RFI in Mauritius

A group of Mauritian scientists are building a Low/Mid Frequency array called the Mauritius Deuterium Telescope (MDT) in Mauritius. Additionally, the country is one of the SKA partner countries and will host one or more nodes of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) project. To preserve current and future radio astronomical endeavors, it is critical that the radio frequency interference is monitored and regulated. This paper details the steps taken to monitor and identify Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) in the region of the Mauritius Radio Telescope site. Current RFI environment is studied. A monitoring observatory is set up to monitor the interference present at the host site. Results are acquired over a one year period. The conclusions show that our band of interest (320–330 MHz) is safe from external interferences but the observatory self generates RFIs which need to be removed. Improvements to the current monitoring set-up are also mentioned.