Elbert's MPN-13 Scale Model Is Complete!
It has an incredible amount of detail, including the ASR (airport
surveillance radar) and PAR (precision approach radar)
antennas, the VHF and UHF radio antennas, navigation hazard light, and even the gin poles
that stabilize the trailers against wind forces. Elbert's modeling skills are impressive
indeed! Hopefully, this model will someday end up in a USAF museum - maybe at
Wright-Patterson AFB.
USAF radar technician Elbert Cook
worked on a lot of MPN-13 ground controlled approach
(GCA) radar units during his career. He knows it inside and out. You might think
that after retirement Elbert might not want to see an MPN-13 again, but his model building
hobby has him working on a scale model. As you can see by these first couple photos,
it is just getting under way. Elbert promises to send updates as the MPN-13 progresses.
It should be an interesting project to follow.
Elbert sent the following brief description of the project:
"As near as I can figure the scale is 1:32. As it stands now there is nowhere else
I am posting the pictures. After it is done I will send pictures to Virtual Aerodrome
but right now I don't think they would understand what I am doing. I could be wrong.
Currently I am working on the ASR Antenna. If I remember right there were two that we
used. The 924 and the 1197. Most of the time In the MOB we used the 924 because it had
a better low level beam pat and was easier to pass a flight check. ;The 924 was more
square, that's the one I am working on. The plan is to checkerboard the radar. I think
it will make some of the detail stand out more. We will see."
- Elbert Cook (August 2013)
This is an MPN-13 with its separate Maintenance (left) and Operations
(right) trailers.
 April 2014 Update: Elbert submitted
photos (see below) of his completed MPN-13 GCA model with a spiffy real-looking camouflage
paint job! It includes both the maintenance trailer and the operations trailer, complete
with airport surveillance radar (ASR) antenna, precision approach Radar (PAR) antennas
(azimuth and elevation), VHF and UHF antennas, and navigation hazard lights. The "M"
part of "MPN" stands for "mobile." As such, I and hundreds - maybe thousands - of USAF
radar technicians have over the decades disassembled, transported, and reassembled these
radars many times.
 My radar shop at Robins AFB, Georgia,
participated in what were code-named "Healthy Strikes" two or three times each year,
whereby a claxon in the barracks rudely awoke 5th Combat Communications Group (5CCG)
members at around 5:00 am to signify the beginning of what would be about a week in the
field, simulating an emergency deployment to anywhere in the world. If memory serves
me correctly, we had 12 hours to pack, eat dress, out-process, disassemble and pack the
radar (the big ASR parabolic antenna and IFF "tootsie roll" antenna got stuffed inside
the trailer), gather our maintenance gear, roll up external trailer interconnect cables,
hook the trailers to 2-ton trucks, and report to the "ready line" for moving out. We
then drove to the local civilian airport, surveyed the site and set up the radar, fired
it up and got it checked out and aligned, then performed a qualification procedure with
a specially equipped USAF jet that verified the surveillance radar was accurate and that
the glide slope and course line were properly aligned for a precision approach. Those
were the days before GPS approaches. Elbert did the same kind of thing, only for the 3CCG at Tinker AFB
in Oklahoma.
 January 2014 Update: Former USAF radar
technician Elbert Cook, who last year sent photos of a scale model he was building of
the MPN-14 ASR/PAR radar system, has submitted
photos of when the 3rd Combat Communication Group (aka 3CCG or
3rd MOB) sent one of its systems to Minot AFB, ND, for a TPX-42 secondary radar
system installation. The TPX-42 is the unit that interrogates an aircraft's transponder
to paint the familiar 3-digit octal IFF (Identification Friend
or Foe) code on the PPI (Plan Position Indicator)
display for ATC (Air Traffic Control) use. The purpose
of the photos is to show how improvisation with a "suitable substitute" lift kit saved
the USAF, and in turn the U.S. taxpayers, a lot of money. A boat lift kit was purchased
- in lieu of a formal USAF issued lift kit - for use in moving the radar trailers from
the lowboy trailers onto the ground.
 
MPN-13 ASR Antenna, PAR Az/El Antennas, VHF & UHF Antennas
| MPN-13 ASR Antenna Front (April 2014)
 
MPN-13 Radar Model Chassis |
MPN-13 Radar Maintenance & Operations Trailers (August
2013)
 
MPN-13 GCA Model w/Spiffy Camouflage Paint Job!
| MPN-13 ASR Antenna Rear (April 2014)
 
MPN-13 Radar Model Chassis & Shelter |
MPN-13 Radar Maintenance & Operations Trailers (August
2013)
Elbert was kind enough
to send these photos from his time at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma. The radar techs procured
an inexpensive boat lift kit from an MPN-13 for moving the trailers off a lowboy flatbed.
Elbert said, "The boat lift kit we used came with the MPN-13. We used it because
the moving company wanted to spend a lot of money getting the trailers off the trucks. We
had never used one before but we put it together and got the trailers of the trucks quick
and save a lot of money and time. "
MPN-14 being unloaded from a lowboy trailer for transportation for
transportation to Minot AFB, ND. (Elbert Cook photo, 2014)
MPN-14 at Minot AFB, ND. (Elbert Cook photo,
2014)
Attaching the boat lift kit to the MPN-14 trailer.
(Elbert Cook photo, 2014)
Posted August 28, 2013
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