ASTRON/JIVE Daily Image

© ASTRON

Prototype 2 of the Ambient L-band Feed (ALF) is ready to be hoisted into the Westerbork RT2 dish and will soon have "first light in the wild", after extensive testing of the signal chain in the lab at ASTRON. Based on the lessons learned from the Prototype 1 measurements earlier this year, the new ALF system is an uncooled, low-noise system that can provide 1 GHz of voltage data for two polarisations, from about 1.1 - 2.1 GHz. ALF incorporates many innovations and novel technologies. High dynamic range and bespoke filters are in place to tackle in-band radio frequency interference and to provide high-quality data for high-cadence fast radio burst observations.