Very Large Array

[zetron]

If you are familiar with the idea behind using two or more dishes and seperating them as far from each other as possible then you know about increasing resolution of astronomic radio and optical objects.

Then what would happen if you took two small dishes (20") and seperated them by 10 feet, aimed them at the same satellite and fed the signal with MATCHED lines to your receiver? Would the effective size of the DISH increase to 10 feet, the distance between the two dishes? I don't think so, but resolution would be increased on the signal. What that would mean as far as how the video and audio came out I do not know??

Just a thought,

David zetron

 

[mkm4]

It won't work.
It's extremely complex to combine the signals.
Do a search.

 

[Pepper]

If it could be done (read: very expensive combining equipment), the best you could hope for would be equivalent to the surface area of the combined dishes.

What the VLA is doing is the same thing your eyes do: with enough distance between them, the stars would actually appear 3D instead of seeming equidistant from the viewer.