The AREA31 Radio Observatory was officially established early in the summer of 1999, with the installation of a 4.5 metre cassegrain C-band transportable satellite TV uplink trailer on the AREA31 Research Facility grounds . This equipment includes a high quality commercial Andrews spun aluminum antenna on a motorized ELevation over AZimuth positioner, and an electrically shielded, heated and air conditioned control room obtained from the Telesat Canada Corporation.

PHASE-1

This telescope will be used in the first phase of the Project TARGET SETI Program observing on a frequency around 4.83 GHz where it will have comparable sensitivity (~48 dB gain) and beamwidth (~0.8 degrees) to the 18 metre telescope employed previously by Project TARGET at the Algonquin Radio Observatory at a lower frequency of 1.42 GHz on the 21 cm Hydrogen Line.  This shorter wavelength is the home of spectral line radiation from Formaldehyde, a substance closely linked to life and DNA here on earth.  For this reason it is considered another SETI Magic Frequency worthy of searching.  There has been practically no SETI work done here yet making our work pioneering, publishable and potentially rewarding. 

Preliminary test observations of known galactic radio sources using a simple uncooled GaAs FET receiver have shown excellent performance from this antenna.  Chart recordings of a transit drift scan of M-17 and a rapid powered elevation scan across our moon are shown here. 

A high performance HEMT 6 cm band receiver must be built, and DSP FFT (Digital Signal Processing, Fast Fourier Transform) signal analysis equipment must be obtained.  We will build the receiver technology in-house.  A contract has been struck with Stanford University to provide us with a multi-megachannel SETI spectrometer. We still require the donation of specific microwave test equipment, Pentium computers and large screen SVGA color monitors .

PHASE-2

There is sufficient property secured here at AREA31 to install a compact array of dish antennas all linked together to form one larger, more sensitive radio telescope.  Efforts are currently underway to locate and obtain by donation, larger 7-13 metre decomissioned teleport type satellite dish antennas, and assistance, both financial and in services, to relocate and install them for this telescope expansion program.  Making a large collection area using many smaller antennas allows each element to be acquired, relocated and installed relatively inexpensively. Array elements will be available for use as soon as they are installed. The array can grow as funding and community support permits.  High winds at the site make the installation of a 30 metre class single antenna impractical, and the cost of the concrete pad required for a 30 metre antenna can exceed $1 Million, whereas the pad for a 10 metre antenna can be made in-house for $10 Thousand.  A 10 metre antenna can be disassembled and reassembled with casual volunteer  and/or local contract labor, plus inexpensive crane rental for a couple of days. In this way by using our policy of Reclaim, Recycle and Re-use, a large powerful radio telescope array may be established without major financial or contractual commitments.