ABSTRACT
A typical experiment on the reception of radio waves involved the following arrangement of apparatus: the signal received through the aerial was amplified and compared to a known constant. Aerials were frequently combined together as interferometers which mimicked the resolution of larger single dish telescopes. The theory of the directional response of an aerial, or combination of aerials, was available to the radio astronomers of the 1950s through earlier work by electrical engineers. The astronomers' response to their output was, at one important level, a matter of skill: the accumulation of knowledge, often only expressible through manipulation of the electrical equipment with which they had experience, that allowed them to identify and 'read' the pen-recording traces. The discourse that interpreted pen-recordings separated the valued from the worthless: the astronomical radio source from the local signal. A new beacon at Manchester Ringway airport, transmitting on 75 Mc/s, provided the immediate cause for action.
