The effect of digitisation on the signal-to-noise ratio of a pulsed radio signal
Open Access
- 15 November 2001
- journal article
- research article
- Published by EDP Sciences in Astronomy & Astrophysics
- Vol. 378 (2) , 700-709
- https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20011226
Abstract
We discuss the effect of digitisation on the signal-to-noise ratio of pulsed radio signals. We describe a general n-bit digitiser and show that a symmetric and equidistant digitiser has two free parameters: the threshold and the output value. We derive the best choice of these values for a 1, 1.5, 2, 4 and 8-bit digitiser and calculate the signal-to-noise ratio after digitisation of an undetected signal and of a detected signal with a Gaussian or a -distribution. Measurements made using PuMa, the new digital pulsar machine at the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope, are presented and are shown to agree with the theoretical response of the digitiser.Keywords
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