6th of March 2018 |
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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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