Platteville MF Radar Winds, monthly quick look plots
The Platteville MF radar (2.219MHz) was a CEDAR funded collaboration between
Susan Avery (now head of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute), Denise Thorsen (now at
Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks), and us. We had a spare coherent Tx/Rx system due to the
end of the 5 year Canadian Network for Space Research (CNSR).
CEDAR provided funds for transmit (3x3 half wave dipoles) and receiving
arrays (3 single dipoles, 1.5 lambda spacing to minimize coupling) antennas.
The Tx/Rx equipment was installed in December 1999, but lost
coherent lock after a month, and the student/operator did not know how
to properly adjust it. It was fixed in August 2000.
Since the field was an old 50 MHz MST radar site, there were ground
screens, barb wire, and concrete platforms through out, so the MF
cables had to be laid on top of the ground instead of buried;
which led to animals chewing them ! After Denise moved to Alaska,
Scott Palo and students provided some operational support. A few
years later we put "wire loom" over
the Rx cables for protection. Considering the extreme MF noise level
at the site, and loss of phone/internet access, continuing problems with
the antenna feeders, and also that the
nice building it was in was to be demolished - we "let go of it"
in 2009
