Working Group on RFI Measurements (WGRM)
Overview: The Working Group on RFI Measurements (WGRM) was created by the International SKA Steering Committee (ISSC) of the International SKA Consortium in February 2003, and given the mission to develop a standard procedure for measurements of RFI in support of the SKA site selection efforts. This web page documents the membership and deliberations of the WGRM.
Maintainer:
S.W. Ellingson
This page is http://esl.eng.ohio-state.edu/~swe/wgrm/docserv.html
WGRM Members
- Roberto Ambrosini, Italy, r.ambrosini@ira.cnr.it
- Ron J. Beresford, Australia, Ron.Beresford@csiro.au
- Albert-Jan Boonstra, The Netherlands, boonstra@astron.nl
- Steve Ellingson (Chair), USA, ellingson.1@osu.edu
- Ken Tapping, Canada, ken.tapping@hia.nrc.ca
Objective & Ground Rules
The objective of the WGRM is to develop a standard for obtaining measurements of RFI in support of SKA site selection activities. Here are the ground rules given by the ISSC committee on Siting and Hosting the SKA:
- Final result must be a document of 5 or fewer pages
- Document must propose a procedure & standards for performing RFI measurements in support of SKA site characterization activities
- First complete draft due to ISSC by 1 May
Here are some implied, but not necessarily firm requirements for this work:
- Measurement procedure must survey entire specified frequency range of SKA: 150 MHz - 20 GHz
- Measurement procedure must identify all (with reasonable certainty) potentially harmful RFI; definition of "harmful" per ITU-R RA.769-1.
Working Group Documents
- Presentation Given at Int'l SKA Meeting in Geraldton (Powerpoint), July 2003.
- RFI Measurement Protocol for Candidate SKA Sites (PDF), May 23, 2003.
- RFI Measurement Protocol for Candidate SKA Sites (PDF), May 20, 2003.
- SKA Site RFI Measurement Protocol (DRAFT) (PDF), April 20, 2003.
- S.W. Ellingson, RFI Measurements for SKA (DRAFT Proposal/Discussion Document) (PDF), April 7, 2003. Also available as latex source.
Background Documents / Previous Work
These documents are indexed here to provide some background and a compendium of previous, related work in this area. The listing of documents below do not necessarily constitute recommendations for the current effort.
- A.-J. Boonstra (ASTRON), Info on RFI monitoring from ASTRON (PDF) and Some questions on RFI monitoring (PDF), 03 Mar 2003.
- R. Ambrosini (CNR), Info on RFI monitoring at Istituto di Radioastronomia (TXT) and some PowerPoint slides, 24 Feb 2003.
- G. Bower (UCB), RFI Monitor at Hat Creek (HTML), 16 Aug 2001.
- N. Duric (UNM), RFI Measurements in support of LOFAR in the American Southwest (HTML), 10 Oct 2002
- S.W. Ellingson (OSU), "A Survey of RFI below 270 MHz" (PDF), October 29, 2002.
- S.W. Ellingson (OSU), "A High-Resolution Survey of RFI at 1200-1470 MHz as Seen by Argus" (PDF), October 29, 2002.
- S.W. Ellingson (OSU), "A Survey of 1200-1800 MHz Using a Discone and a Spiral with the Argus Front End" (PDF), October 12, 2002.
- International Telecommunication Union (ITU), "Handbook on Radio Astronomy," 1995.
- International Telecommunication Union (ITU), ITU-R RA.769-1: Protection criteria used for radioastronomical measurements, Oct 95.