Callisto is pleased to announce that an important milestone has been passed at the end of 2015 for its new “Compact”, zero maintenance cryogenic receiver including the Caltech designed QRFH feed: the first light on a VLBI telescope!
Thanks to the collaboration between Callisto and the University of Tasmania (UTAS), the prototype has been successfully mounted on UTAS telescope in Hobart, Tasmania and first observations have been done with success. This test phase has also brought a lot of useful information on the thermal behavior of the receiver in real operational conditions.
Improvements have been identified to optimize the design of the receiver in order to further improve the RF performance, optimize the input window thermal insulation and the mechanical and M&C design; in order to ease the installation in various VLBI antennas. The prototype unit has been upgraded with these improvements and it is now undergoing a second run of tests on the UTAS antenna to validate the improvements.
Callisto is also pleased to announce that UTAS has now placed an order for the first 3 production units in order to upgrade the entire AuScope VLBI network. Manufacture of the three units has already started at Callisto.
The full press release article, including the technical specifications and NT performance details can be downloaded here.