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I worked on most of the NATO S244s plus the ones installed in Meshad and Shahabad in Iran. I also got covered in red hydraulic fluid many times when the pipes burst or when changing the Dowty moog control valve. I still have memories of being trained on the S244 at Rivenhall (Hut 28) in 1962 by Bushy Merrill, Doug Clements, Joe Corfield and Reg Bone. My training on the SR1000 and SR1030 came later when I was posted to Amasra, Turkey and met up with Graham Wing. I may still have copies of the Field Services setting up / commissioning instructions for the heightfinder, including the SK124 servo rack, in my loft. Graham is quite right in that it was an S band radar using the SR1000 Tx although I seem to remember the Thomson CSF Tx (ER365, I think) was used on most NATO sites outside Norway.

I was also involved with the NADGE upgrade to the S244 in Turkey and Norway where the Height Extractor was supplied and installed by Selenia (Alenia). The height console used was the SD1050. On completion of the NADGE upgrade programme I was posted to Germany (GAF HQ Porz Wahn) from 1973 to 1978 supporting the six S244s which had been sold to the GAF but rarely used. During that time the Germans bought a number of improvements to bring the S244 up to the latest state comprising three improvement programmes carried out by Marconi Field Services and Firma Elekluft in Bonn.

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