Narrative:

I was working arrival radar in the tracab (TRACON in the tower cab) configuration. I had 3 IFR aircraft inbound to bmg all within about 10 minutes of each other. Aircraft X was number one. As he was about 15 miles from the airport I started calling traffic to them for a VFR aircraft that was flying in the area of about an 8 mile final for runway 17. I continued to call traffic but with our poor radar coverage at bmg I was having a hard time maintaining the position of the aircraft. I assigned aircraft X headings to avoid the traffic however the VFR target would change directions and was a constant factor. When it appeared the traffic was west of aircraft X I attempted to turn them south to avoid the traffic and put them in the direction of bmg; the pilot stated that he would prefer a right turn that put them heading west; which I then assigned but it did not appear to fix the situation. Aircraft X was able to see and avoid the traffic about 7 miles north of bmg. Factors for this event were having to work radar in the tower; the excessive landline coordination with bmg and ind as well as with other aircraft; and the poor radar coverage.[I recommend we] stop working radar in the tower. I feel like I could have provided a much better service if I was able to use an actual radar scope as opposed to a small d-brite. It has been brought to the attention of facility management that tracab operations are unsafe yet it continues to be done and it prevents us from being able to do our job to the best of our abilities. Also improve our radar capabilities so we can actually see traffic at bmg.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: HUF Tower Controller working arrival radar reported efforts to provide separation utilizing a D-Brite tower scope were limited and ineffective.

Narrative: I was working arrival radar in the TRACAB (TRACON in the Tower Cab) configuration. I had 3 IFR aircraft inbound to BMG all within about 10 minutes of each other. Aircraft X was number one. As he was about 15 miles from the airport I started calling traffic to them for a VFR aircraft that was flying in the area of about an 8 mile final for Runway 17. I continued to call traffic but with our poor radar coverage at BMG I was having a hard time maintaining the position of the aircraft. I assigned Aircraft X headings to avoid the traffic however the VFR target would change directions and was a constant factor. When it appeared the traffic was west of Aircraft X I attempted to turn them south to avoid the traffic and put them in the direction of BMG; the pilot stated that he would prefer a right turn that put them heading west; which I then assigned but it did not appear to fix the situation. Aircraft X was able to see and avoid the traffic about 7 miles north of BMG. Factors for this event were having to work radar in the tower; the excessive landline coordination with BMG and IND as well as with other aircraft; and the poor radar coverage.[I recommend we] stop working radar in the tower. I feel like I could have provided a much better service if I was able to use an actual radar scope as opposed to a small d-brite. It has been brought to the attention of facility management that TRACAB operations are unsafe yet it continues to be done and it prevents us from being able to do our job to the best of our abilities. Also improve our radar capabilities so we can actually see traffic at BMG.

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.