KAT-7 is a radio telescope consisting of seven antennas.  The receiver systems are cryogenically cooled to about 70 K (-203 °C) in order to increase the system's sensitivity.


Key performance parameters of KAT-7:

Parameter	Value
Number of Antennas	7
Dish Diameter	12m
Baselines	26 m to 185 m (see here)
Frequency Range	1200 MHz - 1950 MHz
Instantaneous Bandwidth	256 MHz
Polarisation	Linear (H + V)
Tsys	< 35 K across the entire frequency band (~30 K average) for all elevation angles > 30 deg

Correlator Modes:

Mode	# Bands	Band Bandwidth	Channel Bandwidth	Available
Wideband	1	256 MHz	390.625 kHz *	Yes
8k Wideband	1	256 MHz	48.8 kHz **	Yes, but unsupported
HI Galaxy Clusters	1	400/16 = 25 MHz	25/4096 = 6.1 kHz	Yes
HI Galaxies / Maser Search	1	400/64 = 6.25 MHz ***	6.25/4096 = 1.525879 kHz	Yes
Maser monitoring	1	400/256 = 1.5625 MHz ***	1.5625/4096 = 381.4697 Hz	Yes

* The channel bandwidth is obtained by dividing the IF bandwidth (400 MHz) by the total number of channels (1024).  Note that only 256 MHz of the IF bandwidth is useable.
** The IF bandwidth (400 MHz) is divided by 8192 channels.
*** The useable Band Bandwidth will be slightly less, and will be determined as part of the acceptance testing.


Tied-Array Beamformer Modes (boresight beam only for now):

Mode	# Bands	Band Bandwidth	Channel Bandwidth	Available
Wideband	1	256 MHz	390.625 kHz	May 2013

Aerial view of KAT-7: