As part of general site improvements, the coaxial cable run from the base of the antennas to the radar building was identified as an area where the performance of the radar could be improved. The type of cable that is used can determine how much signal strength is lost in carrying the RF signals from one end of the cable to the other. During this trip, the RG-213 cable was replace with a low loss 600 series cable which showed a two-way improvement of about 6 dB. However, due to time constraints of this trip only the main array cable was replaced and the remaining 4 runs to the interferometer array were left for a subsequent trip. Each of the 16 new cables that were installed at the site were trimmed down to be within 3 inches in electrical length of each other. This precise trimming enables the electronically steered array to function properly.

In addition to the cable replacement, a small amount of time was devoted to performing checks and repairs to electronics and equipment inside of the radar building. One of these repairs included finishing off receive path repairs that were not completed during the previous trip (Oct. 2014) due to running out of parts. With the additional parts in hand, the repairs on the receive paths through the transmitters was completed and the site was left running with all transmitters working on transmit and receive.

As mentioned before, the other project completed in September 2015, included the road improvements as well as created a new road to the interferometer array. These road improvements will allow easy access by a high-lift which will be used to service and tune the antenna towers as well as the log periodic antennas. The road project was done by Lachance Construction in Kapuskasing, ON.

Also, while at the radar site, Mike and Kevin were interview by a reporter who then reported on SuperDARN to a French language CBC radio show. The audio can be found at:

Matin du Nord, Oct. 22, 2015, 8h20