• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.59.2-59.2
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• 2010

We have carried out VLBI test observations of the Korean VLBI Network (KVN) at 22/43-GHz in collaboration with Japanese VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA). In order to evaluate the VLBI system of KVN, we have observed several sources using KVN+VERA. They consist of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs), which are expected to be compact and to have very well-known structures at spatial resolutions of 50-250 Mega-wavelengths, and Galactic star-forming regions and late-type stars, which have bright H2O and SiO maser emission regions. We have investigated baseline and imaging sensitivities of KVN+VERA. In this talk we report the preliminary results.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.69.3-69.3
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• 2018

한국우주전파관측망(KVN, Korean VLBI Network)의 86 GHz 대역 수신기는 VLBI에서 주로 관측하는 85-95 GHz 주파수 대역에서 동작하도록 설계, 제작되었다. UMASS(University of Massachusetts) 대학으로부터 도입된 수신기의 대역폭을 84-116 GHz로 확장하기 위해 2017년도부터 수신기 설계, 부품 구입 등을 진행하고 있다.기존 수신기의 대역폭을 확장하기 위해, 협대역 주파수 변환기의 설계를 변경해야 한다. 주파수 변환기는 일반적으로 사용되는 SSB(Single Side Band) Mixer를 사용하지 않았다. 그 대신에 20 dB 이상의 높은 이미지 제거율을 갖도록 HPF(High Pass Filter)와 LPF(Low Pass Filter)를 사용하여 RF 주파수를 84-100 GHz와 100-116 GHz로 나눈 후 주파수 변환토록 하였다. 사용된 Filter의 특성을 이용, 이미지 대역 신호를 수 십 dB 이상 제거할 수 있다. RF 단에서의 신호 분리로 인해 수신기 등가잡음 온도는 수 K 정도 증가한다. 2017년에 제안된 주파수 변환기를 상온에서 구성하여 그 가능성을 검증하였고, 2018년 9월 까지 KVN W-band 수신기 1 대의 업그레이드를 진행할 것이다. 2019년까지 KVN 3 사이트의 W-band 수신기 주파수 확장을 완료할 계획이다.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.52.1-52.1
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• 2014

Radio pulsars are highly magnetized, rapidly rotating neutron stars that emit synchrotron radiation along the magnetic axes at their spin frequencies. Traditionally, pulsar observations have been done at low frequencies (MHz up to a few GHz), since radio pulsar spectrum is known to a power-law with a steep negative spectral index. More recently, high-frequency pulsar observations (several GHz and above) have been made as a broadband spectrometer and fast computers became available. High-frequency pulsar observations will provide information on radio emission mechanism of pulsars in the vicinity of the neutron star surface. There is also huge interest from gravitational-wave and astrophysics community to find a pulsar in the center of our Galaxy. The Korean VLBI Network has three 21-m single dishes in the Korean peninsula. Using KVN's lowest observational frequency of 22-GHz, we performed test observations with the KVN targeting a few selected known, bright pulsars. In addition, we have been developing pulsar pipelines that can be utilized with a VLBI facility using Mark-V. We present a brief introduction of radio pulsars and show data obtained with the KVN.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.453-455
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• 2015

In this paper we introduce the Plasma Physics of Active Galactic Nuclei project, which is an ongoing experiment with Korean VLBI Network (KVN) and KVN and VERA Array (KaVA) to study multi-frequency polarimetric properties on parsec scales of active galaxies. The goal of the project is to improve our understanding of fundamental jet physics, especially evolution of the relativistic outflow coupled with the large-scale magnetic field. We selected six radio-loud AGN as our targets. So far we (i) detected resolved emissions regions at 86 and 129 GHz on VLBI scales, (ii) constructed 2D spectral index maps of the outflows, and (iii) found polarizations at 22 and 43 GHz for a few targets. Here we present spectral index distributions of 3C 120 between 22 and 43 GHz and a linear polarization map of BL Lac at 43 GHz obtained with KVN.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.159-168
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• 2023

The main goal of the Korean VLBI Network Calibrator Survey (KVNCS) is to expand the VLBI calibrators catalog for KVN, KaVA (KVN and VERA Array), EAVN (East-Asian VLBI Network), and other extended regions. The second KVNCS (KVNCS2) aimed to detect VLBI fringes of new candidates for calibrators in the K band. Out of the 1533 sources whose single-dish flux density in the K band was measured with KVN telescopes (Lee et al. 2017), 556 sources were observed with KVN in the K band. KVNCS2 confirmed the detection of VLBI fringes of 424 calibrator candidates over a single baseline. All detected sources had a high Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of >25. Finally, KVNCS2 confirmed 347 new candidates as VLBI calibrators in the K band, resulting in a 5% increase in the sky coverage compared to previous studies. The spatial distribution was quasi-uniform across the observable region (Dec. > -32.5°). In addition, the possibility as calibrator candidates for the detected sources was checked, using an analysis of the flux-flux relationship. Ultimately, the KVNCS catalog will not only become the VLBI calibrator list but is also useful as a database of compact radio sources for astronomical studies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.32.3-32.3
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• 2016

Available VLBI sources at high frequencies (e.g. >22GHz) are very limited - mainly due to atmospheric fluctuations that degrade coherence time and a power-law energy distribution of particles in case of AGNs. However, simultaneous multi-frequency VLBI receiving system of the Korean VLBI Network (KVN) and its powerful VLBI phase calibration technique offer benefits in finding more weak sources at millimeter wavelengths. Based on this aspect, multi-frequency AGN survey with the KVN (MASK) project, which aims to densify an existing a VLBI catalog of extragalactic radio sources at 22/43/86/129GHz is proposed as a KVN legacy program. We selected 1220 sources of AGNs that include known VLBI sources and new fringe-detected sources using the KVN at K-band (22GHz). Among them, 138 sources were observed as pilot experiments at 22/43/86/129GHz simultaneously and excellent VLBI detection results are achieved. Therefore, we expect that MASK will open a new era in VLBI science at millimeter wavelengths by providing unprecedented number of available sources in the Universe.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.229-236
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• 2015

We report results of investigation of amplitude calibration for very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations with Korean VLBI Network (KVN). Amplitude correction factors are estimated based on comparison of KVN observations at 22 GHz correlated by Daejeon hardware correlator and DiFX software correlator in Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) with Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations at 22 GHz by DiFX software correlator in National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). We used the observations for compact radio sources, 3C 454.3, NRAO 512, OJ 287, BL Lac, 3C 279, 1633+382, and 1510–089, which are almost unresolved for baselines in a range of 350-477 km. Visibility data of the sources obtained with similar baselines at KVN and VLBA are selected, fringe-fitted, calibrated, and compared for their amplitudes. We find that visibility amplitudes of KVN observations should be corrected by factors of 1.10 and 1.35 when correlated by DiFX and Daejeon correlators, respectively. These correction factors are attributed to the combination of two steps of 2-bit quantization in KVN observing systems and characteristics of Daejeon correlator.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.1009-1018
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• 2017

We developed new Digital Sampler for KVN(: Korean VLBI Network). The sampler has 1024MHz sampling frequency with 2bits/sample. The sampler's input reference frequencies are 1pps(: pulse per second) and 10MHz, also UTC(: Universal Time Coordinated) time information out with 1PPS signal, synchronized. The output of sampling data is adapted VSI(: VLBI Standard Interface) specification including the time information. In order to confirm the performance of the sampler, we carried out the astronomical radio observation test in Ulsan Radio Observatory of KVN. It was confirmed the stable performance. In this paper, We introduce the new developed sampler and present the observational test result.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.187-198
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• 2009

In this work, we calculate drop in antenna gain, aperture phase distribution, and antenna pointing shift of KVN(Korean VLBI Network) 21m shaped Cassegrain antenna due to misalignments of antenna optics using ray-tracing method. The misalignments we considered are axial displacement of feed, axial displacement of sub-reflector, lateral displacement of feed, lateral displacement of sub-reflector, and sub-reflector tilt. Calculations are performed not only when these misalignments exist separately, but also when they exist at the same time. Although ray-tracing method is based on geometric optics which does not consider electromagnetic effects, we expect that this work enables us to align antenna optics which give the maximum gain.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.51.1-51.1
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• 2019

At the commissioning phase of KVN from 2009 to 2013, single-dish survey and monitoring observations were performed toward about 1000 evolved stars and about 60 relatively strong SiO and H2O maser sources respectively. Based on these single-dish results and VLBI feasibility test observations at K/Q/W/D bands in 2014, KVN Key Science Project (KSP) has started from 2015 and will be completed in 2019 as KSP phase I. Here we present the overview of observational studies on evolved stars using KVN. In KSP phase I, we have focused on nine KSP sources which show a successful astrometrically registered maps of SiO and H2O masers using the source frequency phase referencing method. We aim at investigating the spatial structure and dynamical effect from 43/42/86/129 GHz SiO to 22 GHz H2O maser regions associated with a stellar pulsation and development of asymmetry in circumstellar envelopes. Using the combined network KaVA (KVN+Japanese VLBI network VERA), KaVA Large Program titled on "Expanded Study on Stellar Masers: ESTEMA Phase I" was performed from 2015 to 2016. Based on ESTEMA Phase I, EAVN Large Program titled on "EAVN Synthesis of Stellar Maser Animations: ESTEMA Phase II" was also performed from 2018. The ESTEMA II project aims to publish composite animations of circumstellar H2O and SiO masers, which taken from up to 6 long-period variable stars with a variety of the pulsation periods (333-1000 days). The animations will exhibit the three-dimensional kinematics of the maser gas clumps with complexity caused by stellar pulsation-driven shock waves and anisotropy of clump ejections from the stellar surface. Adding three EAVN telescopes (Tianma 65m, Nanshan 26m and NRO 45m telescopes) with KaVA always secures the high quality of the maser image frames through the monitoring program.