l - RECEPTION AND RECORDING AT THE DAF 
l.1 - RECEPTION 
The location of the DAF at Alice Springs is almost ideal as the site for 
the receiving and recording facilities as it fulfils not only the primary 
requirement of coverage of the Australian landmass and surrounding waters 
from a single location but also provides a town environment where 
transport, communications, accommodation and civic amenities are well 
established. 
The facility is equipped with a 9 metre steerable parabolic dish antenna 
and electronic equipment for the reception and recording of Landsat Multi 
Spectral Scanner (MSS) data and housekeeping telemetry data. A television 
style Moving Window Display, which shows the area being scanned during the 
satellite overpass as a continuously moving picture, is provided for data 
quality, Station equipment performance monitoring and post-track 
validation of the recorded data. The area over which the satellite 
passes whilst in view of the antenna comprises a circle of about 
5 000 kilometres radius centred on Alice Springs. Routine coverage is 
confined to the Australian landmass and surrounding waters out to about 
320 kilometres, plus Papua New Guinea and parts of Indonesia. 
In addition, a wide-band Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) has been installed at 
the DAF, to enable reception of NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution 
Radiometer (AVHRR) data, and using the pre-existing capability to track 
the NOAA/TIROS series of spacecraft, some passes of NOAA 8 and 9 have been 
acquired and recorded on an experimental basis. 
1.2 - RECORDING 
At Alice Springs the Landsat MSS and housekeeping telemetry data streams 
are recorded on high density digital magnetic tapes. 
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