A Brief Outline of the European MKIV Upgrade.

The aim of the project is to upgrade European EVN MKIII stations to allow them to make :-

  • i) VLBA standard recordings for correlation at Socorro.
  • ii) MKIV recordings at data rates of up to 1 G bit/sec, which would be correlated at JIVE and Bonn.

    In order to achieve this, the following hardware changes are necessary:

  • Upgrade of the tape path to take thin tape.
  • Install new read/write electronics to drive two headstacks.
  • Modification of the baseband (video) converters.
  • Replacement of the formatter with a new design.
  • Modification of the decoder.

    The upgrade stations are :-

    Effelsberg. Germany. Jodrell Bank. United Kingdom. Medicina. Italy. Onsala. Sweden. Westerbork. Holland.

    Modification of the Baseband Converters.

    The modifications comprise :-

  • 1) Replacement of the upper and lower sideband filter boards with boards of an improved design and bandwidth.
  • 2) Replacement of sixteen chip and four radial capacitors in the SSB mixer. Full details of these modifications are described in sections two and three of the forthcoming manual.

    The modification of the baseband converters was completed as follows :-

    March 1995 : Jodrell Bank. April 1995 : Westerbork. August 1995 : Medicina. October 1995 : Onsala. December 1995 : Effelsberg.

    Project Manager: Dr. R.E. Spencer, NRAL. Engineer (BBC Upgrade) D.C. Holland, NRAL.