OPERATOR PROFICIENCY IN INTERPRETING GROUND SURVEILLANCE RADAR SIGNALS (AN/TPS-33)

Abstract : To measure operator proficiency in identifying audio signals from the AN/TPS-33 ground surveillance radar, a test of 120 tape-recorded signals generated by representative military targets was administered to 43 trained operators. It was found that they could discriminate between personnel and vehicle targets. An experiment was run to determine whether operators can be trained to identify vehicles on the basis of signal characteristics unique to each vehicle type. After two days' training, 10 naive officer subjects learned to discriminate reliably between tracked and wheeled vehicles, although there were marked differences in operator aptitude.