Demonstration of a 16 GbpsStation 1 Broadband-RF VLBI System

A relatively inexpensive 16 Gbps data-recording system based on commercial off-the-shelf tech- nology and open-source software has recently been developed. Combining this recorder with the parallel develop- ment of broadband Very Long Baseline Interferometer (VLBI) instrumentation is enabling dramatically improved sensitivity for both astronomical and geodetic VLBI. In this article, we describe the VLBI system and the results of a demonstration experiment that illustrates a number of cutting-edge technologies that can be deployed in the near future to significantly enhance the power of the VLBI technique. Online material: color figures