A Chinese concept for the 1 km(2) radio telescope

Efforts for promoting the Arecibo style of the 1 km(2) radio telescope have been made by China. Site surveying in China shows that the climate, geolog y and local government support are all rather encouraging for construction of large spherical dishes in the Karst region of Guizhou Province. Radio mo nitoring has revealed extremely low level of RFI in the surveyed area and p articularly within the Karst depressions. Preliminary designs for antenna r eflector, feeding system, electronic and supporting structure have been pro posed by a number of institutes and universities which are involved in join t research. These relevant R&D are devoted to finding the most practical an d the most effective way to realize the Arecibo-style 1 km(2) radio telesco pe at low frequencies. (C) 2000 International Astronautical Federation. Pub lished by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.