We describe an ultra-wide-bandwidth, low-frequency receiver recently installed on the Parkes radio telescope. The receiver system provides continuous frequency coverage from 704 to 4032 MHz. For much of the band (∼60%), the system temperature is approximately 22 K and the receiver system remains in a linear regime even in the presence of strong mobile phone transmissions. We discuss the scientific and technical aspects of the new receiver, including its astronomical objectives, as well as the feed, receiver, digitiser, and signal processor design. We describe the pipeline routines that form the archive-ready data products and how those data files can be accessed from the archives. The system performance is quantified, including the system noise and linearity, beam shape, antenna efficiency, polarisation calibration, and timing stability.

Wireless power transmission is a method of supplying power to small electronic devices when there is no wired connection. One way to increase the range of these systems is to use a directional transmitting antenna, the problem with this approach is that power can only be transmitted through a narrow beam and directly forward, requiring the transmitter to always be aligned with the sensor node position. The work outlined in this article describes the design and testing of an autonomous radio frequency power transfer system that is capable of rotating the base transmitter to track the position of sensor nodes and transferring power to that sensor node. The system's base station monitors the node's energy levels and forms a charge queue to plan charging order and maintain energy levels of the nodes. Results show a radio frequency harvesting circuit with a measured S11 value of −31.5 dB and a conversion efficiency of 39.1%. Simulation and experimentation verified the level of power transfer and efficiency. The results of this work show a small network of three nodes with different storage types powered by a central base node.

A cryogen-free terahertz (THz) imaging system based on a high-temperature superconducting (HTS)Josephson junction detector is reported. The detector was made of a YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7-x (YBCO) step-edge Josephson junction and integrated into an on-chip thin-film antenna. The HTS Josephson detector was cooled via a commercial mechanical cryocooler; an important step towards cryogen-free THz instrumentation, which is critical for industrial acceptance. In addition, it is shown that operating the detector in a cryocooler provides improved flexibility for optimising the detector parameters and performance due to the ability to adjust the temperature compared to liquid nitrogen cooling methods. The DC and AC characteristics, the detector responsivity and the noise-equivalent power (NEP) of the detector, and resulting image quality were studied as the function of operating temperatures.