This photo of the Sydney Route Surveillance Radar (RSR) was taken in the early 1960s shortly after installation. The buildings beneath the antenna house the transmitters and receivers, and also an emergency power generating plant.

This equipment, supplied by French company Thompson-CSF, was the first 'standard' air traffic control radar equipment to be installed in Australia. Previously only experimental radar systems had been used, mostly at Melbourne/Essendon. The equipment was ordered in Decenmber 1960 and commissoned in August 1963. The first units were installed at Sydney and Adelaide, with Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth also receiving units later. The total cost of the radar installation programme was £2.5 million.

The Thompson-CSF equipment was a primary-only radar with a range of 160NM. Radar data was displayed to controllers on the 'bright display' system. At airports with a Radar Approach Service, a similar Terminal Approach Radar (TAR) was also installed. These units had a shorter range but a higher rate of rotation, with the resulting higher update rate permitting a reduction in the radar separation standard for Approach to 3NM. In later years a Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR) antenna was piggy-backed on these Primay Surveillance Radars, with the two radar feeds combined on the Controller's display.

These radars were replaced commencing in the early 1990s under the Radar Sensor Procurement Programme (RASPP) by lower-powered primary units with a range of 70NM and long-range SSRs with a range of 250NM.

(Photo: CAHS collection)

Click here to read about the difference between PSR and SSR

Examine a chart showing the extent of radar coverage - 1967

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