21 cm Detector Day 4

Today we did what we thought to be the final touch ups on the detector. Dr. Cummings however helped us to see that we need to fix the cable that acts as the 1/4 wavelength stub. We now have to desolder the cable from the cake pan to do this. Figure 1 shows the part of the detector that needs to be desoldered. Figure 2 shows how the wire should be cut. Figure 3 shows what the stub should look like. Dr. Hassel also found something that needs to be fixed. We soldered one end of the copper tape to the cake pan that should not be soldered down. The part that needs to be fixed is shown in figure 4. The rest of the day was spent trying to better understand what radio astronomy studies and what purpose our detector serves.

Figure 1: This is the cable that has to be fixed then re-soldered properly.

Figure 2: This is how the cable should have looked when we attached it.

Figure 3: This is the way that we have to solder the cable. The inside wire has to connect to the outside of the wire on one end. The other end needs to be connected like the right side of the image shows. Drawing courtesy of Dr. Hassel

Figure 4: This is the part that was soldered down that should not have been. We must desolder that tomorrow.