An International Survey of Front-End Receivers and Observing Performance of Telescopes for Radio Astronomy

A. Kraus; A. Orfei; A. Zanichelli; B.W. Sohn; C. Contavalle; C. Stanghellini; G. Zacchiroli; J. Lopez Perez; M. Beltr\'an; M. Burgay

arxiv: 1907.02491 · v1 · pith:LLE4WVKAnew · submitted 2019-07-04 · 🌌 astro-ph.IM

An International Survey of Front-End Receivers and Observing Performance of Telescopes for Radio Astronomy

P. Bolli , A. Orfei , A. Zanichelli , R. Prestage , S.J. Tingay , M. Beltr\'an , M. Burgay , C. Contavalle

show 13 more authors

M. Honma A. Kraus M. Lindqvist J. Lopez Perez P. Marongiu T. Minamidani S. Navarro T. Pisanu Z.-Q. Shen B.W. Sohn C. Stanghellini T. Tzioumis G. Zacchiroli

This is my paper

Pith reviewed 2026-05-25 08:33 UTC · model grok-4.3

classification 🌌 astro-ph.IM

keywords radio astronomyfront-end receiversradio telescopessurveymicrowave receiversobserving performanceinstrumentationdevelopment trends

0 comments

The pith

A survey of fifteen radio telescopes provides a comprehensive comparison of their front-end receivers and observing performances from 300 MHz to 116 GHz.

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

The paper conducts an international survey to describe and compare microwave front-end receivers at fifteen representative radio telescopes. It covers the frequency range from 300 MHz to 116 GHz and evaluates the performance of the entire receiving chains. Characteristics of the receivers are discussed and contrasted to identify common approaches and differences. An overview of current development projects is included to highlight emerging trends. This compilation serves as a reference point for understanding the state of instrumentation in radio astronomy.

Core claim

Fifteen international radio telescopes have been selected to be representative of the instrumentation used for radio astronomical observations in the frequency domain from 300 MHz to 116 GHz. A comprehensive description of the existing receivers is presented and their characteristics are compared and discussed. The observing performances of the complete receiving chains are also presented. An overview of on-going developments illustrates and anticipates future trends in front-end projects to meet the most ambitious scientific research goals.

What carries the argument

The representative selection of fifteen radio telescopes together with the detailed comparison of their front-end receiver systems and full receiving chain performances.

If this is right

Receiver designs and characteristics can be directly compared across international facilities.
Observing performances of complete receiving chains are quantified for evaluation at different telescopes.
Ongoing development projects point toward specific trends needed to support ambitious future scientific goals.
The compiled data establishes a baseline for assessing instrumentation capabilities in the stated frequency range.

Where Pith is reading between the lines

These are editorial extensions of the paper, not claims the author makes directly.

The survey data could help individual observatories identify performance gaps relative to peer facilities when planning upgrades.
Similar comparative exercises focused on scientific output rather than hardware alone might reveal which receiver approaches deliver the highest research impact.
Extending the frequency coverage or adding more telescopes in future updates would test whether the current patterns hold as technology evolves.

Load-bearing premise

The fifteen selected telescopes adequately represent the global range of front-end receiver designs and performance levels used in radio astronomy.

What would settle it

Identification of a major radio telescope whose front-end receiver characteristics or performance levels fall outside the patterns and ranges described in the survey would indicate that the selection is not fully representative.

read the original abstract

This paper presents a survey of microwave front-end receivers installed at radio telescopes throughout the World. This unprecedented analysis was conducted as part of a review of front-end developments for Italian radio telescopes, initiated by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics in 2016. Fifteen international radio telescopes have been selected to be representative of the instrumentation used for radio astronomical observations in the frequency domain from 300 MHz to 116 GHz. A comprehensive description of the existing receivers is presented and their characteristics are compared and discussed. The observing performances of the complete receiving chains are also presented. An overview of on-going developments illustrates and anticipates future trends in front-end projects to meet the most ambitious scientific research goals.

Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, simulated authors' rebuttal, and a circularity audit. Tearing a paper down is the easy half of reading it; the pith above is the substance, this is the friction.

Desk Editor's Note private letter to a colleague

A plain compilation of receiver specs from 15 telescopes that could be a handy reference but never justifies why those sites count as representative.

read the letter

This paper pulls together descriptions of front-end receivers at fifteen radio telescopes and compares their specs and end-to-end performance from 300 MHz to 116 GHz. It was done as background for an Italian review, so the main output is a set of tables and discussion points rather than any new measurement or derivation. What it does well is gather the numbers in one place and walk through the full receiving chain for each site, which can save time for people who need a quick overview of current hardware. The discussion of ongoing developments at the end also gives a sense of where a few groups are headed. The soft spot is the selection itself. The text says the fifteen telescopes were picked to be representative, but it supplies no sampling frame, no criteria for inclusion, and no check on how well the set covers the actual range of designs in use. Without that, the comparisons rest on an untested claim. The rest of the work is descriptive reporting of data supplied by the observatories, so its accuracy tracks the quality of those inputs. This is the sort of document that radio-astronomy instrumentation groups might keep on hand for reference. It deserves a serious referee because a cleaned-up version with the selection issue fixed could serve as a standard snapshot, even though it adds no new science. I would send it to peer review with a request to add the missing justification for the sample.

Referee Report

1 major / 1 minor

Summary. The manuscript presents a survey of microwave front-end receivers at fifteen selected international radio telescopes, covering the 300 MHz–116 GHz range. It provides descriptions of existing receivers, comparisons of their characteristics, end-to-end observing performance of the receiving chains, and an overview of ongoing developments.

Significance. A well-documented, representative survey of this type would be a useful reference for the radio-astronomy community when planning instrumentation upgrades or assessing performance benchmarks. The work is purely descriptive with no derivations or fitted parameters, so its value rests entirely on the accuracy and completeness of the compiled data and on the justification that the chosen telescopes adequately sample global receiver diversity.

major comments (1)

[Abstract, §1] Abstract and §1 (Introduction): The central claim that the fifteen telescopes were 'selected to be representative' of instrumentation from 300 MHz to 116 GHz is load-bearing for all subsequent comparisons, yet no sampling frame, stratification criteria, total population considered, or quantitative coverage metrics (e.g., fraction of known technologies such as HEMT vs. SIS, single-pixel vs. arrays) are supplied. This omission prevents verification that the reported performance trends are globally indicative rather than telescope-specific.

minor comments (1)

Table and figure captions should explicitly state the source (telescope documentation, published papers, or direct communication) for each listed receiver parameter to allow independent verification.

Simulated Author's Rebuttal

1 responses · 0 unresolved

We thank the referee for the careful review and for identifying the need to strengthen the justification for the telescope sample. We respond to the single major comment below.

read point-by-point responses

Referee: [Abstract, §1] Abstract and §1 (Introduction): The central claim that the fifteen telescopes were 'selected to be representative' of instrumentation from 300 MHz to 116 GHz is load-bearing for all subsequent comparisons, yet no sampling frame, stratification criteria, total population considered, or quantitative coverage metrics (e.g., fraction of known technologies such as HEMT vs. SIS, single-pixel vs. arrays) are supplied. This omission prevents verification that the reported performance trends are globally indicative rather than telescope-specific.

Authors: We agree that the manuscript provides insufficient detail on how the fifteen telescopes were chosen. The selection was made by the author team during the 2016 INAF review to capture diversity across frequency bands, receiver technologies (HEMT, SIS, and others), and telescope classes, but no formal sampling frame or quantitative coverage statistics were documented. We will revise §1 to add an explicit description of the selection criteria, a rationale for each facility, and a summary table indicating coverage of major technology categories. This will allow readers to assess the sample's scope without claiming statistical representativeness of all global receivers. revision: yes

Circularity Check

0 steps flagged

No circularity: factual survey with no derivations or self-referential claims

full rationale

The manuscript is a descriptive survey of existing receiver hardware at 15 selected telescopes. No equations, fitted parameters, predictions, or derivation chains appear in the abstract or provided text. The claim of representativeness is an explicit selection criterion rather than a result derived from data or prior self-citations; it does not reduce to any input by construction. No self-citation load-bearing steps, ansatz smuggling, or renaming of known results are present. This matches the default expectation of a non-circular factual compilation.

Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger

0 free parameters · 0 axioms · 0 invented entities

This is a descriptive survey paper that aggregates reported specifications from operating observatories; it introduces no free parameters, mathematical axioms, or new physical entities.

pith-pipeline@v0.9.0 · 5749 in / 1076 out tokens · 25660 ms · 2026-05-25T08:33:02.644118+00:00 · methodology

discussion (0)

Reference graph

Works this paper leans on

26 extracted references · 26 canonical work pages

[1]

Currently, simultaneous observations in K/Q band are available, each with 2.5 GHz instantaneous bandwidth

9 GHz, 8.18-8.98 GHz, 20-26 GHz, 41-50 GHz, and 83-116 GHz, plus one room-temperature Ku-band receiver mounted at the prime focus position for holography measurements. Currently, simultaneous observations in K/Q band are available, each with 2.5 GHz instantaneous bandwidth. Simultaneous K/Q/W band observations will be implemented by 2018 in the framework ...

work page 2018
[2]

The 30-m telescope is a Cassegrain type antenna with a semi-homologous mechanical design. The structure of the main parabolic dish is completely enclosed to shield it from weather influences, and its temperature is carefully controlled to keep thermal deformations to a minimum. The low RMS surface error of the primary (~60 µm) allows observations in the e...

work page 2018
[3]

The telescope itself was built in 1975-76 and upgraded in

work page 1975
[4]

Spectral line observations can be accomplished with FFTS back-end spectrometers

and 4 mm receivers were installed in March 2014 and October 2015, respectively. Spectral line observations can be accomplished with FFTS back-end spectrometers. The OSO20 telescope provides three observing modes: beam switching, position switching, and frequency switching. The ONS20 telescope is equipped with a VLBI system identical to the ONS25 system, a...

work page 2014
[5]

dual-beam

The KASI hosts the Array Operation Center in the Daejoen headquarters. All the three observatories and the KASI headquarters are inter-linked with a wide-band research network called Kreonet supporting observation data transfer and remote operation from any of the four locations. The VLBI mode is operational in four frequency bands: 21-23 GHz; 42-44 GHz; ...

work page 2008
[6]

Science highlights In this section we aim at highlighting the large variety of astrophysical studies that are conducted with the radio astronomical instrumentation at the various facilities considered in this survey. As a general consideration, the scientific usage of a receiver depends not only on its characteristics, like frequency and number of feeds, ...

work page 2018
[7]

Such developments also increase the synergy among telescope networks like for instance the GMVA and ALMA

in particular for mm-VLBI studies of compact radio emitting regions inaccessible at lower frequencies and complex molecular species. Such developments also increase the synergy among telescope networks like for instance the GMVA and ALMA. The science topics that will be illustrated in the following sub-sections are not intended to be an exhaustive list of...

work page 2016
[8]

and revealed mm-sized interstellar dust grains in Orion (Schnee et al. 2014). Star-forming cores and the evolution of turbulence during cloud collapse have been investigated by mapping molecular clouds in Ammonia and other species (Friesen et al. 2017; Seo et al. 2015). Studies of the 21cm line are done in the Milky Way and other galaxies. HI cloud system...

work page 2014
[9]

and the intensity mapping technique developed at GBT allowed the determination of the HI content of intermediate redshift galaxies (Chang et al. 2010). H2O maser studies in accretion disks around nuclear black holes in galaxies yielded independent and precise measurements of the black hole mass and the distance of the galaxies (Braatz et al

work page 2010
[10]

while highly redshifted molecular lines have been used to constrain models of the formation and evolution of Bolli et al., 2018 An International Survey of Front-End Receivers and Observing Performance of Telescopes for Radio Astronomy 15 massive galaxies at high redshift (Negrello et al. 2010). The GBT has discovered the lowest-frequency Fast Radio Burst ...

work page 2018
[11]

and the baryon content of low mass dwarf galaxies (Geha et al. 2006). Pulsars and other compact objects are studied with the GBT, which is a key instrument in the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (Demorest et al. 2013, Arzoumanian et al. 2016). The GBT has been used to discover the fastest pulsar and the most massive pulsar, as...

work page 2006
[12]

with 10 years of high precision timing data providing stringent limits on long wavelength gravitational waves (Shannon et al. 2015). In addition to time domain science, PARKES has been very active in various atomic and molecular line surveys, establishing significant data sets with legacy value including the Galactic All Sky Survey (GASS, McClure-Griffith...

work page 2015
[13]

and more recently with the Breakthrough Listen initiative (Isaacson et al. 2017). Parkes is also a crucial component of the Bolli et al., 2018 An International Survey of Front-End Receivers and Observing Performance of Telescopes for Radio Astronomy 17 southern hemisphere VLBI network, the Long Baseline Array, through which it is contributing to the south...

work page 2017
[14]

Open Use

Survey. 3.5. Sardinia Radio Telescope The key science that can be addressed with the SRT, also through VLBI observations with the EVN and Radioastron, include: gravitational wave detection experiments and pulsar studies; transient sources studies; galactic and extragalactic surveys at high frequency; high resolution spectroscopy; and space applications. A...

work page 2017
[15]

2019; Ackermann et al

is regularly conducted, with the formation and evolution of galaxies and AGN, and the physics of radio sources as the main science topics (Vercellone et al. 2019; Ackermann et al. 2014; Ceglowski et al. 2015). Large-area extragalactic surveys are also a science case well suited for these medium-size antennas (e.g. Righini et al. 2012). Long-term spectrosc...

work page 2019
[16]

The multi-frequency simultaneous observing system of the KVN was developed to remove the non-dispersive tropospheric phase delay at mm wavelengths (Jung et al

and four key science projects, two of them on AGNs and the other two on stellar masers, are also focused on those topics (https://radio.kasi.re.kr/kvn/ksp.php). The multi-frequency simultaneous observing system of the KVN was developed to remove the non-dispersive tropospheric phase delay at mm wavelengths (Jung et al. 2011). This multi-frequency observin...

work page 2011
[17]

Dodson et al

and to probe the circumstellar envelopes of evolved stars (e.g. Dodson et al. 2014). KVN participates actively in international projects such as EVN, GMVA, and RadioAstron (e.g. Giovannini et al. 2018). Especially with VERA, KVN builds a joint array called KaVA and expands this collaboration to the East-Asian VLBI Network (An et al. 2018). 3.13. VLBI Expl...

work page 2014
[18]

Bolli et al., 2018 An International Survey of Front-End Receivers and Observing Performance of Telescopes for Radio Astronomy 21

work page 2018
[19]

For the fifteen radio telescopes included in the survey, 106 front-ends receivers operating in the frequency range 300 MHz - 116 GHz have been taken into consideration

Characteristics of front-end receivers In this section, an analysis is carried out for the technical properties of the receivers in operation at the various telescopes. For the fifteen radio telescopes included in the survey, 106 front-ends receivers operating in the frequency range 300 MHz - 116 GHz have been taken into consideration. GBT and EFF togethe...

work page 2018
[20]

Bolli et al., 2018 An International Survey of Front-End Receivers and Observing Performance of Telescopes for Radio Astronomy 25 Figure 5 – Age of operational receivers

Basically, before 2005 all receivers were single-feed, dual-feed, or dual-frequency architectures. Bolli et al., 2018 An International Survey of Front-End Receivers and Observing Performance of Telescopes for Radio Astronomy 25 Figure 5 – Age of operational receivers. The years close to the radio telescope abbreviation indicates its inauguration date. One...

work page 2005
[21]

In this analysis the receiver performance at the central frequency is taken as representative of the whole bandwidth

A convenient parameter identified for this comparison is the System Equivalent Flux Density (SEFD), which is expressed as the ratio between the overall system noise temperature (including receiver noise temperature and the atmospheric contribution) in Kelvin and the antenna gain in Kelvin/Jansky. In this analysis the receiver performance at the central fr...

work page 2018
[22]

Dual-feed receivers are the most common at high frequencies, despite the availability of technological skills for developing multi-feed devices. This might be due to a number of reasons ranging from economical Bolli et al., 2018 An International Survey of Front-End Receivers and Observing Performance of Telescopes for Radio Astronomy 32 considerations wit...

work page 2018
[23]

In the early 2000s, multi-feed receivers started to be constructed thanks to the ability to serialize the fabrication of microwave components and to pack them into the dewar

Conclusions In the previous sections, we have seen that the receivers currently in operation at a selection of radio telescopes are mainly composed (90% of the total) by single-feed, dual-feed, and dual-frequency solutions. In the early 2000s, multi-feed receivers started to be constructed thanks to the ability to serialize the fabrication of microwave co...

work page 2018
[24]

References Ackermann, M., Ajello, M., Allafort, A. et al. 2014, ApJ, 786, 157 An, T., Sohn B. W., & Imai H. 2018, Nature Astronomy, 2, 118 Anderson, L. D., Armentrout, W. P., Johnstone, B. M. et al. 2015, ApJS, 221, 26 Alatalo, K., Aladro, R., Nyland, K. et al. 2016, ApJ, 830, 137 Altamimi, Z., Rebischung, P., Metivier, L. et al. 2016, J. Geophys. Res. So...

work page 2014
[25]

Braatz, J., Reid, M., Kuo, C. et al. 2013, in IAU Symp. 289, Advancing the Physics of Cosmic Distances, ed. R. de Grijs (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press), 255 Breton, R.P., Kaspi, V. M., Kramer, M. et al. 2008, Science, 321, 104 Brunthaler, A., Reid, M. J., Menten, K. M. et al. 2011, AN,332, 461 Campbell, B.A. 2016, PASP, 128, 062001 Carnerero, M. I., Ra...

work page doi:10.1109/ursigass.2011.6051296 2013
[26]

Thilker, D.A., Braun, R., Walterbos, R.A.M. et al. 2004, ApJ, 601, 39 Bolli et al., 2018 An International Survey of Front-End Receivers and Observing Performance of Telescopes for Radio Astronomy 37 Thornton, D., Stappers, B., Bailes, M. et al. 2013, Science, 341, 53 Tuccari, G., Alef, W., Pantaleev, M. et al. 2017, in 23rd European VLBI Group for Geodesy...

work page 2004

[1] [1]

Currently, simultaneous observations in K/Q band are available, each with 2.5 GHz instantaneous bandwidth

9 GHz, 8.18-8.98 GHz, 20-26 GHz, 41-50 GHz, and 83-116 GHz, plus one room-temperature Ku-band receiver mounted at the prime focus position for holography measurements. Currently, simultaneous observations in K/Q band are available, each with 2.5 GHz instantaneous bandwidth. Simultaneous K/Q/W band observations will be implemented by 2018 in the framework ...

work page 2018

[2] [2]

The 30-m telescope is a Cassegrain type antenna with a semi-homologous mechanical design. The structure of the main parabolic dish is completely enclosed to shield it from weather influences, and its temperature is carefully controlled to keep thermal deformations to a minimum. The low RMS surface error of the primary (~60 µm) allows observations in the e...

work page 2018

[3] [3]

The telescope itself was built in 1975-76 and upgraded in

work page 1975

[4] [4]

Spectral line observations can be accomplished with FFTS back-end spectrometers

and 4 mm receivers were installed in March 2014 and October 2015, respectively. Spectral line observations can be accomplished with FFTS back-end spectrometers. The OSO20 telescope provides three observing modes: beam switching, position switching, and frequency switching. The ONS20 telescope is equipped with a VLBI system identical to the ONS25 system, a...

work page 2014

[5] [5]

dual-beam

The KASI hosts the Array Operation Center in the Daejoen headquarters. All the three observatories and the KASI headquarters are inter-linked with a wide-band research network called Kreonet supporting observation data transfer and remote operation from any of the four locations. The VLBI mode is operational in four frequency bands: 21-23 GHz; 42-44 GHz; ...

work page 2008

[6] [6]

Science highlights In this section we aim at highlighting the large variety of astrophysical studies that are conducted with the radio astronomical instrumentation at the various facilities considered in this survey. As a general consideration, the scientific usage of a receiver depends not only on its characteristics, like frequency and number of feeds, ...

work page 2018

[7] [7]

Such developments also increase the synergy among telescope networks like for instance the GMVA and ALMA

in particular for mm-VLBI studies of compact radio emitting regions inaccessible at lower frequencies and complex molecular species. Such developments also increase the synergy among telescope networks like for instance the GMVA and ALMA. The science topics that will be illustrated in the following sub-sections are not intended to be an exhaustive list of...

work page 2016

[8] [8]

and revealed mm-sized interstellar dust grains in Orion (Schnee et al. 2014). Star-forming cores and the evolution of turbulence during cloud collapse have been investigated by mapping molecular clouds in Ammonia and other species (Friesen et al. 2017; Seo et al. 2015). Studies of the 21cm line are done in the Milky Way and other galaxies. HI cloud system...

work page 2014

[9] [9]

and the intensity mapping technique developed at GBT allowed the determination of the HI content of intermediate redshift galaxies (Chang et al. 2010). H2O maser studies in accretion disks around nuclear black holes in galaxies yielded independent and precise measurements of the black hole mass and the distance of the galaxies (Braatz et al

work page 2010

[10] [10]

while highly redshifted molecular lines have been used to constrain models of the formation and evolution of Bolli et al., 2018 An International Survey of Front-End Receivers and Observing Performance of Telescopes for Radio Astronomy 15 massive galaxies at high redshift (Negrello et al. 2010). The GBT has discovered the lowest-frequency Fast Radio Burst ...

work page 2018

[11] [11]

and the baryon content of low mass dwarf galaxies (Geha et al. 2006). Pulsars and other compact objects are studied with the GBT, which is a key instrument in the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (Demorest et al. 2013, Arzoumanian et al. 2016). The GBT has been used to discover the fastest pulsar and the most massive pulsar, as...

work page 2006

[12] [12]

with 10 years of high precision timing data providing stringent limits on long wavelength gravitational waves (Shannon et al. 2015). In addition to time domain science, PARKES has been very active in various atomic and molecular line surveys, establishing significant data sets with legacy value including the Galactic All Sky Survey (GASS, McClure-Griffith...

work page 2015

[13] [13]

and more recently with the Breakthrough Listen initiative (Isaacson et al. 2017). Parkes is also a crucial component of the Bolli et al., 2018 An International Survey of Front-End Receivers and Observing Performance of Telescopes for Radio Astronomy 17 southern hemisphere VLBI network, the Long Baseline Array, through which it is contributing to the south...

work page 2017

[14] [14]

Open Use

Survey. 3.5. Sardinia Radio Telescope The key science that can be addressed with the SRT, also through VLBI observations with the EVN and Radioastron, include: gravitational wave detection experiments and pulsar studies; transient sources studies; galactic and extragalactic surveys at high frequency; high resolution spectroscopy; and space applications. A...

work page 2017

[15] [15]

2019; Ackermann et al

is regularly conducted, with the formation and evolution of galaxies and AGN, and the physics of radio sources as the main science topics (Vercellone et al. 2019; Ackermann et al. 2014; Ceglowski et al. 2015). Large-area extragalactic surveys are also a science case well suited for these medium-size antennas (e.g. Righini et al. 2012). Long-term spectrosc...

work page 2019

[16] [16]

The multi-frequency simultaneous observing system of the KVN was developed to remove the non-dispersive tropospheric phase delay at mm wavelengths (Jung et al

and four key science projects, two of them on AGNs and the other two on stellar masers, are also focused on those topics (https://radio.kasi.re.kr/kvn/ksp.php). The multi-frequency simultaneous observing system of the KVN was developed to remove the non-dispersive tropospheric phase delay at mm wavelengths (Jung et al. 2011). This multi-frequency observin...

work page 2011

[17] [17]

Dodson et al

and to probe the circumstellar envelopes of evolved stars (e.g. Dodson et al. 2014). KVN participates actively in international projects such as EVN, GMVA, and RadioAstron (e.g. Giovannini et al. 2018). Especially with VERA, KVN builds a joint array called KaVA and expands this collaboration to the East-Asian VLBI Network (An et al. 2018). 3.13. VLBI Expl...

work page 2014

[18] [18]

Bolli et al., 2018 An International Survey of Front-End Receivers and Observing Performance of Telescopes for Radio Astronomy 21

work page 2018

[19] [19]

For the fifteen radio telescopes included in the survey, 106 front-ends receivers operating in the frequency range 300 MHz - 116 GHz have been taken into consideration

Characteristics of front-end receivers In this section, an analysis is carried out for the technical properties of the receivers in operation at the various telescopes. For the fifteen radio telescopes included in the survey, 106 front-ends receivers operating in the frequency range 300 MHz - 116 GHz have been taken into consideration. GBT and EFF togethe...

work page 2018

[20] [20]

Bolli et al., 2018 An International Survey of Front-End Receivers and Observing Performance of Telescopes for Radio Astronomy 25 Figure 5 – Age of operational receivers

Basically, before 2005 all receivers were single-feed, dual-feed, or dual-frequency architectures. Bolli et al., 2018 An International Survey of Front-End Receivers and Observing Performance of Telescopes for Radio Astronomy 25 Figure 5 – Age of operational receivers. The years close to the radio telescope abbreviation indicates its inauguration date. One...

work page 2005

[21] [21]

In this analysis the receiver performance at the central frequency is taken as representative of the whole bandwidth

A convenient parameter identified for this comparison is the System Equivalent Flux Density (SEFD), which is expressed as the ratio between the overall system noise temperature (including receiver noise temperature and the atmospheric contribution) in Kelvin and the antenna gain in Kelvin/Jansky. In this analysis the receiver performance at the central fr...

work page 2018

[22] [22]

Dual-feed receivers are the most common at high frequencies, despite the availability of technological skills for developing multi-feed devices. This might be due to a number of reasons ranging from economical Bolli et al., 2018 An International Survey of Front-End Receivers and Observing Performance of Telescopes for Radio Astronomy 32 considerations wit...

work page 2018

[23] [23]

In the early 2000s, multi-feed receivers started to be constructed thanks to the ability to serialize the fabrication of microwave components and to pack them into the dewar

Conclusions In the previous sections, we have seen that the receivers currently in operation at a selection of radio telescopes are mainly composed (90% of the total) by single-feed, dual-feed, and dual-frequency solutions. In the early 2000s, multi-feed receivers started to be constructed thanks to the ability to serialize the fabrication of microwave co...

work page 2018

[24] [24]

References Ackermann, M., Ajello, M., Allafort, A. et al. 2014, ApJ, 786, 157 An, T., Sohn B. W., & Imai H. 2018, Nature Astronomy, 2, 118 Anderson, L. D., Armentrout, W. P., Johnstone, B. M. et al. 2015, ApJS, 221, 26 Alatalo, K., Aladro, R., Nyland, K. et al. 2016, ApJ, 830, 137 Altamimi, Z., Rebischung, P., Metivier, L. et al. 2016, J. Geophys. Res. So...

work page 2014

[25] [25]

Braatz, J., Reid, M., Kuo, C. et al. 2013, in IAU Symp. 289, Advancing the Physics of Cosmic Distances, ed. R. de Grijs (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press), 255 Breton, R.P., Kaspi, V. M., Kramer, M. et al. 2008, Science, 321, 104 Brunthaler, A., Reid, M. J., Menten, K. M. et al. 2011, AN,332, 461 Campbell, B.A. 2016, PASP, 128, 062001 Carnerero, M. I., Ra...

work page doi:10.1109/ursigass.2011.6051296 2013

[26] [26]

Thilker, D.A., Braun, R., Walterbos, R.A.M. et al. 2004, ApJ, 601, 39 Bolli et al., 2018 An International Survey of Front-End Receivers and Observing Performance of Telescopes for Radio Astronomy 37 Thornton, D., Stappers, B., Bailes, M. et al. 2013, Science, 341, 53 Tuccari, G., Alef, W., Pantaleev, M. et al. 2017, in 23rd European VLBI Group for Geodesy...

work page 2004