PA-28 Cherokee/Archer/Dakota/Pillan/Warrior
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Other / Unknown
ATC Issue All Types
General None Reported / Taken
ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings
One aircraft (PA28) coming off Satellite on transition for approach; E120 on ILS; TBM on Departure. Flashing 'NO TP' in system area. Tracks freeze; primaries still valid. Call ZSE and try to go into CENRAP and all four keypads go out. Call Tech Ops and they advised they would have to do a re-boot; like that is some kind of concern; no kidding. I am tracking aircraft old school primaries and coordinating with ZSE on the TBM. Re-boot happens; system area comes up and goes out. I didn't have time to get into CENRAP. Tech ops tried again and I make the entries. 'Everything should be working' Try to go back to the ASR8/BCN5/TDX2000/ Binford 2000; and immediately get a 'no sensor no data' and go right back to CENRAP. Did I mention that there is a team here that worked yesterday and last night on this system? The BCN5 is/was a hand-me-down from a facility that got a 6. It arrived in a box; as parts; and took over a year to assemble and get on line. Techs from OKC had to fly out and help. We continue to get dupe beacon targets and there is a 'new' black hole that aircraft fly through and we lose RADAR and beacon returns on. It is 12-17 NM NNE and right where we're baseing arrivals for the ILS. The TDX2000 was dead on arrival. I am vectoring pilots around weather that's not there and attempting to vector them through TB/IC conditions with no weather indicated. The ASR8 is 38 yrs old; 32 yrs here at EUG. When I arrived several years ago EUG was on the short list for an ASR9. EUG has weather; Geese and Terrain. I-5 passes 6 NM East; a big VFR corridor during spring-fall and paralleling our Runway's 16R and 16L. We have been working off one RADAR channel. In mid January Tech Ops explained poor RADAR/Beacon performance as a result of an inversion. Weather went away; performance didn't improve. Today's events did not cause a panic; traffic was light; been there-done that too many times.
EUG Controller voiced concern regarding the RADAR equipment currently being used and questioned the accountability of some Tech Ops personnel practices.