In order to improve the ability of astronomical observation and research, Yunnan Observatories installed the new C-band and Ku-band feeds at 40-meter radio telescope in June 2016. The commissioning and acceptance of the C-band receiver was completed at the end of September.
On October 20th and 21st, the 40-meter telescope (Kunming station, site code Km) joined both the network monitor experiments (NME) of Europe VLBI Network (EVN) in C-band (5cm and 6cm) with the observing code N16M3 and N16C3 respectively. Fringes, including in the high-data-rate (2Gbps) mode, were successfully obtained in these two experiments. The detail of the results can be accessed at here: http://www.evlbi.org/tog/ftp_fringes/N16M3/scan08_Km/index.html and http://www.evlbi.org/tog/ftp_fringes/N16C3/. The performance of Kunming station won positive comment from the EVN TOG experts.
Fig.1 From left to right: fringes of 5cm-band, 6cm-band and 6cm-band in 2Gbps mode, between Km and Effelsberg
NMEs of EVN are aimed to confirm the observational status of each station and find problems before the formal session. The success of Km station in the two NMEs directly and effectively illustrated the good performance of the new installed C-band feed and receiver, which laid the foundation of Km’s future co-operation with international VLBI networks in C-band.
Meanwhile, we have tested the C-band observational system with pulsar observations, and nine mean profiles were obtained so far. Figure 2 gives the results of the two strong pulsars, PSR J0358+5413 and PSR J0835-4510.
Fig.2 Mean profiles of PSR J0358+5413 (Top panels), PSR J0835-4510 (Bottom panels).
Left: total relative flux vs. pulse phase; Right: flux and Polarization Angle vs. pulse phase.