The Tidbinbilla interferometer

A proposal to operate a two element interferometer using the 64 m and 26 m antennas of the Tidbinbilla Deep Space Station is discussed. The instrument is to be operated as a correlation interferometer, the sine and cosine products being sampled once per second and recorded for later analysis. The receiver systems are currently under development. Preliminary measurements of the delay line and local oscillator systems and the site cables suggest that a phase stability to within about 1 deg should be achievable with temperature control of the receiver packages.