Sample 230-270 GHz VHF radio receiver for the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), 1986

Made around 1986, this sample radio receiver component was constructed at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton in Wiltshire. Operating at frequencies from 230-270 GHz this VHF radio receiver is fitted to the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). Located at an altitude of over 4000m on the mountain of Mauna Kea in Hawaii, the JCMT observes the at sky sub-millimetre wavelengths. Fitted with a high precision collecting dish 15m in diameter, the telescope is housed inside an observing building with massive doors. In operation these retract, revealing the telescope hidden behind a huge Gore-Tex fabric sheet. This protects the dish by stopping any distortion caused by the wind, yet allowing the radio waves through.