Photo P.P.I.

Photo taken at Learmonth W.A. by W.(Bill)Hite in Sept 1978 during commissioning of the radar.

North-west Cape is shown running in a line NNE- SSW with the radar halfway along the Cape range. The Exmouth Gulf is visible to the east of the radar

The Photo PPI (manufactured as Photographic Repeater Scope by E.E.C.) was introduced to the Bureau in 1976. They were in service until 1989 when they were declared obsolete with the widespread availability of PC Rapic with its hard-disk based database system.

General Description
The unit had a Plan Position Indicator set in the top of the cabinet and a black light-proof box mounted on top. A Lafayette Camera Control unit was mounted beside the box and either a Bolex 16mm movie camera or a Polaroid still camera could be fitted on top. The movie camera would be automatically triggered by the system and this camera would be replaced with the manually operated Polaroid camera during setting up and also used as a backup camera.

The PPI ranges were;
128km with 20-km range rings
230km with 50-km range rings
450km with 100-km range rings.

Earlier versions are listed with
30nm with 5-nm range rings
60nm with 10-nm range rings
120nm with 20-nm range rings
240nm with 40-nm range rings.

The series of six LED readouts provided ancillary data such as image exposure number, date, time, elevation angle, and a code for the type of video being displayed. A backlit perspex panel with the station name engraved also provided a small area for one or two words to be inscribed using a chinagraph pencil. Often this would be used to indicate a cyclone name if relevant.

The EEC Photo-PPI was fitted to seven WF44 radars and one EEC WSR74C for archival recording purposes.

Location		Parent Radar
Victorian Regional Office (1.)	'R'	Laverton	1976
Learmonth Airport (2)	'R'	Cape Range	1978
Mackay	'C'	Mackay	Oct 77
Townsville Airport	'R'	Mt Stuart	Oct 77
QLD Regional Office (3.)	'R'	Mt Kanighan	1977
Pt Hedland	'C'	Pt Hedland	Oct 77
Mascot	'C/R'	Mascot	1977
Sydney RFC	(4.)	Letterbox WSR74C	Dec 82

1.- primary role as network support
2.- temp installed 11/77 to early 78 at Gladstone
3.- initially temporarily installed on Eagle Farm WF44 ('C/R') Dec '76 for Research Project
4.- part of EEC digital remote control system
'C' - Centralised site
'R' - Radarplex remote site
'C/R' - Cable remote site

Learmonth used K470P Radarfax to send polaroid photos to Perth Tropical Warning Centre