3.2 Displayed Readings

The 'Readings' page is the main page of the radiometer which shows the actual measurement values and some important settings. Parameter settings reported here, are for information only. To change a setting switch to the Settings page. The 'Readings' page automatically refreshes once a second (the refresh rate may be set at the Setup page. The table below describes the information shown by this page:

• Parameter Name --- Description

• Atm. Temperature --- Displays the actually measured atmospheric temperature. If the radiometer is equipped with less than three channels, the readings which are not applicable are shown as '-.--'

• Atm. Attenuation --- Displays the atmospheric attenuation calculated from the readings in the line above.

• Raw Reading --- Displays the raw reading sent by the radiometer front-end controller. This reading is an integer number in the range 0..2048, representing the number of noise diode pulses injected to the antenna signal within one second in order to get the same energy than from the reference load. High values stand for a low atmospheric temperature / attenuation.

• Antenna --- This line shows the actual antenna pointing and some state information about the antenna pointing control. The following applies to both axes (AZ/EL):

  • The angle displayed is the actual pointing measured by the angular encoder if available. If there is no motor control installed for this axis, the value entered at the settings page is displayed here.
  • MOVING is displayed beside the reading if the motor is on.
  • HI-LIMIT signals that the antenna is at the hi (upper/right) limit.
  • LO-LIMIT signals that the antenna is at the low (left) limit.
  • MANUAL appears at the rightmost column if the control box for the antenna motors is plugged into the radiometer controller.

• Summary --- The summary fault indicator shows FAULT if at least one fault flag in the radiometer controller is set.

• Reference Load Temperature --- This field shows the temperature of the channel 1 reference load and a fault indicator if the temperature does not match it's target within the limits.

• NTP Time Sync --- Shows a fault indicator for the last attempt to synchronize the controller's clock to a NTP server. Shows 'n/a' if the radiometer is not configured to sync it's clock by means of NTP.

• CF Card --- This indicator reports if the radiometer actually is logging it's readings to compact flash card. If "NOT LOGGING" appears here, either logging is disabled (at the Settings page) or there is a problem with the CF-Card.

• Sun Outage --- This indicator shows FAULT if the antenna actually looks right to the sun (within some configurable limits) and the readings may be wrong due to this fact. Please note that the antenna pointing as well as the geodetic location of the antenna must be known with a sufficient precision in order to use this feature.

• Rain Detect --- If the atmospheric temperature measured with channel 1 exceeds a configurable threshold, the radiometer assumes rainfall and switches the feed-horn / reflector blowers on. 'RAIN' indicates this condition.

• Environment Temperature --- The environment temperature is measured below the outer casing of the radiometer.

• Reflector Temperature --- The reflector temperature.

• Time --- The actual time of the radiometer's clock. Beside the time itself, the time of the last synchronization to a reference (either the radiometer's RTC chip or NTP) is shown.

During a the tip-curve or cold-load calibration process, additional information is displayed below or even instead of this table. Please refer to the applicable sections of this document.