"Charles Talleyrand" wrote in message
...

It sounds as if it's a non-fed tower. There's a lot of factors that
determine if a tower gets a radar display. First of all, if they don't
have
a terminal radar in the area, they will never have a display in the
tower.
If the only radar in the area goes back to the center, it can't be used
for
the tower. Center and terminal radars are two different animals. Some
terminal radars are piped into the center for coverage, and it is
possible
to pipe the center radar back to a TRACON, but this is done only as a
backup
to the terminal radar.

Most VFR tower controllers recognize most of the aircraft based on the
field
if they've been there any length of time.

It is a non-federal tower.

What they told me was the radar existed and was currently operating,
the tower was wired appropriately, and they only lacked a display.
They also told me getting a display was a bright line rule. 29,999
movements meant no display, and 30,001 movements meant they got a
display.

I admit they could be oversimplifying for the pilot.

Being "wired" for a display doesn't really mean much. The old tower
displays (called the BRITE system) are being phased out and no more are
being installed. So even if they were wired for such a system, it's
obsolete now anyway. The new displays are flat screen color type and are a
completely different system. It also requires 2 full T-1 data lines which
are VERY expensive.

So basically the first hurdle you have to overcome is the availability of a
terminal radar. If you don't have a terminal radar within about 20 miles or
so, you're not getting a display no matter what. The next hurdle would be
space. A climate controlled equipment room would have to be available to
support the part of the system that's not in the tower cab. The next hurdle
would be the availability of T-1 data service to the tower. Somewhere
within all those hurdles would be traffic count, but as you can see that's
just one hurdle of many and really it's down on the list some. Next you get
into budget and money issues, political issues, technician availability
issues, equipment availability issues, and all sorts of other things.

There's lots of towers out there which are very deserving of a radar
display. Not all of them will get them anytime soon.