Arecibo Station Report (CBD Meeting, JB Nov 11, 2009)
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In June 2009, a 700-800 MHz receiver (cooled to 70 K) was added to
Arecibo's Gregorian dome. This takes advantage of the band freed-up in
June 2009 following the migration from analog to digital transmission,
with reallocation of frequencies, mandated for television stations in
the USA (and Puerto Rico). This receiver can be used with the VLBI/Mark5A
backend, and is open to all users.

For  VLBI applications, Arecibo expects to upgrade its data recording
rate to 4-Gbps in 2010. This will be achieved using RDBE and Mark5C
systems. Two Mark5C systems have already been purchased from Conduant,
and delivered to Arecibo. A purchase order for two RDBE systems has been
signed with the NRAO and delivery of the units is expected soon.

Arecibo is also working towards obtaining a 12-m Patriot antenna to be
used in conjunction with the 305-m dish for phase-referenced astronomical
VLBI observations.  This antenna could also be used for geodetic VLBI
operations. Ground work for installation of the antenna began on November
10th, 2009.

During the past year, Arecibo participated in many EVN, Global, HSA, and
eVLBI runs, plus single-dish baseband pulsar data recording (using the
MK5A system). It also took part in the International Year of Astronomy
(IYA) "24-hours of eVLBI" and the IYA "opening ceremony" demonstrations.