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10th of March 2016
Phased array feed shoots down a GPS satellite
by Greg Hellbourg and Keith Bannister (CASS)
Phased Array Feeds (PAFs) allow astronomers to 'disappear' radio frequency interference (RFI) from their observations without having to lose their astronomical data. Here, we show images made from a 10 hr observing run with PAF-equipped the Boolardy Engineering Test Array (BETA). BETA observed the well-known radio calibrator PKS 1934-63 at a frequency which is frequently unusable because of transmissions from GPS satellites. The image on the left shows what happens if you don't have any RFI mitigation. It's a mess. The much-improved figure on the right shows PKS 1934-63 right in the center, and is improved because the weights of the phased-array-feed have been adjusted, every few seconds, to steer a null towards nearby satellites. This technique is not possible with traditional single-pixel feeds. More information is available in ACES memo 012.


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