The Impact of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) on VLBI2010

A significant motivation for the development of a next generation system for geodetic VLBI was to address growing problems related to RFI. In this regard, the broadband 2-14 GHz frequency range proposed for VLBI2010 has advantages and disadvantages. It has the advantage of flexible allocation of band frequencies and hence the ability to avoid areas of the spectrum where RFI is worst. However, the receiver is at the same time vulnerable to saturation from RFI anywhere in the full 2-14 GHz range. The impacts of RFI on the VLBI2010 analog signal path, the sampler, and the digital signal processing are discussed. In addition, a number of specific RFI examples in the 2-14 GHz range are presented.