1.42 GHz Radio Telescope Receiver
Summary
High school science fair project. I began development of this 1.42 GHz radio astronomy receiver during the summer of 1995, and finished the project in the spring of 1997. This system was developed for the Grosse Pointe South Radio Astronomy Team (RATS as we were known). It is a triple conversion superhet receiver, with a spectrum analyzer IF. The analog (square law amplitude vs. frequency) output of the spectrum analyzer was fed into an analog signal processor designed using an array of 24 op-amps which would automatically track the four strongest signals and plot their frequency and amplitudes vs. time on a series of strip chart recorders.
Press
‘Pointer of Interest,’ Grosse Pointe News, December 1997.
Reports, Notes, and Schematics
International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 1997 Abstract.
Report on the radio telescope (this was written when I was 17 years old, so please forgive the english/technical reporting methods).
Figures from the report, schematics, and engineering notes.
Detroit Science and Engineering Fair 1997 Poster Board.
Elevation Motion Control System (schematics and notes).
Awards
INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING FAIR LOUISVILLE, KY MAY 1997: "Identifying and Reducing Radio Frequency Interference Through Spectrum Analysis", Grand Award Finalist, Second Place Grand Award in Engineering, the NASA Award, and Honorable Mention from the American Acoustical Society.
DETROIT SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING FAIR DETROIT, MI APRIL 1997: "Identifying and Reducing Radio Frequency Interference Through Spectrum Analysis", First place in Engineering, First place Army Award, First place Air Force Award, Most Outstanding 11th Grade Exhibit from Yale Science and Engineering Associates, First Place Grand Award from the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers, Third Place from the state of Michigan and Grand Award Alternate.
image from ISEF 1997
Image after re-constructing the system in my basement during the COVID outbreak
receiver at home next to my PhD radar system
Part of the IF was made from a Harris RF VHF ship-to-shore radio
I repaired this old Log detector from NRAO, possibly from the collapsed 300ft telescope
frequency muxing circuit
blanking circuit
North-South positioner
NRAO log detector (see above)
Front panel of the freq mux and the blanking circuits
front panel of the IF
rear panel RF section, built into an old PDP11 rack
rear panel video section
DC interconnects for video section
more DC and video interconnects
LO sweeper for IF
main power panel
positioner front panel
rear panel for all data and etc going to roof location
receiver back up and running on display
display at Detroit Science and Engineering Fair downtown at Cobo Hall
