Installation of the new VGOS receiver

The RAEGE Station of Santa Maria (RAEGSMAR) was recently equipped with a new high-tech VGOS receiver. The radio telescope of this station, with a 13.2m diameter paraboloid, was previously equipped with a tri-band receiver (S/X/Ka) until last October, which allowed us to participate in IVS R1/R4 sessions since May 2021.

During the month of October, the RAEGE Santa Maria station was the stage for intense and exciting integration work on the VGOS network, with the installation of this new receiver (represented on the right). The installation of this high-tech equipment allows the station to improve the VLBI data and thus walk alongside the most prestigious institutions, observatories, and stations in the pursuit of the Community of Space Geodesy's goal of 1 mm precision and 0.1 mm/year accuracy.

Over the course of two weeks, a team of 5 engineers from Yebes Observatory, together with the local 10-person team from RAEGE Santa Maria (see figure below) successfully installed the new receiver and backend equipment: one DBBC3, two MARK6, baseband down-converters, and a new cable delay measurement system (CDMS).

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