Research Question/Help Wanted

[Gimpy]

Hey gentledudes,
I'm working on a presentation for my comms class about gaps in radar/how and why we lose planes. There are a few problems I've run into in my research. I'm having a bit of trouble finding aviation radar coverage maps of the U.S., current radar equipment factsheets (range, accuracy, etc.) I could drone on and on for hours about my own knowledge base for this presentation, but for obvious reasons I need scholarly evidence to support my presentation and make it more informative (no, I don't expect my classmates to grasp the concepts). Anyway, any help that you guys might be able to render is much appreciated. Please shoot me a private message, send me an email, or post links on this thread.
Thanks ahead of time,
-Gimpy

[Wingman]

Atlas of Radar Coverage of Lower 48 CONTUS Border States at 500' and 1000' (not the en-route environment that you're probably going to focus on in light of recent air incidents and accidents, but a start):
http://psugeo.org/Publications/Atlas...0-%20Final.pdf

Oh, and hey... check out the source... Go State!

[ATC_ROO]

This could also be what your looking for.
http://www.cimms.ou.edu/~jzhang/radcov.html

While this site expalins the difference between PSR and SSR.
http://www.radartutorial.eu/02.basic...%20SSR.en.html
So when the Malaysian Aircraft turned off it's Transponder it could not be seen on SSR which covers a larger distance than PSR.
Once it was out of PSR range it disappeared.
There is also what is known as the CONE OF SILENCE directly above a radar where no traffic can be seen, although probably not applicable to your work.