Garden City FAA Radar Site
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Garden City FAA Radar Site (1964-Present) - An FAA Radar Site first established in 1964 near Sublette, Haskell County, Kansas. Initially assigned a Permanent ID and a SAGE ID of Z-226 and a FAA ID of GCK. Active FAA Radar Site. HistoryThis site became an FAA/ADC joint-use site in 1964, furnishing radar track data to the FAA and data tied to USAF Direction Centers. The initial ARSR-2 radar equipment remained in place until updated to a Common Air Route Surveillance Radar (CARSR)with a 7172 Antenna. A FYQ-47 Common Digitizer was probably placed in service by February 1973 when the USAF/FAA FST-2 to FYQ-47 replacement program was completed. By 1990 the site was equipped with an ARSR-2 search radar and a CD-2A Common Digitizer. The Garden City CD-2A was scheduled to receive an upgrade kit to implement three level weather data processing on 25 May 1990. Mode S Beacon System The Garden City FAA Radar Site was selected in the 1990s to become one of 21 long-range radar sites to have a Mode S radar beacon system installed. The Mode S system allowed operation in the existing beacon modes but added features to improve beacon operation by allowing aircraft identification with a single interrogation and two-way digital communication between controllers and pilots. Besides the 21 long-range sites, there were other short-range radars to be upgraded for a total of 137 sites on the implementation list. Garden City was #108 on the list, scheduled to receive the Mode S equipment on 30 Jan 1995. Installation required interfacing with the radar system, addition of a beacon antenna on top of the search radar antenna, a new larger radome, interfacing with the Common Digitizer (CD-2) if installed, additional communication lines and equipment. CARSR RadarThe nationwide replacement program converting FAA legacy radar systems to the CARSR radar configuration was completed by 17 Aug 2015 and Garden City FAA Radar Site was a part of that program. Legacy FAA radars underwent a Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) that replaced key components in the vintage ARSR-1, ARSR-2, FPS-20, FPS-66 and FPS-67 radars. The CARSR program replaced legacy klystron radar transmitters with a solid-state transmitter as well as renovating the radar receiver and signal processor. The CARSR modification also included common digitizer functionality making a separate common digitizer unnecessary. The Garden City FAA Radar Site is now operating with the CARSR radar. The secondary radar at this site is a Mode S Beacon set. The radar site data is now available to the USAF/NORAD Battle Control System-Fixed (BCS-F) operations centers (EADS & WADS) as well as the FAA Kansas City ARTCC (ZKC) and adjacent ARTCCs. Other federal agencies have access to the data under the Homeland Security umbrella.
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