4. Progress report on 21-cm. research by the Netherlands Foundation for Radio Astronomy and the Leiden Observatory

Extract

From November 1953 to August 1955, about 2500 line profiles have been measured with the Kootwijk receiver, under the supervision of Ir C. A. Muller. His receiver is of the well-known frequency-switching type. Two pairs of channels in the second i.f. amplifier, about 5 Mc./s., have band-widths of 36 kc./s. The components of one pair are 1080 kc./s. apart; the second pair is shifted 500 kc./s. with respect to the first. Each pair of channels, combined with the continuously variable second local oscillator and with the fixed, crystal-controlled pair of first local oscillators, which are also 1080 kc./s. apart, gives a switching system. The power at a certain frequency is compared with that at a 1080 kc./s. higher frequency during half the switching period and with that at a 1080 kc./s. lower frequency during the other half by switching between the two first local oscillators. The signals are fed through an integrating network with a time constant of 54 sec. At the outputs of the two pairs are two separate recorders, each giving one-half (or more) of a line profile (see Fig. 1). A continuous frequency calibration of the second local oscillator provides 10 kc./s. markers on the records, accurate to 1 in 10⁶. The limiting sensitivity is 0·7°K., with an overall noise figure of 6·3 (8·0 db.). The 7·5 m. Würzburg aerial has a beam-width between half-power points of 1°·9 × 2°·7.