Back in undergraduate and graduate school I worked directly with a few 6.1m cassegrain mmWave radio astronomy antennas. These antennas were salvaged from the decommissioned BIMA CARMA radio telescope array back in 2015. Now University of Arizona and the Applied Research Group have full operator control. Unfortunately these the only antennas I can show from my work.

Electronics

Before these were decommissioned, cryogenic RF front ends and amplifiers were fitted in the receiver cabin. However upon receiving the antennas most, if not all, electronics, refrigeration were gutted. Our group supplied high performance tuners and digitizers (a high end SDR basically…), time, and frequency reference equipment . As a graduate student and half-employee I ended up testing initial “first-light” of the antenna.

See our home brew feed-horns initially fit in the receiver cabin. Now a better/more cohesive set-up is sitting in the cabin. There’s still more work to be done. We’re trying to reach DC to Daylight!

Antenna Pictures

Pictures of the antenna in Arizona Desert.