a transmit receive switch 154 the resulting signals radiated by the excited nuclei in the patient may be sensed by the same rf coil 152 and coupled through the transmit receive switch 154 to a preamplifier 153 the amplified nmr signals are demodulated filtered and digitized in the receiver section of the transceiver 150 the transmit receive switch 154 is controlled by a signal from the pulse generator module 121 to electrically connect the rf amplifier 151 to the coil 152 during the transmit mode and to connect the preamplifier 153 during the receive mode the transmit receive switch also enables a separate rf coil for example a head coil or surface coil to be used in either the transmit or receive mode the nmr signals picked up by the rf coil 152 are digitized by the transceiver module 150 and transferred to a memory module 150 in the system control 122 when the scan is completed and an entire array of data has been acquired in the memory module 160 in the system control 122 an array processor 161 operates to fourier transform the data into an array of image data this image data is conveyed through the serial link 115 to the computer system 107 where it is stored in the disk memory 111 in response to commands received from the operator console 100 this image data may be archived on the tape drive 112 or it may be further processed by the image process or 106 and conveyed to the operator console 100 and presented on the display 104 referring particularly to fig1 and 2 the transceiver 150 produces the rf excitation field b 1 through power amplifier 151 at a coil 152 a and receives the resulting.