TWC Today Forums
Classics - The Weather Channel from 1982-1999 => Programming => Topic started by: twcctornado77 on September 15, 2012, 05:43:12 PM
-
I still think the single site 57s and 74s was the best. Radar segment from '89:
Weather Channel Radars 1989 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy1ut9ig_PE#)
-
There's a certain charm about these radars. They're simple, yet informative, and there are no overly-flashy graphics to distract from the information.
Back in the day I had so many of the three letter codes memorized. :)
-
Back in the day I had so many of the three letter codes memorized. :)
Me too. Another thing I like about those old radars...you can read them. :biggrin:
-
There's a certain charm about these radars. They're simple, yet informative, and there are no overly-flashy graphics to distract from the information.
Back in the day I had so many of the three letter codes memorized. :)
I fell in love with those single site radars. And I had a lot of those 3-letter codes too. I wish there was more of these radar videos.......... I used to have one that had the Bristol WSR-57 radar and one other....... I cant remember which one it was.
-
There's a certain charm about these radars. They're simple, yet informative, and there are no overly-flashy graphics to distract from the information.
Back in the day I had so many of the three letter codes memorized. :)
I fell in love with those single site radars. And I had a lot of those 3-letter codes too. I wish there was more of these radar videos.......... I used to have one that had the Bristol WSR-57 radar and one other....... I cant remember which one it was.
I enjoyed thinking about which three-letter code was which city. Some made more sense than others. "MSY" didn't make much sense for New Orleans or "BNA" for Nashville, whereas "JAN" for Jackson and "MIA" for Miami made more sense.
-
There's a certain charm about these radars. They're simple, yet informative, and there are no overly-flashy graphics to distract from the information.
Back in the day I had so many of the three letter codes memorized. :)
I fell in love with those single site radars. And I had a lot of those 3-letter codes too. I wish there was more of these radar videos.......... I used to have one that had the Bristol WSR-57 radar and one other....... I cant remember which one it was.
I enjoyed thinking about which three-letter code was which city. Some made more sense than others. "MSY" didn't make much sense for New Orleans or "BNA" for Nashville, whereas "JAN" for Jackson and "MIA" for Miami made more sense.
A lot of those codes that "don't make sense" actually do - they can either be the original name or the biggest nearby city.
Just in Ohio for instance, Columbus, Ohio's main airport "Port Columbus International Airport"'s identifier is CMH....which stands for its original name "Columbus Municipal Hangar"
But to get back on topic, those radars were interesting and how TWC could pop them up in their presentations. The big thing in the mid to late 1980s was "action radars" that would animate a few frames.
-
There's a certain charm about these radars. They're simple, yet informative, and there are no overly-flashy graphics to distract from the information.
Back in the day I had so many of the three letter codes memorized. :)
I fell in love with those single site radars. And I had a lot of those 3-letter codes too. I wish there was more of these radar videos.......... I used to have one that had the Bristol WSR-57 radar and one other....... I cant remember which one it was.
I enjoyed thinking about which three-letter code was which city. Some made more sense than others. "MSY" didn't make much sense for New Orleans or "BNA" for Nashville, whereas "JAN" for Jackson and "MIA" for Miami made more sense.
A lot of those codes that "don't make sense" actually do - they can either be the original name or the biggest nearby city.
Just in Ohio for instance, Columbus, Ohio's main airport "Port Columbus International Airport"'s identifier is CMH....which stands for its original name "Columbus Municipal Hangar"
But to get back on topic, those radars were interesting and how TWC could pop them up in their presentations. The big thing in the mid to late 1980s was "action radars" that would animate a few frames.
"MCO" was Orlando, Chicago-O'Hare was "ORD", If I rememeber correctly. Jacksonville was "JAX". Why would "MSY" be New Orleans and "BNA" be Nashville?
-
Those radar codes were based off the airports in the city - those codes you are mentioning are used by the FAA to identify airports. They have some clever stories behind them.
ORD - Original name of the airport when it was a military field in the Chicago suburb of "Orchard Place."
BNA - Nashville airport. The "NA" stands for Nashville. The "B" stands for Berry, the last name of Harry Berry, the head of the Tennessee Works Progress Administration during the 1930s.
MCO - Orlando International Airport. MCO stands for "McCoy," the name of the old air force base in the same general location of the airfield.
MSY - I will let a news article tell the story of New Orleans:
MSY: Last, and certainly the best airport code story of all is the three letter code designation of the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. On the last day of 1910, John Moisant, the first person to build and fly a plane with an all metal frame, and the first pilot to fly over the English Channel with a passenger and an animal, died of a broken neck after he was thrown out of his nose-diving aircraft at the current location of New Orleans’ major airport.
Stock yards for cattle were later put on the land where Moisant met his fate. The owners wanted to honor John Moisant, so they called the stock yards the Moisant Stock Yards, or MSY for short.
The city of New Orleans later bought the stock yards for airfield construction and named the completed project Moisant Field. In 1962, Moisant Field was renamed New Orleans International Airport, but the stock yards’ designation still remains to this very day.
-
Thanks. :thumbsup:I was around 5 years old when this was recorded.These radars are fun to see. Today's radars can have to much fancy graphics that can hard to read or distacting.Some maps are also to small.
-
That radar display was made by Kavouras Inc, they have since been absorbed into another company. The user would connect to the radar they wanted to see by dialing it up. It provided four ranges to chose from: 60 nautical miles, 120 nm, 180 nm and 240 nm. Eventually they came up with a version with a color background and built in looping (TWC called it "action radar"). All of these radars provided reflectivity on the DVIP scale (6 levels) and you only got to see whatever elevation the operator set the radar to (unlike the multiple elevation volume scans of the 88D).
-
Those radar codes were based off the airports in the city - those codes you are mentioning are used by the FAA to identify airports. They have some clever stories behind them.
ORD - Original name of the airport when it was a military field in the Chicago suburb of "Orchard Place."
BNA - Nashville airport. The "NA" stands for Nashville. The "B" stands for Berry, the last name of Harry Berry, the head of the Tennessee Works Progress Administration during the 1930s.
MCO - Orlando International Airport. MCO stands for "McCoy," the name of the old air force base in the same general location of the airfield.
MSY - I will let a news article tell the story of New Orleans:
MSY: Last, and certainly the best airport code story of all is the three letter code designation of the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. On the last day of 1910, John Moisant, the first person to build and fly a plane with an all metal frame, and the first pilot to fly over the English Channel with a passenger and an animal, died of a broken neck after he was thrown out of his nose-diving aircraft at the current location of New Orleans’ major airport.
Stock yards for cattle were later put on the land where Moisant met his fate. The owners wanted to honor John Moisant, so they called the stock yards the Moisant Stock Yards, or MSY for short.
The city of New Orleans later bought the stock yards for airfield construction and named the completed project Moisant Field. In 1962, Moisant Field was renamed New Orleans International Airport, but the stock yards’ designation still remains to this very day.
Wright-Patterson AFB "FFO" has a similar story. Likely dating back to the 1940s, it was located between two towns called Fairfield and Osborn. The two towns joined in the early 1950s....the problem? Name!
There was already a Fairfield just outside of Cincinnati. Sooooo, they combined the two names into one "Fairborn" - the city now located adjacent to the base.....and Wright State University (my alma mater).
-
Anniston, Alabama, which is about 60 miles nearly due east of Birmingham, their code was ANB and Tuscaloosa's was TCL.
Knoxville, Tennessee's was TYS, which I am guessing is for Knoxville-Tyson McGhee Airport?
-
Memphis' radar code was (and still is) NQA...which is the airport sign for the Air Force Base in Millington, TN where the radar is located.
-
Centreville, AL always had me confused, for their identifier was CKL.........
-
Centreville, AL always had me confused, for their identifier was CKL.........
That radar is not there, anymore.
-
I remember seeing the three letter codes in the old radar (grey maps) from 1991 too.. I didnt know they were for airports at the time, considering some of the codes for cities didn't make sense (like DTW for Detroit) Also for the Dakotas, numbers were used, such as Y22 and Y26 for two South Dakota Airports. All my AAA maps now show all the airport codes.
-
I really liked the old WSR-57 and the WSR-74. I liked the 3-letter codes for each city. DFW was easy - Dallas/Fort Worth. Was OKC Oklahoma City?
-
Was OKC Oklahoma City?
Yes.
-
The radars and their codes definitely helped me in regards to geography/map skills as I was growing up.
-
The radars and their codes definitely helped me in regards to geography/map skills as I was growing up.
I had quite a lot of the three letter codes memorized back in the day. I've forgotten 99% of them by now.
-
BNA was Nashville. ATL was Atlanta. MSY was New Orleans. Tampa was TPA. CHA was Chattanooga. I believe ICT was Wichita.