Stockpiling HBAs

At Chilbolton they are building up their stores of HBA tiles. During this time, the ground crews are preparing the surface ready for the tile deployment. When they are done, they want to ensure that there is a good stock of tiles ready to go.


Using an all-terrain forklift, the pallets are removed from the lorries.


In addition to the tiles themselves, there are stacks of "lids" which will go on top of each tile after it is unfolded.


The slowly building stock of HBA tiles.

The Beast is back!

The 18-tonne tracked digger - "The Beast" - is back on site in Chilbolton (along with its expert driver, John Murray). This heavy piece of machinery will be used for some soil works. However its primary purpose will be as an all-terrain lifting machine. It will lift HBA tiles during their preparation phase and will then move them out onto the field for deployment.

First HBA tiles arrive in Chilbolton

The first load of HBA tiles arrived promptly this morning in Chilbolton. This comprised a dual-payload lorry with 4 HBA tiles and component lids.

Welkom! (Dutch for "Welcome!")


The first delivery!

Ready for HBA Installation

Another perfect dawn in Chilbolton.


The sun bursts over the horizon and a light mist caresses the LOFAR field at Chilbolton Observatory. HBA Installation starts today!

Keeping the owls company

It is not just the owls who are up late, staff at Chilbolton are working all hours too as the HBA installation started this morning. This update was sent to me at 3am this morning.

A confirmation phone call from the installation company (Autonational) has confirmed that their engineers are in the area and will be on site at the crack of dawn. Also, the first delivery is now due earlier than expected. Then, to make matters worse, it seems that some of the work that should have been completed by Friday remains undone.

Another load of equipment is taken out to the LOFAR construction compound ready for the morning.

Dish by Night

At this time of year, the nights are very short. Even then, there is always a hint of midnight blue to the north as the sun lurks under the horizon. This photograph was taken in this deep twilight. The pale glow against the side of the dish is from the lights on the control building where work continues in preparation for the HBA deployment which starts on Monday.

HBA preparations

Work is gearing up now for the next critical phase of the LOFAR-UK installation. Starting on Monday, the High-Band Array (HBA) will be installed. Unlike the light LBA aerials, the antennas for this part of the system are large, unwieldy and heavy requiring experts driving machines not volunteer researchers and students to install! Furthermore, the ground around the field is not a flat warehouse floor, making driving difficult. To accomplish the lifting work a variety of techniques and machines will be used.

An all-terrain forklift is unloaded from its delivery transporter ready to start work first thing Monday morning.