Author Topic: ... and on a brighter note  (Read 7304 times)

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Offline W3DRM

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Re: ... and on a brighter note
« Reply #25 on: March 06, 2010, 12:33:15 PM »
Here are a couple links to the VLA in New Mexico. Interesting reading...


Don - W3DRM - Emmett, Idaho --- Blitzortung ID: 808 --- FlightRadar24 ID: F-KBOI7
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Offline jay_hoehn

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Re: ... and on a brighter note
« Reply #26 on: March 06, 2010, 02:22:54 PM »
My son works for the organization that runs the VLA.  They are in the final stages of getting an array in Chile.  They are also trying to work out the details to put an installation in South Africa.  Interesting stuff.  I had the opportunity to visit the lab in Socorro, NM where the engineers are working on the new equipment.  WOW!

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Offline Cienega32

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Re: ... and on a brighter note
« Reply #27 on: March 06, 2010, 07:55:10 PM »
Interesting reads.

The technicians in the cryogenics lab build and maintain the refrigeration systems that cool the electronics inside the vertex room of the antennas. Here Tommy and Michael  are working on "cold heads." The coldhead will be installed in a vacuum dewar, and helium gas will be used to cool the system down to about 15ºKelvin, or -432ºFahrenheit.

The technicians must work in a clean environment. In some cases they wear white cotton gloves when handling the components. If oil from their hands gets on the components, it will freeze and act as an (unwanted!) insulator.

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Offline W3DRM

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Re: ... and on a brighter note
« Reply #28 on: March 06, 2010, 08:25:07 PM »
Does anyone know if there is a RF Quiet Zone around the Socorro VLA facility like there is for the Green Bank observatory in West Virginia?

I'd like to visit the area but as a ham operator I would also like to know what, if any, restrictions there may be relative to radio transmissions. They mention no cell phones allowed but that's all I can find on the NRAO web site for Socorro.

Don - W3DRM - Emmett, Idaho --- Blitzortung ID: 808 --- FlightRadar24 ID: F-KBOI7
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Offline Mark / Ohio

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Re: ... and on a brighter note
« Reply #29 on: March 06, 2010, 10:53:22 PM »
My cousin was there last of December and took this photo:



I should have asked him about it when he came home for Christmas.  He's been traveling the Western states for about a year now between jobs taking tons of photos for the rest of us back home to look at.
Mark 
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