MWA News & Highlights

MWA Prototype Achieves First Light from all 32 Tiles

The MWA is planned to be an array of 512 tiles, each comprising 16 dipole antennas. The MWA prototype now under construction is about 6% of full scale, consisting of 32 tiles (coincidentally a total of 512 DIPOLES).

The July 2009 site visit to Boolardy station saw the milestone of first-light from all 32 tiles in the prototype.

In the figure, the spectra show full coverage across the MWA receving band, 80 to 300 MHz. With the exception of two satellite transmission bands, the sky is quite dark, in radio terms. These are precisely the conditions that brought the MWA to Boolardy to start.

Each tile generates two traces, one for each polarization. These are delivered to the MWA digital receivers (there are four for now - designated RX in the figure), each of which processes the output of 8 tiles. This high level of signal rejection that can be achieved, because of receiver design features, enables the MWA to isolate the satellite transmissions and observe "around" them. As well, the satellite transmissions change over the day - as demonstrated here by the absence of satellite emission at about 140 MHz at the time these spectra were acquired from receiver 2.

Last update (22 September 2009)