Click on these links and then the thumbnails.

• Antenna and Rotor
• Control Box
• Horn and LNA
• First Drip

Rotor and Antenna Pictures     Rotor   Rotor out of its case   Gears   Close up of the Azimuth gears Antenna Paraclipse antenna and feed horn Horn Close up of the feed horn.  A bit pitted from being out in the salt air.  This horn now retired for a circular

Going Up

Rotor on deck table ready to put on pole - 12/28/98.  The thing weighs 60 lbs and was produced in Japan to act as a precision TVRO positioner.  I bought It new in 1986 and used it during the "first search" for several years.  Then, as I became busy with other distractions - like earning a living - it sat unused. 

Last year I wanted to get the system running again and pulled the rotor off the poll.  The piston, that controls the elevation, had frozen in the case and had to be knocked out with a sledge hammer.  A full year later I am nearly back to the place where I can put the antenna back on top of the rotor.

Mounted Rotor mounted on pole ready for the antenna	Helper Brother in-law Eddie Kennedy made moving the rotor to the pole possible.
Control Box Antenna, rotor and control box mounted and working.  This control box retired for newer design	Control box with door open.
Testing Antenna now ready for feed horn (New Years day 1999)

Control Box

The control box manages the interface between the rotor and the main computer in my shack.  It has twin RS-485 controllers, one for Az the other for El, and power supplies for the controllers, the rotor motors and the LNA.

Control Box - Under construction.	Control Box - Nearly finished
Controller The control box has three of these control modules, one for Azimuth, Elevation and Head End control (filter in/out).

Horn and LNA Assembly

Horn & Choke Horn and Choke Ring as received from Radio Astronomy supplies	LNA Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) also from RAS.
Connection  LNA and Flexible hard-line.

The LNA was attached directly to the horn feed point and the flexible hard-line was not used in the final configuration.

Button Hook

Horn and Mount ready to mate to the LNA tube.  

After conferring with the SETI League Argus group I am ready to complete the mount.

Mount LNA tube ready to be cut for horn	Horn/LNA Horn with LNA and Co-Ax connected.  This has been replace by the Head End electronics box.
Running Different view - The RG-9913 Co-Ax goes directly to my shack about 30 feet away.

The LNA is enclosed in a small plastic box and the N type connector sealed with a type of sealing tape purchased from my local Ham Radio Outlet store.

First Drip

First light from the Waterhole,  2 April 1999.  This is the signal from the Weak Signal Source about 30 feet from the antenna on top of a step ladder.  The Spectrum Analyzer is running at:

1. Scan Width - 1 MHz / div
2. Band Width - 100 kHz
3. Freq - 1.4208 MHz

[ Up ] [ Antenna ] [ Receiver ] [ Test Equipment ]