In support of our Deuterium survey project CCERA has acquired a surplus 5.5M dish antenna that was formerly deployed at the Smiths Falls Gateway of the Globalstar network. Thanks to the careful and precise work of the expert salvage technicians at Falls Iron and Metal we were able to acquire just the critical reflector surface, without the exceedingly-heavy and expensive equipment hub and mounting hardware, which made the whole assembly weight roughly 1800Kg–much to heavy and cumbersome for CCERA to manage. The surface is made in 12 equal segments that bolt together, and combined weigh in at less than 400kg–this will make it vastly easier to handle, and to create a mounting arrangement for it.

An external photo-album shows the various pieces, and the final disposition of the reflector segments at the CCERA lab site.

Look for updates in the coming weeks as we assemble the reflector, and design and build a mount that will have it pointing full-time at the North Celestial Pole in support of our Deuterium survey.