Antenna Unit Factory Visit in China

Some of the E3D project team members visited the Antenna Unit manufacturer, East China Research Institute of Electronic Engineering (ECRIEE), last week. The purpose was to inspect the first antenna unit (the First Article) made. This unit will, after further testing and specification validation, be shipped to EISCAT for field testing.

ECRIEE is located in Hefei, P. R. of China.

The assembled Antenna Unit is being inspected by the E3D Project Leader, Johan Svensson.

Interior view of the Equipment Container

The container will come equipped with climate control and seven empty standard 19” equipment racks. The transmitters, receivers and supplemental equipment (networks, etc) come from other vendors and will be mounted at the sites after the antenna units have been installed by ECRIEE. Also in the photo, our E3D System Integration Engineer, Harri Hellgren.

Assar Westman and Peter Bergqvist discuss some details of the design

Antennas and its ground plane

For easier inspection and further measurements, the antennas and its ground plane were lifted off the support structure and was moved outside.

Note: the color of the antenna units will not be white – as shown in the photos, rather industry grey.

109 antenna units plus 10 stand-alone ones will be installed at the E3D site in Norway. The E3D sites in Finland and Sweden will also have up to 109 antenna units each.