Narrative:

I was working radar with all positions combined. There was weather throughout the airspace and all airports were using instrument approaches. I took the hand off on aircraft X from north of asn airport. I descended the aircraft to 090 due to the restricted area being active. Once the aircraft was past R2102; I descended him to 070 due to a primary only IFR aircraft crossing tdg VOR at 060. Aircraft X requested lower so once he was separated from my non-radar target I descended him to 040 on the downwind for an ILS 04 approach to asn.when I cleared the aircraft for the approach; I glanced up at the approach chart in an attempt to give him the lower altitude I was able in order to make his descent since I had to keep him so high. I looked at the altitude for the FAF (2300) instead of the if (3100) but I did not go back and re-issue 3100 it because I thought his rate of descent would not fall below the required altitudes. I confirmed that the aircraft was established on the approach when the low altitude alert went off and I switched the aircraft to advisory frequency. I normally do not issue altitudes lower than the MVA in that area due to poor radar coverage but I was concerned with providing poor service by keeping the aircraft too high. The aircraft with no transponder and the weather distracted me from monitoring the situation more diligently.I should have requested assistance while working the session due to the weather and complexity. Apparently; there was an individual who witnessed the event occurring and failed to bring it to my attention. I should have been more conservative when issuing the altitude and when I realized the descent I gave could posed a problem. I should have addressed it. I will be much more cognizant of my actions and consider aircraft performance more carefully in the future.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: BHM Approach Controller reported issuing a clearance altitude below the Minimum Vectoring Altitude.

Narrative: I was working radar with all positions combined. There was weather throughout the airspace and all airports were using instrument approaches. I took the hand off on Aircraft X from north of ASN airport. I descended the aircraft to 090 due to the restricted area being active. Once the aircraft was past R2102; I descended him to 070 due to a primary only IFR aircraft crossing TDG VOR at 060. Aircraft X requested lower so once he was separated from my non-radar target I descended him to 040 on the downwind for an ILS 04 approach to ASN.When I cleared the aircraft for the approach; I glanced up at the approach chart in an attempt to give him the lower altitude I was able in order to make his descent since I had to keep him so high. I looked at the altitude for the FAF (2300) instead of the IF (3100) but I did not go back and re-issue 3100 it because I thought his rate of descent would not fall below the required altitudes. I confirmed that the aircraft was established on the approach when the low altitude alert went off and I switched the aircraft to advisory frequency. I normally do not issue altitudes lower than the MVA in that area due to poor radar coverage but I was concerned with providing poor service by keeping the aircraft too high. The aircraft with no transponder and the weather distracted me from monitoring the situation more diligently.I should have requested assistance while working the session due to the weather and complexity. Apparently; there was an individual who witnessed the event occurring and failed to bring it to my attention. I should have been more conservative when issuing the altitude and when I realized the descent I gave could posed a problem. I should have addressed it. I will be much more cognizant of my actions and consider aircraft performance more carefully in the future.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.