen blanking and sidelobe levels.
04oct13: punta Borinquen blanking re enabled after faa radar comes back on the air.
29apr13:  measuring the radar blanking.
23may13: first look at 1274,1332 MHz radar.

Information on some "other" radars.

History:


New punta borinquen carsr-3 1274,1332 MHz radar specs: (top)

The radar specs listed below were measured on 24apr13
 
 
transmitter Westinghouse arsr-3
rf frequencies
  • F1=1274.58
  • F1n=1269.41
  • F2=1332.59
  • F2n=1327.41
Pulse duration/sequence:
  • F1=117 usecs
  • 2usec off
  • F2=117 usecs
  • 2 usec off
  • F2n=19 usecs
  • 2 usec off
  • F1n=19usecs
total pulse length 279Usecs
ipp pulse sequence
date
ippTot (usecs)
ipp1 (usecs)
ipp2 (usecs)
ipp3(usecs)
140809
47621. 2744.9 3148.0 3631.3
150416
60secs, 23usec spc
46875.6150
2746.9110
3154.7289
3473.4831
5*ipp1, 5*ipp2,5*ipp3
bandwidth about 1 MHz
Rotation period 12 seconds
Sidelobes 29apr13: blanking 4 degrees in the direction of AO
Location remy base
distance to ao
Misc az beam width : probably about 1.4 degrees.



09may14: punta borinquen blanking and sidelobes

    Test data was taken on 14may14 to check the FAA and punta borinquen radar blanking. The data looks at the blanking region as well as the sidelobe height over the 12 second rotation period.. The 09may14 data took 3 sets of 25 second data (2 rotations per set). The data sets were spaced by many minutes so plane echoes would not be stationary.

The setup:

Processing:

The plots show the radar power vs rotation phase

Summary:

processing: x101/140509/faardr.pro

04oct13: Radar blanking re-enabled.  (top)

plots,images
03oct13 before radar azimuth alignment
total power plots vs time (.ps) (.pdf)
image of total power vs rotation phase  for 79 rotations (.gif)
04oct13 after radar azimuth alignment
total power plots vs time after blanking direction updated (.ps) (.pdf):
image of total power vs rotation phase  for 17 rotations (.gif).

    The punta borinquen radar had blanking enable on 29apr13 (  more info). The pico del este radar (FAA) was upgraded to a carsr radar during the summer of 2013. During the upgrade, the punta borinquen radar was used by the FAA. The blanking was disabled sometime during this time period. On 03oct13 the blanking was re-established. On 04oct13 the blanking region was moved by 1.4 deg in azimuth to better line up with the observatory position.

    Data was taken on 03oct13 and again on 04oct13  to measure the blanking. The setup was:

The plots show the current state of the blanking:

03oct13 blanking before 1.4 deg move in azimuth

04oct13 blanking after blanking region moved by 1.4 degrees.

Summary:

processing: 131004/pntBorBlanking_03oct13.pro .. 04oct13.pro

29apr13: measuring the radar blanking (top)

    On 29apr13 i spoke with MS Sgt Bezos about the radar blanking in our direction. He had the radar blank 107 thru 111 degrees of azimuth (as it points at the AO). Spectra were taken before and after the blanking. Total power data was taken after the blanking was in place.

total power data:

    After the blanking was turned on data was taken with  the lbw receiver was centered at 1274.5 MHz. The setup was:

The first plot shows the 5 MHz total power at the 1274.5 MHz pulse for 4 complete rotations (.ps) (.pdf):
The second plot is a blowup around when the radar was blanked (.ps)  (.pdf):

Spectral data:

The final plots shows 12 1 second spectra before and after blanking (.ps) (.pdf):

Rfi hilltop monitoring:

    The rfi hilltop monitoring data at the radar frequencies was plotted for 29apr13 (.ps) (.pdf):

Summary:

processing: x101/130429/rdrblnk.pro, rdrblnkcor.pro

23apr13: First look at the radar. (top)

    Data was taken on 23apr13 to characterize this new radar. The setup was:

Dynamic spectra of 172 MHz bw centered at 1300 MHz (60 secs of data) (.gif)

The first set of plots shows the average spectrum and low resolution power vs time (.ps) (.pdf)
The next set of data used the high resolution time domain data:

Total power vs time folded at cumulative ipp of radar (.gif)

The final plot shows the pulse duration (when not pointed at AO) (.ps) (.pdf)

Summary:

processing: x101/130423/lbwrdr_spc.pro  lbwrdr_tmd.pro



page_up
home_~phil