David, G8UOD reports that the Saturday visit to Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory went very well. We were given a brief history of the site from the war through to becoming a site for antennas to monitor the skies.
We were shown the museum, which is quite small, but had some interesting items from the early days, including part of the German radar equipment, which was initially used with some modifications.
We were shown several of the arrays, including the one mile and half mile antennas and the 4C array made of conventional structured antennas, only lots of them.
The last time we visited the site was back in 2003 and the long array of dishes on the old railway line have now been clustered as the technology now available enables the University to do the same job as the old. We visited the millimetre antennas which were being built the last time we visited.
Peter was a very good host and we all enjoyed ourselves, although some would have liked a bit more info on what the information received was used for, but Peter pointed out that he was an engineer and the academics at the university would have to be the ones to give that information.
The tour started about 11.00 and ended at 14.15. I thanked Peter on behalf of the club. All in all an enjoyable experience.