In the 2026APR semester the 70-m and 34-m antennas at Tidbinbilla will have some availability for single-dish use. Access to Tidbinbilla antennas is provided through the host country agreement, which usually provides approximately 220 hours in total each semester.

This is used for both single dish (typically 180 hours per semester) and LBA (typically 40 hours per semester) use. Tidbinbilla proposals remain active for one year. All observations are taken in a service mode when scheduling permits (i.e., the proposer does not need to be present and is not involved in the actual observing). Successful proposals require the submission of a source list with accurate target and calibrator positions.

The Pulsar Backend and the Radio Astronomy Spectrometer are available for successful merit-based proposals. The new Radio Astronomy Users Guide provides a basic outline of the capabilities of both backends. The spectrometer is capable of up to 16 IF products, with up to 32,768 spectral channels, each with 1GHz bandwidth. More detailed documentation about these backends, including details of configuration files, can be found in Virkler et al. 2020, ApJS, 251, 1 (preprint here).

The 70-m antenna is equipped with 1.6, 2.3, 8.4 and 22 GHz receivers and 34-m antennas are equipped with 2.3, 8.4, 26 and 32 GHz receivers. The pointing performance of the 70-m is adequate for observations at the three lowest frequencies (1.6, 2.3 and 8.4 GHz) with no additional calibration, but observations at 22-GHz require a small overhead (~10% of observing time) for determining pointing corrections using bright AGN near the target of interest. 

It should be noted that the 22 GHz system is the most sensitive in the southern hemisphere, covering 18.0 to 26.5 GHz with a system temperature of 60 Jy. The 34-m antennas are equipped with 2.3, 8.4, 26 and 32 GHz receivers. The 8.4 GHz and 22 GHz systems are well-suited for radio recombination line observations. For large area spectral line mapping projects an On-the-Fly mapping mode is available.

Full details of available frequency coverage and other technical information are available from the Tidbinbilla Information page. An on-line sensitivity calculator is available to assist in proposal preparation.

For the latest information of availability please refer to the Tidbinbilla website, or contact Shinji Horiuchi (Shinji.Horiuchi [at] csiro.au).