A Tour of GHY-6 (Part Two) - Inside Goonhilly 6

We're back with the next episode of 60 Minutes Inside Goonhilly.
Join us fortnightly as we take a behind-the-scenes look at our heritage, present and future - pioneering the way in the new space race through satellite, lunar and deep-space communications, AI, and more.
Next up, we take a look inside Goonhilly 6, in part two of A Tour of GHY-6.

[@g0fvt]

My late father worked for Post Office Research at Dollis Hill but was very involved with the Goonhilly Project. I think our family archives still contain pictures of GHY-1 as first built.
A little piece of trivia, a feed for the dish was made for the 145MHz amateur radio band by a few staff members, due to time constraints it never got used.

[@patchvonbraun]

I'm working on a refurbishment project of a 12.8m antenna formerly used as a NATO ground station. We haven't had to replace any nuts and bolts, but have had a few structural repairs to do. The main task is replacing the motors, and putting in our own modern motion-control system and position sensors.

[@skywatcherca]

Are there thoughts of increasing the size of the dish - as in adding additional external side reflectors? Is a 32 m dish large enough or (as always) is larger better? Is the equipment operated at 240 v 2 phase or are you using 3 phase 600v ? Do you work with SETI during off-times?

[@_TeXoN_]

For example for launcher tracking, one would rather choose a 5m antenna than a 32m antenna. This antenna might even have problems keeping up with some low flying satellites, especially, if they go through the zenith. Heavy structures are hard to move and might deform, which decreases signal quality.
NASA also shifts to multiple 35m antennas for deep space operations instead of single 70m antennas. This way they are more flexible and modern technology is capable of bundling antenna efficiently together.