flight model

FM flight model CALLISTO

Picture of an e-CALLISTO installed in Humain at the "Royal Observatory of Belgium".

Evaluation of the lowest possible receiving frequency with CALLISTO receiver. It is found to be 44.4MHz. Even so, we define the directly observable lowest frequency to 45.0MHz.

Staircase rf-signal was produced using a synthesized signal generator hp8660A.

Evaluation of the highest possible receiving frequency with CALLISTO receiver. It is found to be 874.4MHz. Even so, we define the directly observable highest frequency to 870.0MHz

Staircase rf-signal was produced using a microwave source EIP931.

Callisto as shortwave-receiver:

CALLISTO expanded with a short-wave upconverter FC174 from CONRAD electronics in Germany (order number 252050).
Upconverter input range: 8.0MHz...74.0MHz
Upconverter output range: 108MHz...174MHz which is excelently within CALLISTOs receiving range.
The reason for the ghost-singal in the center of the plot left is probably produced inside of the low cost up-converter. There also some strong carrier signals present which have some influence to the output signal.

Staircase rf-signal was produced using a synthesized signal generator hp8660A

Example of a shortwave converter:

Here an example of a self made Converter, with band pass filter at the input followed by an amplifier, mixer/oscillator and a band pass filter at the output. All the parts are mounted on an aluminum board.

Parts list:

Oscillator

Mini-Circuits ZX-95-1600W

Mixer

Mini-Circuits MCL ZFY-11

Amplifier

min. 20MHz-80MHz, low noise

Attenuator

10dB-20dB if needed

Filter

Mini Circuits SHP-25+ (at Input)

Mini Circuits SLP-100 (at Input)

RLC 60011663-003 (at output)

Another example of a shortwave converter: :

This is a simply made converter, consisitng of a bandpass filter at the input, the short-wave upconverter FC174 from CONRAD electronics [LO = 100MHz], and a bandpass filter at the output. The filters were self-made.

Callisto on its own frequency range:

Solar radio event recorded at sun tower STS in the center of Zurich using full frequency range of CALLISTO-FM.

Antenna: 5m parabola with linear log-per feed.

Callisto as a L-band receiver:

Passage through quiet sun with 5m parabola at Bleien observatory. We see the downconverted signal from L-band 1330MHz...1450MHz. Downconversion was done with our ARGOS FFT receiver (1290MHz...1540MHz downto dc...250MHz).

Passage was made using passage-function of antenna control software with about 8 degree deflection with a speed of about 0.2 degree per second. Thus we see three times cold sky (blue) and quiet sun (green) at 21cm wavelength.

Antenna: 5m parabola with log-per linear vertical feed

Callisto as a backend to ARGOS heterodyne-receiver

Our new ARGOS double super heterodyne receiver converts the frequency range from 1GHz up to 2GHz down to 1MHz till 1GHz. In this example the range 1045MHz - 1870MHz is converted to 45MHz ... 870MHz which is within the frequency range of CALLISTO.
The rf- stair case signal was produces by a ROHDE&SCHWARZ SM300 rf-signal generator.

Callisto as a S-band receiver:

Callisto as S-band receiver using a s-band converter KU2030A from Kuhne company in Germany. KU2030A converts 2000,5...3000MHz down to 0,5 ...1000MHz.
Key parameters of KU2030A:
rf input frequency: 2000,5MHz ... 3000MHz
if output frequency: 0,5MHz ... 1000MHz
Noise figure: typ. 2,5dB
Gain: typ. 30dB
Birdies at: 111,11MHz multiplied by N
Supply: 12V dc, 100mA

Callisto as a C-band receiver:

Here we used an old TELANOR C-band down converter 3.7GHz...4.2GHZ (California Amplifier).
Downconverter input range: 3.7GHz...4.2GHz
Output range: 950MHz...1450MHz
Noise: 25K (?)
Ser. Number: 608 00 38 092
Frequencyfile frq03550.cfg
The converter was (mis-) used out of its frequency specification!

Staircase rf-signal was produced using a ROHDE&SCHWARZ microwave signal generator SMR20 (1GHz...20GHz).

Callisto as a X-band receiver:

Here we used a modern Ku-band satellite LNB part number 5930404
Low band: 10.7GHz..11.7GHz, LOF 9.75GHz
NF 0,8dB
Frequencyfile frq10000.cfg
The converter was (mis-) used out of its frequency specification!

Staircase rf-signal was produced using a ROHDE&SCHWARZ microwave signal generator SMR20 (1GHz...20GHz).

Check of remote atomic clock DCF77 (Braunschweig Germany) compared to local clock on host-PC which was locked to an unknown network-clock. DCF77 never transmits the 59th bit as a preparation for the next minute event. The width of the pulses is proportianl to the logic state of the transmissioned bits. In this example we see that the missing bit is about 0,3sec too early or in other words the PC-clock is about 0,3sec behind atomic clock. From actual data we know that the x-axis-error is in the order of less than +-0,5sec. More detailed analysis will be part of a students practical course.

The situation can be improved using atomic clock controlled PC and external triggered CALLISTO. In this case CALLISTO was free running on its internal quartz oscillator.

Input reflection coefficient visualized in VSWR.
hp-network analyzer measures with respect to 50 ohms, while Callisto has an imput impedance of 75 ohms.
Impedance mismatch may be improved by inserting a matching pad. But broadband matching pads have an attenuation in the order of 6dB which influences the noise figure in a negative way.
Thus we decided to take it as it is, that means we connect a 50 ohm antenna cable directly to the 75 ohms antenna input connector of Callisto spectrometer.

Calculated noise figure of FM1 receiver #5.
NF with power splitter switched on is in the order of 8dB, acc. to specification.

Signal/Noise reduction due to high sampling rate. Tuner RX#10, RX#11,
RX#5 and RX#9 of the flight models were tested.
It's better than expected! No problem to work with 1000 measurement points / second.

Created: Christian Monstein, 2004-02-19, 2004-03-04/cm, 2004-03-09/cm, 2004-04-02/cm, 2004-05-21/cm, 2005-01-04/cm

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