Sensitivity of an Active Antenna Array Element for the Low-Frequency Radio Telescope GURT

Abstract

The recently developed new generation, low-frequency Giant Ukrainian Radio Telescope (GURT) is built nearby the well-known Ukrainian T-shaped Radio Telescope. The new facility employs a phased antenna array composed of many subarrays of $5 \times 5$ active antenna elements. In this paper, the parameters of the active antenna used as array element are studied, with special attention paid to sensitivity. The electrical and noise parameters are calculated using computer simulation and wave techniques for noise modeling of two-port networks. The results of numerical calculations of the sensitivity are given in terms of the sky noise dominance (SND) and system equivalent flux density of the GURT element within 10–80 MHz. The calculated results are compared with in situ measurements.