| Description: | The signals from the LOFAR low- and high-band antennas are sent to a cabinet that houses the receivers (responsible for the digitisation of the analogue signals) and the digital processing boards that perform the initial, station based, digital processing steps. The cabinet also houses other equipment, such as a local control computer, a GPS disciplined rubidium clock, power supplies and a number of other auxiliary elements. The contents of a cabinet is assembled and tested in the LOFAR warehouse at Excel Assemblies in Emmen. The pictures above illustrate the process of transporting a cabinet on the back of a flat-bed trailer to the field where it is lowered onto a concrete platform. The signal cables from the antennas in the field are fed into the cabinet through inlets at the bottom. Initial cabinets will be tested before and after transport, to ensure that transporting filled cabinets does not affect the shielding that would lead to contamination of the extremely weak signals that the antennas receive. |
