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6th of March 2018
Potts Hill tour
Following the book launch of Four Pillars of Radio Astronomy last month, a tour was arranged to the Potts Hill reservoir site, which hosted a number of radio telescopes between 1948 and 1963, including the 36 foot (11 m) antenna shown in a recent ADAP. The image above shows the tour group standing between the concrete slab of the 36-ft antenna and the receiver hut. The previous ADAP shows the antenna and hut in January 1953. At that time the hut was built in a usual manner with the single skin. In early 1954 the outer shell (effectively another hut built enclosing the first) was added to help solve problems encountered with the thermal stability of the 4-channel hydrogen-line receiver. This double-shell structure was quite perplexing to the Sydney Water Heritage team when they restored the hut in recent years, until they became aware of the historical research done on the site by Harry Wendt. (Acknowledgements to John Sarkissian for the picture and Harry Wendt for text.)




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