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06-03-2009
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HBA-Tile production at the LOFAR Assembly Unit

Submitter: Henri Meulman
Description: The “LOFAR Assembly unit” of Autonational in Exloo will be supplied on a daily basis with Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) parts for the High Band Antenna Tile (HBA-Tile). Assembled just like Lego or Knecks, the parts become an array of 16 antennas with a dimension of 5 x 5 meter and about half a meter high. 16 sensitive low noise amplifiers (LNA’s) are mounted into the tile and are connected with 32 coax cables to the two summators. These summators will add the signals from the amplifiers.

In the picture, an employee of Autonational is assembling an antenna and LNA into the HBA-Tile. When assembled, the antenna tile will be tested and covered. The tile will then be placed on a specially designed trailer, and transported to a warehouse, and later on to the field where it becomes part of the largest low frequency radio telescope in the world.
Copyright: Autonational, Astron, Meulman
 
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