Report to ATUC on Progress with the 10cm/50cm Receiver System for Parkes
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The 10cm/50cm Receiver System for the Parkes 64m telescope is a dual-band
dual-polarisation coaxial system incorporating real-time RFI rejection. It
is designed to work in conjunction with the wide-band pulsar correlator
system and the 64 MHz pulsar back-end being developed concurrently by the
ATNF Electronics Group. The 10cm band covers the range 2.6 - 3.6 GHz and
the 50cm band covers the range 644 - 708 MHz. 

In the current financial year, funds have been allocated for the design and
construction of the coaxial feed system by the CTIP antenna group led by
Graeme James. An innovative design having excellent Gain/Tsys and
cross-polar performance across both bands has been developed. This feed is
presently under construction and will be completed later this year. It is
physically large, about 1.8m overall, and overall design of the feed and
receiver mounting in the Parkes focus cabin has commenced. The design
includes provision for reference antennas for sampling the RF environment
to enable real-time interference rejection. It is anticipated that receiver
construction will commence next year and be complete the following year.

In parallel with this, the design of a wide-band correlator and pulsar
integrator is proceeding. The correlator is based on the design for the
SEST wide-band system and detailed design and construction will commence on
completion of the SEST system.

Techniques for real-time interference excision are being developed in
conjuction with the SKA/MNRF Interference Mitigation project. Because of
the very wide bandwidth of the pulsar receiver, it is envisaged that a
combination of pre- and post-correlation techniques will be used. Tests
with a prototype reference antenna in the focus cabin at Parkes are planned
for later this year.

R N Manchester
7 March, 2000