Veterans On the Board

Could'ha swore I posted here

USN ETR-2, 68-74. N.A.S Miramar (Fightertown USA, Top Gun) maintained TACAN and GCA RADAR

69 383 RR 4 speed, 70 440 sixpack RR 4 speed, 64 426 Dodge, 70 'Cuda 440

worked on these things: AN/FPN-52, remoted and upgraded version of AN/CPN-4 RADAR



a shot inside the trailer



and what the AZ/ EL display looks like:

Top display is elevation, with cursers aligned to the glidepath angle. Bottom curser is "wave off" Marks left/ right are "range markers" out to 10 mi.

Bottom of display is azimuth left/ right of runway, cursor represents centerline of runway. Last markers are "touchdown"




Here's the TACAN present day at Miramar, this could very well be the same tower that was there in 74 I was nearly wiped off this thing by a sh** head crane driver back then. He came in with an old 6X8 crane truck, the crane op couldn't swing the stick fast enough as the do do driver made a big u-ie. He finally stopped and the stick STILL whacked the tower as it stopped. I damn near had me a "sandcrab" fer lunch. Came down off that tower, about 3 rungs at a time



We also had two AN/FPN-36 "Quad RADAR" units. These were so called because they had four functions: short range "taxi" search function, 30 mile search, "heightfinder", and what they were used for most, PAR (precision approach radar, or GCA)