Baron Weather Radar Maintenance

PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT (PWS) Arctic Regions Test Center (ARTC) Annual Weather Radar Maintenance, Calibration, and Performance Evaluation 04 JUN 2026 Part 1 General Information 1. General: This is a non-personal service contract under which the personnel rendering the services are not subject, either by the contract’s terms or by the manner of its administration, to the supervision and control usually prevailing in relationships between the Government and its employees. The United States (U.S.) Government shall not exercise supervision or control over the Contractor’s employees performing the tasks herein. Such contract employees shall be accountable solely to the Contractor who, in turn shall be responsible to the U.S. Government. 1.1 Description of Services/Introduction: The Contractor shall provide all personnel, equipment, supplies, transportation, tools, materials, supervision, and other items and non-personal services necessary to perform full operational maintenance procedures and calibration of the x-band weather radar located near Fort Greely, Alaska as defined in this Performance Work Statement (PWS), except for those items specified as Government furnished property and services. The Contractor shall perform to the standards in this contract. 1.2 Background: The U.S. Army Arctic Regions Test Center (ARTC) owns a weather radar, which was engineered and installed by Baron Services. ARTC requires annual maintenance and calibration to be conducted in order to maintain reliable operation of the weather radar and reduce the mean time between failures. The X-band polar weather radar is utilized when needing to observe and track precipitation in the local area, which assists greatly with notifying of where the heavier precipitation is occurring and where it is tracking, allowing ARTC meteorologists to give short-term forecasts of what the precipitation is expected to do based on the latest trends. The national weather service nexrad weather radar near Fairbanks, Alaska ends up having the beam about 2 miles up over the area, which misses most of our snowfalls as they normally occur in the lower levels and are below the 2 miles above ground level. ARTC requires experienced engineers or designers to verify the weather radar is performing as it should be based on installed initial specifications and operational parameters. 1.3 Scope: The Contractor shall provide non-personal service(s). The contractor shall provide all personnel, equipment, supplies, facilities, transportation, tools, materials, supervision, and other items and non-personal services necessary to perform the annual inspection and servicing of the ARTC weather radar as defined in this Performance Work Statement (PWS) and associated contract documents, except for those items specified in Part 3 Government Property and Services. The Contractor shall perform to the standards in this PWS and associated contract documents. A qualified engineer/technician shall perform all necessary work to perform a full operational performance evaluation of the x-band weather radar system at ARTC, which includes calibration checks and visual component checks. This also includes making repairs as needed and the removal or install of Government provided parts and components to sustain operation of the x-band weather radar system. These checks and procedures consist of but are not limited to: Conduct calibration of the weather radar system Power levels measured and calibrated from within the radome at the transmitter using a calibrated power-sense meter for all pulse-widths specified for operation drive voltage adjusted for optimal operation of the transmitter and to meet power-sense levels required Frequency checked for accuracy with a calibrated spectrum analyzer and to be centered at 9480 MHz as the nominal frequency Noise level measurements for all pulse-widths specified for operation Noise temperature measurements for all pulse-widths specified for operation Receiver bias Transmitter Power/Bias Linearity for all pulse widths specified for operation Clutter suppression Magnetron Phase Noise ZDR Bias Initial System Differential Phase Step Attenuator Linearization Solar calibrations Antenna offset calibration Antenna gain calibration Radar components Baron Calibration Processor (BCP) system and its components to include the distributed control modules (DCMs), built-in test equipment (BITE), delay line, and connections/interfaces. Vacuum/Dehydrator pump and its operation to include sustaining required pressure within the waveguides and subsequent checks for leaks Transmitter system (transmitter, magnetron, stable local oscillator (STALO), receiver) Microwave Assembly (low noise amplifiers (LNAs), TR limiters (receiver protectors), waveguides, harmonic filters, waveguide switch) Components within the Antenna Mounted Electronics Radar signal processor Intermediate frequency digitizer Step Attenuator UPS system and its components Antenna Pedestal Interfaces/connections like the roatry joints and fiber optics Motors Gearboxes Encoders Servo amps DDSA Slip ring Radome Maintenance of the weather radar system Repair of components discovered with deficiencies during the checks and evaluation of the system Replacement of deficient or failed components that are not field repairable as able to be provided by the Government Operational performance evaluation of the weather radar system shall include: Operational test of the radar utilizing specified configuration and scans by CRTC meteorological personnel Verification of accuracy of data when possible using other observations as available Verify operation continues for at least 2 hours if no errors or problems were noted during calibration and maintenance checks of the weather radar system Verify elevation only scans are able to be completed without error or issue while conducting a specified volume scan during the at least …