http://arxiv.org/pdf/1606.03533.pdf

Testing a modified ASKAP Mark II phased array
feed on the 64 m Parkes radio telescope

Installing a phased array feed (PAF) at the focus
of a concentrator, together with digital beamforming,
enhances the antenna’s field of view, survey
speed, and operational flexibility. This is achieved
by forming and processing beams covering many
adjacent directions on the sky at the same time.

The Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy
(MPIfR) is collaborating with CSIRO to deploy a
PAF on the Parkes 64 m radio telescope and later
on the Effelsberg 100 m telescope. MPIfR and
CSIRO will initially use the PAF to look for fast
radio bursts (FRBs). These are unexplained radio
emissions that last only of order milliseconds but
appear to come from the distant universe. The
PAF monitors more of the sky at any instant and so
increases the chances of discovery and localisation.

CSIRO designed the PAF for the Australian SKA
Pathfinder telescope (ASKAP) to demonstrate
fast astronomical surveys with a wide field of view
for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) over 0.7 GHz
to 1.8 GHz. The SKA is an international project to
build the world’s largest radio telescope, with one
square kilometre of collecting area.

The ASKAP PAF was designed for the remote
Australian SKA site at the Murchison Radioastronomy
Observatory (MRO) within a legislatively
protected radio-quiet zone. To operate at
Parkes and Effelsberg, the PAF was fitted with narrower
sampling filters that accept the 1.2–1.75 GHz
band and reject interference from mobile phone services.