Performance of the hadron calorimeter for fnal experiment E687

A sampling gas hadron calorimeter with tower readout geometry has been constructed for a photoproduction experiment, E687, at Fermilab. This experiment has run in the Wide Band photon beam with photons of maximum energy of 450 GeV. The calorimeter consists of 28 120×82×1.75 in. Fe plates interspersed with planes of extruded aluminum proportional tubes. Capacitively induced signals on electrode pads with a cylindrical geometry are read out. The preamplifier and shaping electronics, constructed from surface mount devices, are mounted on the detector. The system has a dynamic range that spans the region from minimum ionizing particles (mip) to a few hundred mips. Calibrating the system response was done using muons, electronic test signals, and by recording the pulse height of an 55Fe source with a proportional counter. Results on the details of the performance of the calorimeter and its use as an online trigger are described.