November 2, 2015 The signal chain development team at MIT Haystack Observatory has passed a key milestone in completing the full backend integration in their electronics laboratory. The backend subsystem involved the RF distributor, up-down converters, digitizers, and recorders. The completed backend subsystem has now been transported to and integrated at the Westford station, where a comprehensive series of KPGO-like observing and validation tests will be conducted, including zero-baseline tests side-by-side with the existing Westford broadband geodetic system. Detail of the four digitizers (a.k.a. RBDE-G), which sample and quantize the down-converted broadband analog signals into 8 digital streams (2 polarizations each) recorded by the Mark 6 recorder. The completed (black rack) KPGO backend standing next to the (blue rack) Westford broadband backend. Shown from top to bottom are (left) the frequency and time reference distribution amplifiers, radio-frequency distributor, up-down converters, digitizers, server, and (right) two Mark6 recorders.
