Planetary radio astronomy receiver

The planetary radio astronomy (PRA) experiment on the Voyager spacecraft will measure the amplitude, spectrum, time variations, and polarization of radio emissions over a frequency range of 1.2 kHz to 40.5 MHz with the aid of the PRA receiver (PRAR) and two 10-m orthogonal monopoles. Sensitivity and dynamic range will allow observation of a wide range of Jovian emissions from near earth to encounter. This paper describes the system elements, including the preamp/attenuator/calibrator, the LF polarization discriminator, the four LF-IF amplifier stages, the HF polarization discriminator, the translation LO, the log-IF and detector, the frequency synthesizer, the data processor, control system, power supply, and antennas.