Faculty and students of the Department of Physical Sciences at Morehead State University in conjunction with Capitol College and Kruth Microwave Electronics (K-MEC) propose to design, construct, and operate a Multi-Channel Spectrometer System (MCSS) for the Morehead Radio Telescope (MRT). The proposed MCSS is a robust, experimental platform that divides the MRT's existing 20 MHZ bandwidth into 2.4 million simultaneous narrow channels that allow the production of a radio frequency spectrum. The proposed instrument is suitable for a wide variety of experiments including galactic and extragalactic kinematic experiments and for SETI research. The system design reduces cost by utilizing surplused demodulators obtained from the National Security Agency (NSA) in conjunction with special-purpose detectors and inexpensive PC sound cards for digital signal processing. This "swords to ploughshares" approach utilizes existing resources and provides a low cost solution to high resolution radio frequency multi-channel spectral analysis. The MCSS will provide a research instrument for undergraduate astronomy and physics students and an active laboratory for physics, electronics, engineering, and computer science undergraduates and faculty. The goals of the MCSS program are to enhance the curricula in physics, pre-engineering, electronics, and science education programs by serving to provide, 1) a research instrument for kinematic investigations in astrophysics; 2) an active laboratory in astronomy, physics, electrical engineering, and computer science; and 3) a research instrument and laboratory for science teacher education and inservice programs that utilize the appeal of SETI to teach basic science concepts. The performance characteristics of the MCSS allow a varied and in-depth scientific program and are well suited to multi-frequency observations of a wide variety of astrophysically interesting phenomena. The MCSS provides hands-on experience in research and instrumentation technology utilizing a s cience that is in the midst of scientific revolution.
