© ASTRON

The heart of every international LOFAR station is housed in a specially shielded 20-foot container manufactured by Comtest Engineering. The container is designed to prevent Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) from either entering or escaping, ensuring the electromagnetic environment required for sensitive radio astronomical observations.

Inside the container, several 19-inch equipment racks accommodate the complete signal processing chain of the station. These include receiver units for the 4 × 96 antenna signals, UniBoard-based beamformers, the Local Control Unit (LCU), and the networking equipment that transports the processed data to the Central Processing (CEP) facility in Groningen, the Netherlands.

Together, these racks form an impressive collection of highly sophisticated and sensitive hardware, providing the processing power that enables the station to operate reliably while meeting the stringent electromagnetic compatibility requirements of radio astronomy.

Before shipment, the container was fully assembled, integrated, tested, and verified at the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) site. Following a successful journey to the Rozhen National Astronomical Observatory, it was installed at its final location in the center of the BG616 LOFAR station, where it will serve as the operational heart of the station.

During the next 10 weeks, the remaining station infrastructure will be installed, integrated, and thoroughly tested.