From 23rd of July to 3rd of August, 2018 within scope of project “Building on Advanced Lofar Technology for Innovation, Collaboration and Sustainability”, project N0. 692257 – BALTICS) two engineers from Engineering Research Instiute “Ventspils International Radio Astronomy Centre” of Ventspils University of Applied Sciences (VIRAC) attended staff exchange training at project partner institution – Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON).



The main goal of the training was to test the possibility to detect location of nearfield radio interference (RFI) source(s) by carrying out imaging sessions with LOFAR LBA array in single station mode.

Additionally the trainees were working on a software defined radio (SDR) and Odroid minicomputer based solution for AM radio station monitoring at LOFAR stations.

These tasks not only allowed the VIRAC staff to learn how to control a LOFAR station on low level but also allowed to increase their knowledge in such interdisciplinary fields as coding in Python and SDR applications.