Is KDYX dead for good?

[Jeff Duda]

Does anyone know of the status of KDYX - the WSR-88D at Dyess AFB near Abilene? It has been down since the end of February and there's no status message on the ROC site about it. With KFDR being down today there's a pretty large gap in radar coverage in an area with potentially severe storms. It's annoying as an armchair chaser and it makes it harder for NWS folks trying to monitor the storms in that area.

 

[Mike Cox]

Jeff,
I did a generic search on google for FTMDYX just to see what popped up.. Here's the result:

000
NOUS64 KSJT 261447
FTMDYX
Message Date: Mar 26 2015 14:47:21

THE DYESS AFB WSR-88D...KDYX...RETURN TO SERVICE ESTIMATE IS NOW TUESDAY...MARCH
31. PARTS REMAIN ON ORDER. A TEAM FROM THE RADAR OPERATIONS CENTER WILL ASSIST
DYESS TECHNICIANS WITH INSTALLING NEW PARTS...WHICH SHOULD ARRIVE AT DYESS AIR F
ORCE BASE EITHER SUNDAY...MARCH 29...OR MONDAY...MARCH 30. HUBER

Must have broke her good!

Mike

 

[STexan]

That site has always been hit and miss for me. I have long since given up on Dyess radar. You'd think they could come up with a plan to have a full-time NWS radar functioning radar near Abilene as a backup to Frederick.

 

[rdale]

Putting in a new radar just in case one goes down is not very cost effective... Here is where you can monitor radar stats 24/7:

http://weather.noaa.gov/monitor/radar/

 

[STexan]

Putting in a new radar just in case one goes down is not very cost effective... Here is where you can monitor radar stats 24/7:

http://weather.noaa.gov/monitor/radar/

Normally, I'd agree but given this is the southern end of "tornado alley", I might disagree to a point. It's not like the area around Abilene and the central TX hill country is populated like Big Bend.

 

[Jared Thompson]

Sounds like they are having alot of trouble there.
000
NOUS64 KSJT 010040
FTMDYX
Message Date: Apr 01 2015 00:40:07

THE DYESS AFB WSR-88D...KDYX...REMAINS DOWN. TECHNICIANS WERE INSTALLING NEW PAR
TS TODAY AND DISCOVERED ADDITIONAL TROUBLE THIS EVENING. TECHNICIANS WILL RETURN
TOMORROW WITH ADDITIONAL PARTS TO CONTINUE REPAIRS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE
. HUBER
000
NOUS64 KSJT 012334
FTMDYX
Message Date: Apr 01 2015 23:34:09

REPAIRS CONTINUE ON THE DYESS AFB WSR-88D...KDYX. THE REPAIR TEAM...WHICH INCLUD
ES TWO MEMBERS FROM THE RADAR OPERATIONS CENTER IN NORMAN OKLAHOMA...DISCOVERED
AN ADDITIONAL DEFECTIVE PART TODAY...WHILE ATEMPTING SHORT AND LONG PULSE CALIBR
ATIONS. THE NEW PART SHOULD ARRIVE TOMORROW. TIME TO RETURN TO SERVICE REMAINS U
NKNOWN. HUBER
000
NOUS64 KSJT 040251
FTMDYX
Message Date: Apr 04 2015 02:51:14

THE DYESS AFB RADAR (KDYX) REMAINS OFFLINE. TECHNICIANS HAVE CONCLUDED WORK FOR
THE NIGHT. HOWEVER...THEY WILL RETURN TO THE RADAR TOMORROW AS THEY TRY TO RESOL
VE THE ISSUE.

 

[John Wetter]

The 88D's are just that... 88... As in 1988! Most were installed in the early 90's, so we're getting into the 20+ year life-cycle. Their original design intention was for 20 years. There is a 88D service life extension program coming as well to help do more updates. One thing that may hurt us long term are some of the new VCP's that we all love so much... 212, and now the SAILS VCP's all spin the dish faster and now are doing more elevation changes than originally thought. While the ROC keeps close tabs on this from an engineering perspective, you have to think long term that spinning a dish faster than it was originally designed to do, and changing elevation more than originally designed, it could start catching up with us. I understand there are already healthy back-orders on ordering some parts for the radars so let's hope the engineers can keep them running and the service life extension program will be successful in extending their lives!