Fixed Receiver Installations
We have two fixed receiver stations, one on the middle floor of the observatory and one on the lower floor.
The middle floor radio station includes the following receivers:
- (1) Icom R-8500 wideband receiver (100 kHz to 1.999 GHz)
- (2) Icom R-75 high-frequency receiver (30 kHz to 60 MHz)
- (1) Icom PCR-1000 software controlled receiver (10 kHz to 1300 MHz)
- (1) Yaesu VR-5000 wideband receiver (100 kHz to 2.6 GHz)
- (1) RF Associates FSX-5 (15 to 30 MHz)
- (1) RFSpace Cloud-IQ (9 kHz to 56 MHz)
- (1) RFSpace NetSDR (10 kHz to 32 MHz)
The record audio output of each receiver is connected to a PC soundcard through a mixer panel. The mixer panel allows any receiver to be used in a given observation without recabling. Block diagrams below show the general setup.
Photographs of receiver installations on middle floor
The photograph below shows the two equipment cabinet assemblies. Both cabinets consist of an upper and lower portion. The upper portion of the left cabinet has two R-75 receivers + speakers. The lower portion holds the audio mixer panel. The right cabinet holds an R-8500 receiver and VR-5000 receiver in the upper section and a linear power supply/battery charger and battery in the lower section. The NetSDR and SDR-14 software defined radio receivers can be seen on the upper-left, and the Radio Jove Receiver immediately behind with the RF2050S noise generator on top. The cabinets are finished with custom oak bases and tops to match the oak flooring. All panels are painted with black wrinkle paint.
The lower floor radio station includes the following receivers and equipment:
- (1) e-CALLISTO solar radio spectrometer receiver (45 to 870 MHz)
- (1) e-CALLISTO LNA power coupler (LPC)
- (1) SAM-III geomagnetometer
- (1) BlackCat dual-system, non-coincidence, radiation detector
- (2) Yaesu G-450A rotator controllers (modified)
- (1) Yaesu G-800SA rotator controller (modified)
- (1) LAN switch and related LAN support equipment
Power system: Click here for block diagram of the dc power cabinet for the lower floor receivers and equipment. The upper floor receivers are powered by a dc power system that is substantially the same.
