Narrative:

While working ackar/ackde position the hya/pym asked me if I had radar contact on a PA28. He had apparently lost radar on the target while vectoring for an approach into hya from the west. I said yes and tagged up the target and started a hand off so that he could see where the aircraft was. The target was lost off the fmh ASR-8 for about 2 minutes when the hya/pym controller informed me that he had an acceptable radar return and I could stop the hand off flash. The fmh ASR-8 has had known issues in the past and was recently digitized. This procedure has stopped the occurrence of radar reflections that we were experiencing. However; the amount of lost targets appears to be increasing. The performance of the fmh radar needs to be critically analyzed and controllers need to be briefed on what limitations exist.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: K90 Controller voiced concerns regarding the FMH ASR-8 RADAR equipment.

Narrative: While working ACKAR/ACKDE position the HYA/PYM asked me if I had RADAR contact on a PA28. He had apparently lost RADAR on the target while vectoring for an approach into HYA from the west. I said yes and tagged up the target and started a hand off so that he could see where the aircraft was. The target was lost off the FMH ASR-8 for about 2 minutes when the HYA/PYM Controller informed me that he had an acceptable RADAR return and I could stop the hand off flash. The FMH ASR-8 has had known issues in the past and was recently digitized. This procedure has stopped the occurrence of RADAR reflections that we were experiencing. However; the amount of lost targets appears to be increasing. The performance of the FMH RADAR needs to be critically analyzed and controllers need to be briefed on what limitations exist.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.