national facilities such as the VLA and the Goldstone tracking station of NASA were carefully sited to be isolated from major population centers and are national initiatives that should be considered in the SPS impact studies. The rectenna system is a further potential source of harmful interference since it is a nonlinear device that will reradiate substantial quantities of radio frequency radiation at the fundamental and its harmonics. We have recommended that its properties be better defined in order to evaluate the consequences of radiation at major radio astronomy and space research facilities. The possibility of relocating radio astronomy and space science facilities to the far side of the moon has been discussed; however, the reconstruction and operation of several hundred million dollars1 worth of present ground-based radio facilities on the lunar farside would clearly be so expensive that no realistic option of that sort exists. The radio working group wishes to endorse the concluding statement of the National Academy of Sciences report on SPS effects (see Appendix D): The Committee on Radio Frequencies concludes that the potential for harmful interference to radio astronomy is so great that protection from satellite-generated radio interference must be a major design consideration even for the earliest low-powered prototypes of the power satellite system. There may well be other radio services that share these concerns. The proposers of a new program such as this must perform adequate and realistic analysis and that work must be independently confirmed to assure that the public interest is served. ACTUAL PROPERTIES OF THE MICROWAVE POWER TRANSMISSION SYSTEM The potential for SPS interference with radio astronomy and deep space research and the possibility of compliance with CCIR 224-4, 685, and 365-3 depend crucially upon the noise and harmonic generation properties of the microwave power generator and receivers used. At present, the properties of the klystrons in the Reference System must be estimated by extrapolation with respect to both klystron structure and frequency. We therefore recommend as an urgent task that prototype SPS transmitters and antennas be developed and subjected to extensive laboratory testing. The
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