Final BETA PAF lifted onto ASKAP antenna

ASKAP antennas at the MRO.

Click the image to see all
'BETA' antennas pointing
in the same direction.

28 August 2013

The sixth and final 'MkI' Phased Array Feed (PAF) receiver was lifted onto an ASKAP antenna last week at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) in Western Australia.

With six of ASKAP antennas now installed with the first generation innovative radio receivers developed especially for the ASKAP telescope, the team now turns their attention to a the next integration and commissioning phase for ASKAP.

To complement the receivers, the commissioning team also completed installation of all the required electronics – including beamformer, digital and analogue racks and literally thousands of fibres to tie all the elements together.

The six MkI ASKAP PAFs, along with the associated digital systems, hardware correlator and beamformer, forms the Boolardy Engineering Test Array, or BETA.

BETA is a test array that will be used by the Commissioning teams to prepare for the full fit-out of the 36 antenna ASKAP telescope.


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