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Available Receivers

The properties of the currently available receivers are given in Table [*]. The columns of the table give the receiver name, frequency range, the typical System Temperature (T$_{\rm sys}$), Gain, System Equivalent Flux Density (SEFD) and Half Power Beamwidth (HPBW) for zenith angles below 15$^{\circ}$ as measured by Arecibo staff. For more extensive performance descriptions, including the detailed changes of T$_{\rm sys}$, Gain and SEFD with zenith angle (and possibly azimuth), consult http://www.naic.edu/~astro/RXstatus/ (and there click on the button for the receiver of interest.)

Apart from single-pixel receivers covering the complete range 1.1 - 10 GHz, plus three bands below 1 GHz, the Gregorian dome now contains the Arecibo L-band Feed Array (ALFA), which was installed in April 2004. ALFA is a seven-feed survey instrument, covering a band of 1225 - 1525 MHz. It offers excellent performance, with rapid sky ocverage. To exploit this instrument to the full, a number of consortiums have been set up to use ALFA for Extragalactic HI (EALFA), Galactic line and continuum (GALFA) studies, and Pulsar (PALFA) searches. Results are now appearing in all these disciplines. Full details of the ALFA observing system, its performance, joining an ALFA Consortium, and the latest ALFA news is to be found via, http://alfa.naic.edu/


Table: Available Receivers
Receiver Freq Range System Temp$^{a}$ Gain$^{a}$ SEFD$^{a, b}$ FWHM Beamwidth$^{a}$
Designation (GHz) (K) K/Jy Jy (at zenith) Az $\times$ ZA (Arcmin)
Carriage House
47 - T$_{\rm {sky}}$ - -  94 $\times$ 110
430ch 0.425 - 0.435 70 - 120 10 - 20 3.5 - 10 10 $\times$ 12
Gregorian Dome: Single-Pixel Receivers
327 0.312 - 0.342 90 + T$_{\rm {sky}}$ 10.5 11 14 $\times$ 15
430 0.425 - 0.435 35 + T$_{\rm {sky}}$ 11 5 10 $\times$ 12
610 0.6075 - 0.6115 100 + T$_{\rm {sky}}$ 10.5 11   7 $\times$ 8.5
  0.690 - 0.730         6 $\times$ 7.3
lbw 1.120 - 1.730 25 10.5 2.4 3.1 $\times$ 3.5
sbw 1.800 - 3.100 32 9.5 3.4 1.8 $\times$ 2.0
sb 2.240 - 2.340 25 10 2.5 1.8 $\times$ 2.0
  2.330 - 2.430 25 10 2.5 1.8 $\times$ 2.0
sbh 3.000 - 4.000 29 8.8 3.3 1.35 $\times$ 1.5
cb 3.850 - 6.050 31 8 3.9$^{c}$ 0.9 $\times$ 1.0
cbh 6.000 - 8.000 28 5.5 5$^{d}$ 0.65 $\times$ 0.75
xb 8.0 - 10.0 33 4.5 7.5$^{e}$ 0.5 $\times$ 0.6
Gregorian Dome: Feed Array
ALFA          
Center Pix 1.225 - 1.525 30 11 2.8 3.5 $\times$ 3.9
Outer Pixs 1.225 - 1.525 30 8.5 3.5 3.5 $\times$ 3.9
Receiver Notes
a) T$_{sys}$, Gain and SEFD all vary with zenith angle (and to a lesser degree with azimuth). T$_{sys}$ and SEFD increase with zenith angle, while Gain decreases. The FWHM in ZA increases with zenith angle.
b) SEFD, the System Equivalent Flux Density (= T$_{sys}$/G) is the system temperature expressed in Jy/beam.
c) At 5 GHz.
d) At 6.9 GHz.
e) At 9 GHz.


next up previous
Next: Local Oscillators (LOs) and Up: The Arecibo Observatory and Previous: The Telescope Optics and
2005-09-29