Two types of antennas

The KAIRA project will make use of proven LOFAR antenna designs. LOFAR is the Low Frequency Array — a pan-European radio telescope project that is currently under construction.

There are two main types of LOFAR antennas. These are the so-called 'low-band' and 'high-band' antennas. The low-band antennas are aerials, covering the range 30 to 80 MHz. Each one stands approximately 1.8m tall, and has a 3 × 3-metre base. The high-band antennas are tiles and are designed to operate in the range 120 to 240 MHz. These tiles are only 0.5 metres tall, but have a larger 5 × 5-metre footprint.