Thanks Ferdi,
The LOFAR system (Concept) was a distant dream during my time there. Even
during my short time there the BCAP project passed through three concept
changes which had at least one major concern, the stability of the time delay
of coax cables which brought signals from the various antennas to the
processing point. I made several trips to cable manufacturers to evaluate
phase shift and signal loss. Jan Hogbom from Sweden was a driving force in the
final change to the linear array/earth rotation system at Westerbork. An
incredibly brilliant person, who, among other things was concerned about
finding a wife. I lost contact with him many years ago.
In the years since I made several trips to The Netherlands, Belgium, and
France, for General Dynamics Astronautics for ESRO/ELDO proposed projects. I
wasn't able to contact anyone related to the radio telescope projects but did
meet some neighbors. The history of the BCAP project is the subject of a
thesis by a Belgian lady and if you are interested I can provide her name and
maybe an old email address.
LOFAR and similar systems were made possible by developments in precise timing
and great processing power. I have an early draft of a (probably never
finished) book I am writing for young engineers. One comment I make is,
"Anything I did in any given year could not have been done a year before.",
technology changes so fast.
Thanks and best wishes to all.
DAW~
From: rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On
Behalf Of F.W. Stutterheim
Sent: Saturday, August 15, 2020 4:49 AM
To: Rollei List <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [rollei_list] Re: I'm still here
Don, the Synthesis Radio Telescope at Westerbork is still there, however it is
more or less replaced by LOFAR:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-Frequency_Array_(LOFAR)<https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FLow-Frequency_Array_(LOFAR)&data=02%7C01%7C%7C095365af73e640c81d1808d8410086b2%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637330817794241519&sdata=evSSyPnlFMQgrOQ5Dwkp93SHw2b8NNj9PhyTFsAUkao%3D&reserved=0>
Ferdi.
----
Ferdi Stutterheim,
Drachten, Netherlands.
Op 11 aug. 2020, om 19:16 heeft Don Williams
<daw3237@xxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:daw3237@xxxxxxxxxxx>> het volgende geschreven:
During my time there I worked on what would later become the most advanced
radio telescope in the world. It was brought into life at Westerbork, a former
Jewish safety area and later a German concentration camp. I post comments
about this every few years. If you do a search on my Facebook you will see my
comments and some pictures of Then and Now. The radio telescope is a
significant monument to the people who were interred at the camp and later
transferred to Germany.
