Narrative:

Maintenance were looking into the dantel unit that passes information from the radar site to the control panel in the TRACON. At the request of the technician; I gave 'control' of the panel to the panel located at the radar site. Immediately; the high voltage at the radar turned off and since we only have channel a radar while we wait for channel B to be fixed; I lost primary and secondary radar. I had no traffic at the time and I attempted to communicate with maintenance what had occurred. Shortly after; a BE36 called after he departed a nearby airport to pick up his IFR clearance in the air. I informed him that I had no functioning radar and that I couldn't issue his clearance. Several minutes later; the BE36 called back and told me that he must have his clearance because he was in the clouds. I informed him that I still did not have working radar and he requested a vector. I told him that I couldn't vector him either and gave him a direction to fly generally that was away from taller obstructions. Soon after; the radar was restored; the aircraft received his clearance and proceeded on his flight. I don't have any recommendations because the VFR aircraft should not have climbed into the cloud layers.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: GGG Departure Controller reports a Radar outage caused by maintenance. A request is received from an airborne BE36 to pick up an IFR clearance; which cannot be issued due to the outage. A few minutes later the BE36 pilot states that he must have the clearance because he is now in IMC. A few more minutes and the Radar becomes operational and the clearance is issued.

Narrative: Maintenance were looking into the DANTEL unit that passes information from the RADAR site to the control panel in the TRACON. At the request of the Technician; I gave 'control' of the panel to the panel located at the RADAR site. Immediately; the high voltage at the RADAR turned off and since we only have channel A RADAR while we wait for channel B to be fixed; I lost primary and secondary RADAR. I had no traffic at the time and I attempted to communicate with Maintenance what had occurred. Shortly after; a BE36 called after he departed a nearby airport to pick up his IFR clearance in the air. I informed him that I had no functioning RADAR and that I couldn't issue his clearance. Several minutes later; the BE36 called back and told me that he must have his clearance because he was in the clouds. I informed him that I still did not have working RADAR and he requested a vector. I told him that I couldn't vector him either and gave him a direction to fly generally that was away from taller obstructions. Soon after; the RADAR was restored; the aircraft received his clearance and proceeded on his flight. I don't have any recommendations because the VFR aircraft should not have climbed into the cloud layers.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.