Technical Info on the SBMS / OVRO EME Project


The project utilizes OVRO's 40 meter antenna. This antenna was commissioned in 1967 and despite it's 130 foot diameter, has a very good surface accuracy for use up into X-band. F/D is about 0.4 and the feed is located at prime focus. The focal length is about 51 feet.

The antenna gain at 10 GHz is a whopping 71 dB! At 1296 MHz, it is a more modest 54 dB. We have successfully received echoes on CW and SSB on 10 GHz, using only 2 Watts of transmit power.