GBI Mod II Radar

Before I was transferred to the Eastern Test Range, I was a radar instructor with RCA on contract to the Army at Fort Sill. We lost that contract to H.L. Yoh in 1958 and I accepted a transfer to the range to be a data technician on GBI. After attending the data training classes at Patrick, I went downrange to GBI.

Bill Wilson was the tower chief in the Mod II radar, Radar 3.1. Bill and I hit it off because I had been an instructor on the MPQ-10 counter-mortar radar and Bill had been on the Q-10 in Korea. In fact, he lost one of the two Q-10s that were overrun and lost to the Chinese, which he had done the proper “destroy” method on it before they left. The Mod II was very similar to the Q-10, in radar band and technology.

Bill and I tweaked his radar frequently when we were not working otherwise.We improved the sensitivity of his receiver well above specs. That paid off during one launch, I think it was an Atlas.

Normally, we tracked from shortly after liftoff until the next station, may have been Turk, acquired track. That station would track through several main-bangs to help Ascension see rabbits so they could acquire track. Bill Wilson was in Radar 3.1 and I was Radar Controller on the ADDAC.

For some reason, the next station, couldn’t keep track. Cape asked us to see if we could reacquire. Almost as soon as I told Bill to turn his transmitter back on, he reported auto-track, second main-bang. The other station downrange of us had problems and never reacquired track. We were told to stay on it as long as possible. Bill kept going from one main-bang to the next until we actually had track into the 10^th main-bang before we lost it over the horizon. I think that was a record at that time.

Another time he and I thought the receiver sensitivity would win us a bet was on a Matador. Normally, only one radar would be the active radar on a Matador launch and the other would be a backup. We skin-tracked the Matador.

Bill and I bet with Carl in Radar 3.2 a case of beer that Bill could lock on the echo from 3.2’s signal on the Matador before 3.2 could lock on their own return. Of course, both radars had remoting information from the MK-51 tracker and could see the Matador control radar rabbits.

Without having the transmitter on in Radar 3.1, Bill kept getting enough signal to lock and Radar 3.2 would move slightly off target, so the return would go away. Radar 3.2 never acquired track that day, so Cape told us to get it with 3.1, which we did immediately. We could never resolve the bet, so just had a party anyway. Any excuse for a party!