| Description: | For the connection of the 48 High Band Antennas and 96 Low Band Antennes within each LOFAR station, 25 km of coaxial cable is used. In the roll-out phase of the project, we now use cables of four different lengths. This represents a significant saving over the approach used in the test stations, where all cables had the same length. The slack that remains in many cables is accomodated in special trenches close to the cabinet. The difference in length is compensated early on in the signal chain. The cables are laid at a depth of 30 cm following a blueprint that differs for each station, and that is based on the local features (orientation of the field, access roads, natural hazards but also the placement of the LBA and HBA antenna fields). The cables are fed into the cabinet through a series of inlets at the bottom of the platforms on which it rests. |
