INAF-Istituto di Radioastronomia

Medicina, Noto and SRT Report
by: A. Orlati, A. Orfei, G. Tuccari and F. Mantovani 

	
Medicina station report

1) Mark5:

Hard disks were purchased in order to assemble new modules before the 
June session. 13 3.2TB(8x400GB) were added to the VLBI network. 
By now a complete set of 5 960GB, 21 2TB and and 13 3.2TB 8-packs has been 
made available, for a total storage capacity of 83TB for astronomy and 9TB 
for geodynamic data. At the moment 20 disk-packs are available at the station 
for a total storage of more than 44TB.
	
Mark5 software version installed: 2.6.3x
	
Mark5 firmware version: 0xb8,0x19

2) Field System:

Field System version installed: 9.7.7. 
The VLBI sessions of June and Nov were ran with this release.

3) e-VLBI:

Last year, IRA and the regional government signed an agreement under 
which the government will pay for the installation and connection of a 
fiber optic link at 1Gb/sec between Medicina and Bologna. The work started 
at the beggining of 2005. At present the last mile is completed and the 
antenna control room is already reached by the optic link. The backbone 
between Medicina and the pop in Bologna is being deployed and it is 
foreseen to be finished within the end of the year.

4) Receivers:

Prototypes of MMIC InP Low Noise Amplifiers in the 18-26GHz band looks 
good in term of noise, return loss and stability. 
InP MMIC LNA in the bands 4-8GHz, 26-40GHz, 33-50GHz, 70-90GHz, 90-115GHz 
are on the way at the fundry. The delivery of the chips is expected for the 
end 2005. 


Noto Station

The AZ driving system was affected by a serious fault during the EVN
session in June. A new engine and a new encoder were needed. 
As soon as they were mounted, new problems arised in the communication
with the Antenna Control Unit. The antenna can be driven only manually.
Contacts with VERTEX could not solve the problems. A VERTEX expert is
visiting to the Noto Station to find the reason of that fault.


Sardinia Radio Telescope

The foundation of the telescope is ready. Pretty soon the AZ rail
will be mounted. The mounting of the mechanical structure will follows.
Part of the panel of the main mirror are ready as well as 400 actuators,
which will allow the active surface of the main mirror. The panels
of the secondary mirror are also ready.

Three receivers are under construction:
- a co-assial 300MHz-420MHz and 1300MHz-1800MHz receiver for the primary focus
- a 5.8GHz-7.8GHz receiver for the beam wave guide focus
- a multi-feed 22GHz receiver for the Gregorian focus of the telescope.