© Ilse van Bemmel & Warner Bros

On 3 October we had the kick-off meeting for the Ambient L-band Feed project, or ALF, for short. The scope of the project is to start development of room-temperature low-noise amplifiers (LNA’s) which can be used in an L-band receiver, leading to a technical demonstrator mounted in one of the Westerbork dishes. This type of receiver can observe Fast Radio Bursts (FRB), which are bright enough to be detected with a relatively small dish, provided there is sufficient time to stare at them (see the Kirsten et al 2024 Nature paper at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-023-02153-z ).

Combining the requirements from FRB observations with the relatively new technology of the ambient LNA systems sets a well-defined framework to start exploring the feasibility of such systems on longer term. It will provide a basis for deepening our understanding of present day L-band receiver technology, which was once at the basis of ASTRON’s origins.

The kick-off focused on informing the team members about the project, and have the opportunity to ask questions of the Project Scientist Jason Hessels, Principal Investigator David Prinsloo, and MT member Roelien Attema-van Waas. Of course there was a break with celebratory cake to mark this important moment. The second half of the meeting was used for team building and the Project Manager Ilse van Bemmel to get to know the team better, resulting in very useful feedback and lively discussions.

It was an exciting day with more exciting developments to come.