Cummington FAA Radar Site

 (1976-Active) - A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Long Range Radar (LRR) site first established in 1976 on Bryant Mountain near Cummington, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. 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 an FAA ID of QHA. Active FAA Radar Site.

History
This site became an FAA radar site in 1976, furnishing radar track data to the FAA ARTCCs and to USAF Direction Centers. The initial FAA ARSR-60 search radar remained in operation until it was modified to become a CARSR radar with a 1561 Antenna.

In October 1972 the FAA announced the selection of the site on Bryant Mountain but local opposition to the selection delayed the start of construction until May 1975. By December 1975 the building and the tower were complete but the equipment was not yet installed. In September of 1976 testing was underway and on 2 Oct 1976, an open house was conducted to signal the start of operations. In July 1996 a new radome was installed.

The 1-acre site includes a one-story concrete building and steel tower built under a $580,000 contract with Betnr Engineering and Construction Corp of Dalton. Bendix Corp. installed the fiber-glass dome and antenna in January 1976 under a $325,000 contract that included some electronic equipment. The site is surrounded by an 8-foot high chain-link fence. The total cost of the site including additional electronic equipment and the access road was estimated at $2.5 million.

The site probably began operation using an FPS-67B radar and a FYQ-47 Common Digitizer. By 1990 the site was listed with a Common Digitizer CD-2C and a FPS-67B radar. The Cummington CD-2 was scheduled to receive an upgrade kit to implement three level weather data processing in September 1992. A conflicting list of FAA radar sites from the same period shows the Cummington site as one of four having an ARSR-60 radar (the ARSR-60 was a modified FPS-20/66/67 series set). The 2016 list of legacy FAA radars indicate that the Cummington site legacy radar was an FPS-67A and the Radomes website shows it with an FPS-66B so there is some conflict over exactly what the configuration was.

CARSR Radar
The Radomes website indicates that the CARSR radar was commissioned on 19 Nov 2012.

{| width="800px"
 * valign="top" width="60%" |
 * valign="top" width="60%" |

Current Status
Active FAA facility on Bryant Mountain near Cummington in Hampshire County, Massachusetts.

{| See Also:
 * Boston ARTCC
 * JSS System
 * FAA Air Route Traffic Control Centers
 * US Radar Sets

Sources:
 * FAA picks Cummington for radar control facility, The Transcript (North Adams, Massachusetts), 18 Oct 1972, page 3.
 * Federal court gives go ahead for Cummington radar tower, The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), 21 May 1975, page 21.
 * Work started on Cummington radar tower, The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), 30 May 1975, page 18.
 * Chapman Dorothy W., Cummington radar being tested, The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), 25 Sep 1976, page 24.
 * Carnes, Maryann, Radar facility gets new dome, The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), 30 Jul 1996, page 9.
 * Chapman Dorothy W., New aircraft radar in Cummington may be operational by next winter, The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), 17 Mar 1976, page 1.

Links:
 * Radomes - Cummington FAA Radar Site
 * Wikipedia - Joint Surveillance System