Laserfiche WebLink
<br /> <br />The survey team was favorably impressed with the attitude and skill of the <br />radar operator on duty at Limon the evening of the flood. He was called in <br />early that afternoon and assisted the day shift operator from 1:00 p.m. <br />until he took over operator duties at his scheduled duty time of 4:00 p.m. <br />He remained on duty for an additional 12 hours. <br /> <br />Several of the Denver forecasters indicated that the radar at Limon began <br />giving problems "about two years ago." An examination of the outage sheets <br />prepared by the electronics technicians at Limon indicates outages in 1975 <br />were relatively few and for short periods. There was perhaps a slight <br />increase in March and April of 1976 and a very large increase in outages <br />and hours of outage in July, as seen on the following table. <br /> <br />Month <br /> <br />Number of outages <br /> <br />Hours of outage <br /> <br />Repair Time <br /> <br />Feb. 1975 <br />Mar. <br />Apr. <br />May <br />June <br />July <br />Aug. <br />Sept. <br />Oct. <br />Nov. <br />Dec. <br /> <br />7 <br />1 <br /> <br />1 <br />1 <br /> <br />7 <br />1 <br /> <br />4 <br /> <br />4 <br /> <br />3 <br /> <br />2 <br />2 <br /> <br />7 <br />6 <br /> <br />6 <br />6 <br /> <br />Jan. 1976 <br />Feb. <br />Mar. <br />Apr. <br />May <br />June <br />July <br /> <br />3 <br />4 <br /> <br />9 <br />6 <br /> <br />8 <br />5 <br /> <br />8 <br /> <br />188 <br /> <br />45 <br /> <br />In an attempt to find a reason for the recent increase in outage in 1976, <br />the survey team examined electronics technician manning at Limon. Prior to <br />January 1976, two technicians were assigned. One was then transferred to <br />Huron and the vacant position was transferred to WSFO Cheyenne. 1'1 June 1976, <br />the remaining technician assumed the role of acting official-in-charge and <br />performed the added administrative and supervisory duties while continuing <br />his maintenance responsibilities. Some of the outage time in July 1976 <br />is attributable to bringing a technician from Garden City, Kansas during <br />a period the Limon technician was on leave. The WBRR outage during the <br />flood was caused by failure of a part in the video transmitter circuits. <br />It was difficult to trouble-shoot and was repaired by the Limon technician <br />as expeditiously as could be expected. <br /> <br />The Meteorologist-in-Charge at WSFO Denver was asked for his appraisal of the <br />reliability of the Limon radar. He indicated, in his judgement, the problems <br />were more with inexperienced operators rather than the equipment. <br /> <br />18 <br />