TRACON APCH CTLR CONCERNED WITH INCONSISTENT CENRAP (CTR RADAR ARTS PRESENTATION PROCESSING). RADAR TARGETS WILL DROP AT ERRATIC TIMES; REGARDLESS OF ALT. FACILITY UCR ON FILE.

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OPERATING ON CENRAP DUE TO ASR9 OTS FOR ANTENNA UPGRADE. AS USUAL; TARGETS DROPPING. IT ALWAYS OCCURS. WE HAVE A CONTINUING UCR ON THIS. TARGETS DROP AT VARIOUS ALTS; VARIOUS LOCATIONS; FOR VARYING AMOUNTS OF TIME. TFC WAS VERY LIGHT THIS EVENING. I HAD 6 TARGETS AND DATA BLOCKS DROP DURING THE 1 1/2 HRS ON POS. THIS REPRESENTS APPROX 1/5 OF THE AIRPLANES I WORKED DURING THIS PERIOD. I WAS WORKING ONE OF THE 3 POS OPEN. I WORKED CTR RADAR FOR 11 YRS. IT WORKED A MILLION PERCENT BETTER THAN WHAT GETS PIPED TO US HERE IN THE TERMINAL. YET IT IS SUPPOSEDLY THE SAME DATA CTR USES. CALLBACK CONVERSATION WITH RPTR REVEALED THE FOLLOWING INFO: RPTR ADVISED THAT THE FACILITY UCR HAS NOT YET BEEN CLOSED. RPTR ADVISED THE FACILITY MGR WAS SITTING WITH HIM WHEN TARGETS DROPPED. DROPPED TARGETS WILL FIRST SHOW 'CST' IN THE ARTS DATA BLOCK FOR A SHORT TIME; THEN THE DATA BLOCK WILL COMPLETELY STOP TRACKING AND XFER; DROP TO A 'CST' SUSPEND LIST. THE RPTR ADVISES THAT WHEN BEACON STRENGTH IS STRONG AGAIN; THE ARPTS TAG WILL AGAIN 'REACQUIRE' AND TRACKING WILL CONTINUE. THE CTLR ADVISED THAT MGMNT HAS ADVISED THAT A CENRAP SYS UPDATE HAS BEEN IDENTED AND WILL BE INSTALLED AS SOON AS PRACTICABLE. THE RPTR STATES THAT THE PRINCIPLE CTR RADAR SITE IS LOCATED APPROX 30 MI W OF CMH; AT LONDON; OH. OTHER TRACON CTLRS HAVE SINCE NEGOTIATED WITH MGMNT NOT TO USE CENRAP EXCEPT AS AN EMER BACKUP; NOT AS A WKLY TRAINING AID. CENRAP USAGE WAS REQUIRED FOR APPROX 2 WKS TO REPAIR AND UPDATE THE CMH ASR9 SYS; WHICH HAS NOW RETURNED TO SVC. SUPPLEMENTAL INFO FROM ACN 416400: APPARENTLY WE'LL BE ON IT FOR A FEW DAYS. AT LEAST IT IS 'CENRAP PLUS' (PRIMARY RADAR FROM OUR ASR9 AND BEACON RADAR FROM ZID). THE PROB IN WORKING WITH CENRAP IS THE BEACON TARGETS DROPPING; AS WELL AS THE DATA TAGS. WE MUST BE CONSTANTLY PARANOID ABOUT LOSING TARGETS/TAGS. THEY DROP ANYWHERE; ANY TIME; FOR NO APPARENT REASON. NO ONE SEEMS TO KNOW WHY.