COORDINATION OF APPARATUS-LICENSED SERVICES WITHIN THE AUSTRALIAN RADIO QUIET ZONE (ARQZWA) 1.0 Introduction/Background 1.1 Background The radio astronomy service uses extremely sensitive radio receiving systems to detect very weak signals of cosmic origin at much lower power levels than are generally used in other radiocommunications services. It is highly susceptible to interference from emissions by other radiocommunications services. To minimise such interference, radio astronomy antennas and receivers are usually located in geographically remote locations and ideally within radio quiet zones. 1.2 Radio Quiet Zones Generally, a radio quiet zone is a geographic area within which signal levels from radiocommunications transmitters are controlled in some way to minimise the strength of electromagnetic energy within the area. Radio quiet zones exist in other parts of the world. For example, the United States of America established the National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ) in 1958, to minimise possible harmful interference to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, West Virginia, and the radio receiving facilities for the United States Navy in Sugar Grove, West Virginia. Rectangular in shape, the NRQZ has an area of approximately 33 000 square kilometres. Another example is the radio quiet zone around the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Licensees in the area must make efforts” to protect the Observatory from “reasonable interference. 1.3 The ARQZWA The radio quiet zone addressed by this Radiocommunications Assignment and Licensing Instruction (RALI) is the Australian Radio Quiet Zone Western Australia (ARQZWA) and comprises locations described in section 3.0. It provides interference protection for radio astronomy within a region in the Mid West of Western Australia. A site at its centre is being used for the purposes of radio astronomy and is the central core of the Australian component of the geographically distributed Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope. It is geographically isolated, provides an exceptionally radio-quiet environment and exhibits good ionospheric and tropospheric conditions for radio astronomy.
COORDINATION OF APPARATUS-LICENSED SERVICES WITHIN THE AUSTRALIAN RADIO QUIET ZONE (ARQZWA) 1.0 Introduction/Background 1.1 Background The radio astronomy service uses extremely sensitive radio receiving systems to detect very weak signals of cosmic origin at much lower power levels than are generally used in other radiocommunications services. It is highly susceptible to interference from emissions by other radiocommunications services. To minimise such interference, radio astronomy antennas and receivers are usually located in geographically remote locations and ideally within radio quiet zones. 1.2 Radio Quiet Zones Generally, a radio quiet zone is a geographic area within which signal levels from radiocommunications transmitters are controlled in some way to minimise the strength of electromagnetic energy within the area. Radio quiet zones exist in other parts of the world. For example, the United States of America established the National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ) in 1958, to minimise possible harmful interference to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, West Virginia, and the radio receiving facilities for the United States Navy in Sugar Grove, West Virginia. Rectangular in shape, the NRQZ has an area of approximately 33 000 square kilometres. Another example is the radio quiet zone around the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Licensees in the area must make “reasonable efforts” to protect the Observatory from interference. 1.3 The ARQZWA The radio quiet zone addressed by this Radiocommunications Assignment and Licensing Instruction (RALI) is the Australian Radio Quiet Zone Western Australia (ARQZWA) and comprises locations described in section 3.0. It provides interference protection for radio astronomy within a region in the Mid West of Western Australia. A site at its centre is being used for the purposes of radio astronomy and is the central core of the Australian component of the geographically distributed Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope. It is geographically isolated, provides an exceptionally radio-quiet environment and exhibits good ionospheric and tropospheric conditions for radio astronomy.
RALI-MS32-ARQZWA.docx