Benton County radar site?

[Padovani]

Does anyone know what the radome directly west of Harrisburg on Hewitt Road is for?

http://goo.gl/maps/A9aQT

I know about the FAA site on Laurel Mountain north of there, but I'm puzzled as to what this one does. Part of the planned switch to P25 by Benton County? New weather radar? Something else??

 

[rcluster]

No first hand info, but I've been told it's a FAA ATC radar site for Seattle Center (ZSE). Think they call it the Horton site.

 

[Padovani]

That's what I thought too, but it's south of Laurel Mountain's installation, which has a commanding view of everything in the mid-valley; I can't imagine the utility of a radar on a puny little 1,000 hill - unless they're having trouble getting good signal around Eugene?

It's just kind of an odd place for a radar. Not very high, really doesn't see much. Then again, maybe my understanding is too radio-centric, where altitude is next to Godliness in the scheme of things.

 

[mikegilbert]

I remember seeing that site when flying out of Eugene. Searched for a few hours on Google maps, only to come up empty handed.

I wonder if they just did a new scan of the area. Nonetheless, great find!

Searched through the Register Guard's archives and found this! Apparently it's an FAA radar site.

 

[oregontreehugger]

Man, your search-fu is strong. Thanks for posting up the article -- good read.

(BTW, awesome shots on Flickr, too!)

 

[rcluster]

And, just for the record, that site isn't a new installation. I think it's been there for at least 20 years. The article says it's a "seven year old" installation, but doesn't say the date it was built.

Date of the Register Guard article?

 

[mikegilbert]

Sorry, I forgot to add the date. The article is from 1984.