During the B737-700's second engine start at the gate; the captain noticed the radar begin scanning ...

Narrative:

Gate at ZZZ. At start of second engine; radar began to scan. Discovered radar switch was left in radar. I remember glancing at radar selector switch. It was to the left of center. But; both radar and standby are left of center. At some point I remember thinking it's a -700; no need to turn the selector to standby. I did not recheck the switch to verify that the switch actually was pointed to standby. I started to check the weather radar and stopped for some reason. After the weather radar started to scan; I saw that the switch was in radar and not test. The question is; was the switch in radar or did I automatically turn the switch when I was going to test the radar? The result is the same. I am responsible either way. People were in and out of the forward area for short periods of time. The person who I saw the most was the female ramp individual. I estimate that she was at the left 70-90 degrees from the nose of the aircraft at between 20 feet to 25 feet from the aircraft. Perhaps; five minutes at that position. Then she operated the tug. Approximately five minutes from pushback to discovery of the radar switch. That will be the first switch I check upon entering the flight deck on every single flight.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: During the B737-700's second engine start at the gate; the Captain noticed the radar begin scanning and selected standby; but was puzzled whether it had been left ON from the previous flight or his preflight was incomplete.

Narrative: Gate at ZZZ. At start of second engine; radar began to scan. Discovered radar switch was left in radar. I remember glancing at radar selector switch. It was to the left of center. But; both radar and standby are left of center. At some point I remember thinking it's a -700; no need to turn the selector to standby. I did not recheck the switch to verify that the switch actually was pointed to standby. I started to check the weather radar and stopped for some reason. After the weather radar started to scan; I saw that the switch was in radar and not test. The question is; was the switch in radar or did I automatically turn the switch when I was going to test the radar? The result is the same. I am responsible either way. People were in and out of the forward area for short periods of time. The person who I saw the most was the female ramp individual. I estimate that she was at the left 70-90 degrees from the nose of the aircraft at between 20 feet to 25 feet from the aircraft. Perhaps; five minutes at that position. Then she operated the tug. Approximately five minutes from pushback to discovery of the radar switch. That will be the first switch I check upon entering the flight deck on every single flight.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1111918
Time
Date	201308
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-700
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Weather Radar
Person 1
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 198 Flight Crew Type 9600
Person 2
Function	First Officer
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Ground Event / Encounter Person / Animal / Bird

During the B737-700's second engine start at the gate; the captain noticed the radar begin scanning and selected standby; but was puzzled whether it had been left on from the previous flight or his preflight was incomplete.