A Correlation Interferometer for 408 MHz

One day in the 1980’s I was helping a visiting scientist get his experiment set up at a remote site to the west of Ottawa. This site contained the decaying remains of decades of radio experiments. Among some trees I found an old shed, crammed to the roof with yagi antennas, combiners, hybrids and many matched lengths of heliax coaxial cable. Many were broken, but mixed in with the debris were some that were intact or not too damaged. They had 14 elements, but were broadband, with a coupled array of dipoles of varying lengths. They were equipped with bazooka baluns that bore a label announcing they were designed to work between 400 and 430 MHz. Everything was equipped with Type N connectors. I managed to get eight yagis into my little Toyota Corolla, along with some lengths of cable and an assortment of combiners. This led to my plan to make a 408 MHz radio telescope. The opportunity came several years later, after we had relocated my research programme, and me, to Penticton, British Columbia.