Design, constructional aspects and first results of a solar radio spectrograph

Abstract

A solar radio spectrograph (SRS), constructed at our School of Physics to study the dynamic activities of the sun, is described. It consists of the following four parts: (i) antenna system, (ii) analog receiver system, (iii) control system, and (iv) data acquisition and recording system. The antenna system is a log periodic array with 8 dB gain and bandwidth of 50 MHz. The receiver system is a double stage superheterodyne receiver with a overall gain and bandwidth of 50 MHz. The receiver system is a double stage superheterodyne receiver with a overall gain of 80 dB. The control system consists of IEEE 488 GPIB card and a PC to control the sweeping frequency synthesizer which is acting as one of the local oscillator in the receiver. The data acquisition and recording system include a hi-speed data acquisition card and a PC for acquiring the observed data and recording the same for the reproduction of the spectra. The spectrograph is acquiring observational data on solar radio bursts in the bandwidth of 30-80 MHz, which is quite important for understanding the physics of flares and bursts. Its calibration and reproduction of the observed results using it are also described.