Visit to Widam Al sahil secondary Radar Site

On 13 November 2018 fifteen Bachelor’s students of Electronics and Communication Engineering  along with Mr Antony Judice Lecturer, Engineering Department, visited Widam Al Sahil Secondary Radar Site which was established near the Said bin Sultan naval base. The main purpose of this radar is to detect and identify aircraft. Mr Yousuf Said Sulieman Al Zeidi, Air Navigation System Engineer for the Public Authority for Civil Aviation (PACA) and his team welcomed and brought all of us to the radar site. During the visit, Mr Yusuf explained the principle of secondary radar and the various components associated with it, such as the antenna unit, the antenna switch control, the transmitter unit, the receiver unit, the maintenance display unit and the control and monitoring unit.

This Radar operates at a frequency of 1030MHz/1090MHz peak power of 2Kw. The radar’s maximum range is 450km and the antenna rotation is 15rpm. Mr Yusuf elaborated that this radar site has two MSSR (Mono pulse secondary surveillance Radar) units. The radar antenna consists of a 35-column radiator and can reach a gain of 25dBi. As per Mr Yousuf, currently Oman has five secondary radars for air rraffic control.  

Benefits of the visit:

 Real time demonstration of antenna rotation and various units of MSSR.

 Students could understand the different interrogation modes (Mode A, Mode C, Mode S) of MSSR.

 Had healthy and friendly interactions with PACA Engineers.

 Students got to know the different training and job opportunities in the field of Radar Communication Engineering.

 Enabled strong theoretical realisation of radar communication engineering concepts.

 Realised the various parameters affecting the performance of the radar.

PACA engineers answered students’ questions. All the students benefited from the visit.