Cedar City FAA Radar Site

 (1962-Active) - A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Long-Range Radar (LLR) site first established in 1962 on Blowhard Mountain above Cedar City, Iron County, Utah. The 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-216 and an FAA ID of CDC. Active FAA Radar Site.

History
This site was constructed in 1961 and became an operational FAA radar site in 1962, furnishing radar track data to the FAA Salt Lake City ARTCC and to USAF SAGE System Direction Centers. In 1964 a microwave communications link was established to also furnish radar data to the Los Angeles ARTCC at Palmdale, California. By the 1980s the site required a six-man maintenance crew to provide 24/7 coverage.

The initial FAA ARSR-2 search radar remained in operation until it was modified to become a Common Air Route Surveillance Radar (CARSR) reportedly by 25 May 2011.

By 1990 the site was equipped with an ARSR-2 search radar and a CD-2A Common Digitizer. The Cedar City CD-2A was scheduled to receive an upgrade kit to implement three level weather data processing in April 1992.

CARSR Radar
The radar site data is available to the USAF/NORAD Battle Control System-Fixed (BCS-F) operations centers (EADS & WADS) as well as the FAA Salt Lake City ARTCC, the Los Angeles ARTCC and adjacent ARTCCs.

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Current Status
Active FAA facility on Blowhard Mountain Cedar City in Iron County, Utah. The site can be viewed from the nearby Cedar Breaks National Monument overlook points. The road to the site is a dirt road but navigable by most passenger cars and goes right by the site. Weather is changeable and snow can be encountered October thru June. There are two radar sites on the mountain. As you come up the road to the top of the mountain the FAA site is on the right with the dark radome and on the left is a taller tower with an NOAA weather radar on top covered by a white radome.

{| See Also:
 * Salt Lake City ARTCC
 * Los Angeles ARTCC
 * JSS System
 * FAA Air Route Traffic Control Centers
 * US Radar Sets

Sources:
 * , page 159.
 * Brown, Matthew, Mountaintop radar tracks So. Utah's air traffic, The Daily Spectrum (Saint George, Washington, Utah), 18 Nov 1984, Sun, page 24. (available by suscription on Newspapers.com)

Links:
 * Radomes - Cedar City FAA Radar Site