This summer (2023) I built a smaller horn and automated its elevation control with a stepper motor. My idea was to build a prototype of a roof(?)-mounted scope that could do drift scans on the meridian (and also have the ability to aim itself down for hot calibrations) The system runs on WiFi, with both data collection software and an Arduino sketch (to control the stepper) running on the Raspberry Pi. The Pi is mounted on the back of the telescope's waveguide. EM noise is not a big problem! I get a few distinct noise peaks, but these are easily dealt with in data handling software (see figure on the left.) Since the horn aperture is smaller than my other telescope (only 36 cm x 29 cm) the overall statistics are not as robust as those obtained with the larger scope.
Frequency plot, with EM noise peaks evident around 1419.6 and 1421.3 MHz.
Velocity plot of same data, with the EM peaks removed.
The Andromeda Galaxy is a nearby neighbor, another spiral like our Milky Way. It's also coming at us at 100 km/s! Given that the Andromeda Galaxy is quite large in the night sky (comparable in size to a full Moon.) I thought it would be cool to see if I could detect the blue-shifted hydrogen signal. I used my big telescope for this one, and collected data from the same spot in the sky for 1-1/2 hours, adjusting the scope orientation every 7 minutes to track Andromeda. Is there a signal at -100 km/s? If so, it's VERY weak. Have a look at the data below to see for yourself.