STARTING-UP THE IRBENE 16-m FULLY STEERABLE PARABOLIC ANTENNA FOR RADIOASTRONOMIC OBSERVATIONS

The prospects of the Engineering Research Institute of the Ventspils Inter-national Radio Astronomy Center (VIRAC) for the future development are associated with modernization of the radio-telescope RT-16. Its 16-m fully steerable mirror antenna is a second of the kind located in the VIRAC territory. As a result of renovation of its infrastructure, the reliability of electric power supply has been improved, with the access established to the high-speed data transfer link of the Geant network through a 30 km optical communication cable. The gear ratio of the antenna's azimuthal rotation controller for the high-speed electric motor is ~ 850, and for the low-speed one it is ~ 54400. To control the azimuthal and elevation antenna's movement, a cabling scheme of the power supply and electric motors was devised. An experimental scheme for studying the operation of the antenna's drive was developed using static voltage converters (Simoreg DC-Master 6RA70) to power the 2.6 kW DC electric motors. The maximum power consumed by the positioning system to rotate the antenna in azimuth at the motor's rotational speed of 1000 rpm is 600-800 W. The low-speed motor of the drive can provide azimuthal rotation of the antenna at a speed of 14.76 °/min.