Riverhead FAA Radar Site

Riverhead FAA Radar Site (1980-Active) - A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Long Range Radar (LRR) site first established in May 1980 near Riverhead, Suffolk County, New York. This site was originally the Ground-Air Transmitter (GAT) Site for the BOMARC Missile Annex at Suffolk County Air Force Base. The FAA site is used to identify and track military and civilian aircraft movements within a 200-mile radius and to provide air-ground radio communication with those aircraft. Assigned a SAGE System ID of Z-315, a JSS ID of J-52, and an FAA ID of QVH. Active FAA Radar Site. Also known as Suffolk FAA Radar Site. History This site became an FAA radar site in 1980, constructed on the former Ground-Air Transmitter (GAT) Site of the BOMARC Missile Annex at Suffolk County Air Force Base. The site was built to replace the closing Montauk Air Force Station (Z-45). The new site would furnish radar track data to the FAA ARTCCs and to USAF Direction Centers. News accounts indicate that the FAA site had a projected commissioning date in December 1980 but that Montauk would continue operations until 31 Jan 1981 and that is when the radar at Montauk shut down, 7 pm, 31 Jan 1981. In 1982 the FPS-116 height finder was supported by USAF operating location OLAA 21st ADS with 6 USAF operations personnel. The FPS-116 height-finder required the Military Interface Modification (MIM) to connect to the digitizer functionality in the ARSR-3 radar. The modification allowed height-finder operators to process height requests and return height data to USAF direction centers. The FPS-116 was removed about 1988. Initial equipment included ARSR-3 search radar and that set remained in operation until it was replaced by a ARSR-4 3D radar between 1996-1999. The Air Force operated an FPS-116 height finder on the site between 1980 and 1988. 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 New York ARTCC (ZNY) and adjacent ARTCCs. Other federal agencies have access to the data under the Homeland Security umbrella. Riverhead FAA Site Major Equipment List Search Radar Height Radar Data Systems Scopes Comm IFF/SIF/Beacon ARSR-3 ARSR-4 FPS-116 NIM FA-9290 GPA-127 Single Chan (12) Multi Chan (1) GPA-124 ATCBI-5 ATCBI-6M Current Status Active FAA facility near Riverhead in Suffolk County, New York. Location: Near Riverhead in Suffolk County, New York. Maps & Images Lat: 40.87861 Long: -72.68722 Multi Maps from ACME Maps from Bing Maps from Google Elevation: 245' GPS Locations: 40.87861, -72.68722 Riverhead FAA Radar Site See Also: New York ARTCC JSS System FAA Air Route Traffic Control Centers US Radar Sets Sources: Winkler, David F., Searching the Skies: the Legacy of the United States Cold War Defense Radar Program, USAF Hq Air Combat Command, 1997, 192 pages, Pdf, page 143. FAA - Site Listing of Legacy Radars as of 23 Dec 2016. U.S. DoT - Recommendation on Transition from Primary/Secondary Radar to Secondary-Only Radar Capability 1994. FAA - Three Level Weather For ARTCC Displays - Project Implementation Plan, FAA Order 7110.14A, 14 Feb 1990. FAA - SSR/DMTI Modification - Project Implementation Plan, FAA Order 6340.20, 6 Jul 1988. ADTAC Communications Digest, July 1982, Tactical Air Command, page 56. Links: Wikipedia - Joint Surveillance System Visited: No