[IGSMAIL-1676] Modification of Rogue Antenna Fence at Tidbinbilla Australia

[Nigel]

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IGS Electronic Mail      Sun Aug 31 23:28:08 PDT 1997      Message Number 1676
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Author: Nigel Chauncy  Tidbinbilla SPC-40 Australia 
Subject: Modification of Rogue Antenna Fence at Tidbinbilla Australia

     Subject: Modification of Rogue Antenna Fence 
     
     IGSmail
                Just a quick note to inform you that we have made some 
     changes to the fencing around the Rogue Antenna at the Canberra deep 
     space communication complex at Tidbinbilla. 
        During a recent visit to SPC-40 by Arthur Neil from Haystack we had 
     some discussion about the fencing arrangements surrounding our Rogue 
     antenna. It is possible that the previous arrangements, which include  
     solid horizontal timber beams above the height of the antenna, may 
     have been interfering with the received signal, especially when tracking 
     SVs at low elevations. To solve this problem we have removed the top rail.  
     While removing the top rail I took some measurement to find the angle that 
     the fence was above the antenna(With some simple trigonometry?;>) At the 
     closest point the angle was about 9 degrees  With the top rail removed the 
     angle was reduced to about 2.5 degrees.
        In the interest of deterring any cows or Kangaroos from getting into 
     the compound we have replaced the top rail with some nylon rope (5mm dia). 
           We made this change on Monday 25th August. Before the removal of the 
     top rail we had logged the snr's from the receiver for all sv passes. We 
     have continued logging  the snr's, to try and get some comparison to see if 
     it made any difference. These very large MS Excel are available if any one 
     would like to look at them.  
             From what I can gather from the data our change in fencing 
     arrangement has made very little difference.  
     
        If you have any questions or advice please lets us know.
     
     Regards
     
     Nigel. 
     
     Email: Nigel.C.Chauncy at jpl.nasa.gov   or
            nchauncy at tid.cdscc.nasa.gov


[Mailed From: Nigel C Chauncy <Nigel.C.Chauncy at jpl.nasa.gov>]