The Dream of not just an Amateur Interferometer

A.L.L.B.I.N.+ +

The Dream of not just an Amateur Interferometer

A.L.L.B.I.N.+ +

Peter Wright

E.R.A.C.

ALLBIN is the Excuse to Solve allot of Problems we all have!

It,s a Common problem Solving Machine we all need in part or in full to go on further and make Radio Astronomy more fun for

Everyone !

Small Dishes and Resolution • Small Dishes have Wide Beam Angles! • Placing 2 dishes East and West on a single Site

improves Resolution if all the Signals may be transported via Cables on Site as Phase is the factor governing Fringe Resolution.

• Multiple Sites are only possible by using Atomic Clocks or GPS Standards. Wide Distances are possible with Amazing Resolution ALLBIN,s Legitimisation.

Single site high loss System

Combiner

Receiver

Computer

2 Telescopes

300m

Loss Loss

RF Amp

Mixer

IF Amp

RF Amp

Mixer

IF Amp

Common Local Osc

Combiner

Receiver

Computer

Going long Distances with the IF is Possible at one site .

Low Frequency IF = Long Distances

Possible

Single Site Interferometer

ERAC,s Challenging Solution

• Amateur

• Linked

• Long

• Baseline

• Interferometer

• Network

RF Amp

Mixer

IF Amp

GPS Ant

Master Station

Time Computer

Computer

A/D 40MHz

100MSPS

AD9852 DDS

10MHZ Standard

10Mhz to 1200MHz PLL

InternetNavigation Computer

AD9852 DDS

Network time

An ALLBIN Station

AD9852 DDS

AD9852 DDS

100MHz CLK

Other Receivers

ERAC Controller

Motor Driver

House Clock

Other ALLBIN Stations

The ALLBIN Network

Internet

Easy Sky Location 1

RSP Data Computer

Easy Sky Location 2

Easy Sky Location 3

Location 1

Location 2

Location 3

Master Station

Remote Telescope Sites

Other Clients EU

Other Clients USA

RS232 CMD

ERAC Archive

Belgium

ERAC or SARA

Technische Daten DIAMETER 11.7 Feet / 3.6 metersF/D RATIO 0.36FOCAL LENGTH 50.12 in. / 127.3 cmGAIN @ 4.2 GHz 42.2 dBiGAIN @ 12.2 GHZ49.5 dBiFEEDHORN SUPPORT Quad LegSHIPPING WEIGHT: (Heavy Duty Polar-T Mount) 224 lb. /102 KgFINISH Black Powder Coat

4,90 mArtNr: 911-0026

www.doebis.de

€800

First of all you need a Dish ? we have found em and are cheep

Problems and Solutions Celestial Navigation and Tracking> Easy Sky Radio Sky Eyes

Axis Control> The ERAC dual Axis Controller

Receiver Design> Numerous Designs

Frequency & Phase Standard> GPS Disciplined Clock

Frequency Syntheses to 500MHz > AD9852 DDS Chip

Back End Design Numerous Designs

Data Processing and Publication Start With Radio Sky Pipe

The Mathematics of an Interferometer Network and with it the Software

Live Communication between Members and Remote Control /Internet

Data Archiving of Observed Data> Eric Smith the ERAC Server

Co-ordination of Observational Targets

Interaction Between Professional Observers

Celestial Navigation and Tracking

Easy Sky from Mathias Busch ! Radio Eyes from Jim Sky

Allow both Celestial Navigation and in part Telescope Control

Work needs to be done to allow remote control via the web of a telescope this will allow remote tracking the Basis of an Interferometer or joint Observation .

Control Computers

Navigation Telescope Control EASYSKY

DATA RadioSkyPipe

Turns Everything off

Axis ControlWith the new ERAC Controller it,s possible to move a Telescope with Simple RS232 Commands only. The Navigation Computer may be local or Remote It is cheep, Simple and more important Standardised.

MAX186and A/D in General

ERAC Axis Controller

Motor Driver

Manual Joystick

Forget Everything else, Use Windscreen wiper motors

Receiver DesignThe Receivers are of 2 Types:

High grade Multi-role units with front ends and back ends of the Conversion type to a common Back end IF with Common Detection systems like Million channel FFT/KLT or simple wide band Detection so allowing Spectral line work or Continuum work.

Dedicated units for things like Radio Jove or Solar Flair work or Radio Meteor Work , it is required to get such data easily also published on the Internet here the MAX186 and Radio Sky Pipe from Jim Sky are the tools to use

Callibration bay Noise Source and Prescishion Attenuator

Frequency and Phase Standard With the HP Z3801A GPS Time and Frequency Standard we have an

affordable solution to all frequency and timing problems we may have with Interferometer applications or exact Frequency measurement as is the case with Doppler shift Work. EBAY$250

GPS 10MHz Standard

DDS Frequency Synthesiser

Students Play ground

Back end The Hardware set up

The GPS Clock

10MHZ Clock

$249

DDS Componants

10>100MHz PLL

100>300 300>600 600>1200 MHz

PLL Master 1200MHz Clock

DDS Synthesyser

Rough AD9852 diagram without RF Filtering of output!

Chip configured for Serial command to keep things easy!

Back End Design The Back end is basically a wide band IF Receiver with low noise and high Gain that feeds a modern Detector element such as the AD8313 / AD8307 for Continuum work or an wide Band A/D Converter like the Million channel Spectrum Analyser or a Sound card and a Software solution, here it,s important to have an External Clock giving the Convert Command to the A/D Converter

Here the Hardware is Ready the software is however not !

Attention all Programmers

Data Processing and Internet Publication

With Radio Sky Pipe from Jim Sky a basic tool is online to publish data using Servers at Telescope Locations and an Unlimited number of Users as Clients all over the world this is the basis of first step publication this will be the benchmark for a later Phase locked Interferometer network , here however allot of new software will have to be written, the major needs however may be learned with Radio Sky Pipe

Jim we need you !

Radio Sky Pipe monitoring live data

The Mathematics of an Interferometer Network and

with it the Software.If 2 stations are Tracking and the locations are Known as well as the rotational speed of the earth it,s possible to calculate the fringes to get resolution this is however hard especially when more than 2 locations are used and they are not east west of each other , also Digital Phase delay needs to be calculated and simulated to optimise the results , Simulation is the one thing, dealing with real time errors is however the other thing , Pointing error at different locations is a problem that needs to be solved maybe with Single sweep of a known Target and both Axis Frozen to drift through ! A Mathematicians nightmare or his Paradise!

Hi Elmar

Live Communications between members

The Internet unfortunately is not used for live communications , mails yes but no chatting, this has to be implemented if we are to get on further , we need a live Engineering network because we are spread out all over the World when joint Observations come online this tool is vital .

Suggestions Please:

Times Dates , tools Yahoo Messenger e.t.c Who will Co-ordinate this

Volunteers !

Data Archiving of Observed DataThe ERAC Data Server in Belgium by Erik Smith.

How to fill it

How to read it

We need web tools

Hi Computer Freaks this is your bit

Co-ordination of Observational Targets

We need a co-ordinator who will set Goals and Coach people to reach such Goals , this is at best via ERAC and SARA . Once Data is Gathered he will have to publish the results.

Interaction between Professional Observers

Professionals have more money but less manpower than we do.

With ALLBIN we wish to build up a system that works , with a bit of Co-ordination it is possible to let Professionals use us to fill in gaps with their own Experiments if the Data is Compatible !

We have Widespread locations which Professionals could use to install Specific Equipment all over the world with Excellent Volunteer Support that they could no afford , this co-operation works both ways and is in the interest of Science, all that is needed is the will to do things Differently!

“Amateurs are Professionals with no official Financing”

E-mail to get together and do some pre thinking

Meet in a chat room to do socialising and Pre Run Engineering

Chat room online review and sample zone request

Using De-central Processing everyone shifts their data file

Master Station does best fit and tells all stations their Shift

Master Station Polls all stations for this portion only

Using GPS Time Start and Stop Run

Whole run sent to master via the internet or CDROM

New Portion , Master does best fit everyone shifts , Repeat , repeat , repeat...............

Master Station polls everyone and overlays each Package, results Shown online in chat room

Each Station Interpolates for itself, generates interpolation map file !

Master Correlates whole run , fills in on All Sky Survey, suggests next Target,s Publishes

So this is the Starcase to the ALLBIN Heaven

The Start Shot to the Network building Phase has been Sounded please Sign in !

Now we have to build it the new Future of Radio Astronomy for ERAC and SARA

The End Peter Wright ERAC

This lecture is dedicated to Geli and the rest of the gang at ERAC