Air Surveillance Radar Antenna Performance Management at Hungarocontrol

Abstract

This paper highlights the potential of the antenna performance check, based on the findings of the first and the second Radar Antenna Performance Check test results on four Air Traffic Control radars operated by HungaroControl. This knowledge is important, because antennas and their RADOMEs suffer from ageing, weather conditions, and lightning, scheduled/unscheduled maintenance activities and in some extreme cases, partial upgrades. The graceful degradation of the antenna performance can reach the limit where certain operational conditions may result in catastrophic failures in cases where Built-In Test Equipment (BITE) diagnostics do not cover the antenna. Consequently, the antenna performance has to be checked on a regular basis with special tools.