Its range is as close as 4 miles (6 kilometers) above the Earth to several billion light years away, at the edge of the known universe. Frequencies and range: The system operates at frequencies between 50 MHz and 10,000 MHz (10 GHz), with wavelengths between 6 meters and 3 centimeters.The whole structure is attached to trolleys that move along the 304-foot-long curved feed arm suspended above the dish. One reflector is 72 feet in diameter, the other, 26 feet. The suspended mirrors, and associated sensitive receiver systems and new radar transmitter, are housed in a six-story, 90-ton, 86-foot diameter enclosure. The new mirrors: The Gregorian reflectors are suspended 450 feet (137 meters) above the primary reflector dish.The screen reduces radio noise emitted by the ground that gets into the receiver systems. This screen has an area of about 16,000 square meters, the size of five football fields. The ground screen is 50 feet high surrounding the perimeter of the primary antenna, the reflector dish. Its surface is made of 38,788 reflective aluminum panels, each 3 feet by 6 feet. The dish and screen: The reflector dish is 1,000 feet in diameter (305 meters) with a depth of 161 feet (51 meters), as big as 26 football fields, covering 18 acres. This upgrade also was funded by the NSF and NASA, with a contribution from Cornell. Also included in this upgrade are a 50-foot-high, steel wire mesh ground screen around the perimeter of the 1,000-foot dish, which shields the telescope's receiving system from radio noise radiated from the surrounding ground, and a new 1 megawatt transmitter for planetary studies. The Gregorian reflector system will allow the telescope to operate over the full frequency range allowed by the accuracy of the 38,788 panels of the primary reflector, up to 10 GHz.
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