RADAR PRINTER INTERFACE

General Description

The Radar Printer Interface took data from either a WF44 radar or a WF3 radar Raprint unit and drove a parallel printer. It calculated the wind data only if the radar output was is in the correct format otherwise the unit would send only the raw data as received to the printer, without any calculations included. In that way if there was any faults in the radar that were causing erroneous readings, the observer could review the data and manually estimate the winds. Both station height and earth curvature were included in the wind calculations.

Deployment
The Interface was used on the following WF44 and WF3 radars
Camp Rd WF44
Canberra WF3
Darwin WF44
Laverton WF44
Mascot WF3
*Perth (EPA) WF44
Launceston WF3
Tennant Creek WF3

All of the units on WF44 radars were removed in the late 1990's when they were upgraded with the introduction of PC Radwin.
* Changed from a Radar Printer Driver in 1992 for use in an EPA experiment on the Perth WF44 radar.

Construction
About nine of these units were built in Radar Section in the mid 1980's. As can be seen above the sheet metal chassis had a black plastic ripple finish and was 430 x 220 x 75mm. It was placed beside the radar console often with the dot matrix printer resting on top. The interface was based on an imported Z80 processor card (the MCB 80). Purchased as an unloaded circuit card, all the components were purchased and loaded in Australia. A DB9 female connector was used for the input data, a DB15 connector for the printer connection and the serial data was available from a DB25 socket.

Operation
The unit was switched on when a windflight was about to be performed and then on pressing the front panel RESET switch the printer would print the header lines.

For example
Mascot WF3 Station Height = 5m
C TIME RANGE AZIM ELEV HGHT SP DIR

This indicates the station name - Mascot WF3 and the official station height. The second line forms the headings for the printout columns.

SAMPLE PRINTOUT

Mascot WF3 Station Height = 5m
C	TIME	RANGE	AZIM	ELEV	HGHT	SP	DIR
205	01.0	000.44	257.0	35.8	262	6	257
205	02.0	000.85	262.0	34.3	484	6	267
205	03.0	001.36	263.1	32.7	740	7	265
205	04.0	001.88	262.7	34.8	1078	7	262
205	05.0	002.42	265.0	35.2	1400	7	273
205	06.0	003.04	261.8	34.4	1723	9	250
205	07.0	003.73	259.8	33.3	2054	10	252
205	08.0	004.58	260.4	31.5	2399	13	263
205	09.0	005.37	262.2	30.5	2732	12	272
205	10.0	006.05	263.4	30.5	3077	10	273
205	11.0	006.74	264.4	30.4	3418	10	273
205	12.0	007.55	265.7	30.0	3783	12	276
205	13.0	008.42	265.7	29.5
205	14.0	009.34	266.2	28.8	4509	14	268
205	15.0	010.40	267.7	27.8
205	16.0	011.55	267.4	26.7	5202	18	272
205	17.0	012.71	267.1	25.9
205	18.0	013.79	267.3	25.3	5909	18	267
205	19.0	014.91	266.8	24.8
205	20.0	016.01	266.7	24.4	6633	18	263
205	21.0	017.11	266.6	23.7
205	22.0	018.31	266.4	23.2	7237	19	264
205	23.0	019.49	266.8	22.8
205	24.0	020.72	267.2	22.1	7825	20	273
205	25.0	022.08	267.2	21.5
205	26.0	023.50	268.2	20.9	8421	23	275

The first column 'C' is the CODE. This was sent from the radar to indicate which mode it was in
0 - Visual Control
1 - Manual Control
2 - Steer Mode
3 - Auto Follow

The next two digits came from thumbwheel switch settings on the radar console and were set as desired by the observer.

Once the 12th minute had passed the unit then only calculated the winds every two minutes.

The Serial Output
This serial output was not calculated data, only raw data. It was not used for driving a printer but for recording flight data on another device for miscellaneous projects. In once such case(1992), the data from the Perth Airport radar was logged by a Personal Computer for the Environment Protection Agency.