Narrative:

Air carrier X was an in house arrival from the north satellite (right) sector at 3;000' over das VOR. Sector right called us for a manual hand off due to the aircraft not having an operational transponder. We refused the hand off due to no primary radar return; but advised the right sector to let him continue inbound and that a point out was approved. The right sector called a few miles later and we still didn't have a radar return on the flight. This was unusual as we have good coverage in this area (35-40 miles from the radar site). I advised right to climb the aircraft to 4;000 for better radar reception and traffic. He complied. This put him alone at 4;000 and as right was about to lose radar coverage on him; I told him to change to my frequency. I got a radial and DME from air carrier X when he checked on. Now he was level at 4;000; 25 miles from the radar site with no primary target on an eastbound heading broadside to the radar. I was getting a great primary return from several other aircraft at different altitudes and bearings from the radar. The supervisor was notified and I changed my radar site selection to the multi-mode position. This worked and I identified the aircraft and started vectoring him to the final. The supervisor; the radar technician; and the automation specialist came in quickly and asked me to change back to the bpt radar site. I did and I lost radar with the target again. I tied him down to a radial and DME and turned him to join the localizer. When I returned to multi-mode the target did not display. The technician suggested esl mode. When I switched to this I saw the primary and confirmed his interception of the localizer. He then suggested I return to fsl and turn off the correlated target filter. When I did this the primary returned also. This tends to suggest the target was being filtered out by the system. We stayed in multi-mode for the rest of the session. When I returned to this sector later in the day we were back on the bpt radar site. On a different day; an aircraft departed bpt for hou. He tagged normally and was climbed to 6;000 and turned southwest bound. At around 4 miles south of bpt his target disappeared for 7-8 miles. I changed to multi-mode and it re-tagged. The supervisor was notified and we returned to bpt radar site a few minutes later with no further loss of targets. Recommendation; this system is not reliable and needs attention now!

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: I90 Controller described loss of primary RADAR target during certain RADAR site configurations; alleging the system is not reliable and in need of attention.

Narrative: Air Carrier X was an in house arrival from the North Satellite (R) Sector at 3;000' over DAS VOR. Sector R called us for a manual hand off due to the aircraft not having an operational transponder. We refused the hand off due to no primary RADAR return; but advised the R sector to let him continue inbound and that a point out was approved. The R Sector called a few miles later and we still didn't have a RADAR return on the flight. This was unusual as we have good coverage in this area (35-40 miles from the RADAR site). I advised R to climb the aircraft to 4;000 for better RADAR reception and traffic. He complied. This put him alone at 4;000 and as R was about to lose RADAR coverage on him; I told him to change to my frequency. I got a radial and DME from Air Carrier X when he checked on. Now he was level at 4;000; 25 miles from the RADAR site with no primary target on an eastbound heading broadside to the RADAR. I was getting a great primary return from several other aircraft at different altitudes and bearings from the RADAR. The Supervisor was notified and I changed my RADAR site selection to the Multi-Mode position. This worked and I identified the aircraft and started vectoring him to the final. The Supervisor; the RADAR Technician; and the Automation Specialist came in quickly and asked me to change back to the BPT RADAR site. I did and I lost RADAR with the target again. I tied him down to a radial and DME and turned him to join the localizer. When I returned to multi-mode the target did not display. The Technician suggested ESL mode. When I switched to this I saw the primary and confirmed his interception of the localizer. He then suggested I return to FSL and turn off the correlated target filter. When I did this the primary returned also. This tends to suggest the target was being filtered out by the system. We stayed in multi-mode for the rest of the session. When I returned to this sector later in the day we were back on the BPT RADAR site. On a different day; an aircraft departed BPT for HOU. He tagged normally and was climbed to 6;000 and turned southwest bound. At around 4 miles south of BPT his target disappeared for 7-8 miles. I changed to Multi-mode and it re-tagged. The supervisor was notified and we returned to BPT RADAR site a few minutes later with no further loss of targets. Recommendation; this system is not reliable and needs attention NOW!

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.