The Medicina Radio Observatory is an astronomical observatory located 30 km from Bologna, Italy. It is operated by the Institute for Radio Astronomy of the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) of the government of Italy. The site includes: 32-metre diameter parabolic antenna for observing between 1.4 and 23 GHz. The 32-m antenna is used as a single-dish instrument for astrophysical observations (such as water and methanol maser spectroscopy), SETI experiments and radar monitoring of Near Earth Objects. In interferometric mode it functions as a VLBI station, part of the European VLBI Network (EVN). 564 by 640 m (30000 square meter) multi-element Northern Cross cylindrical-parabolic transit radio telescope for observing at 408 MHz. Northern Cross Radio Telescope The Northern Cross Radio Telescope (Croce del Nord in Italian) is one of the largest transit radio telescopes in the world. Observations are focused around 408 MHz (UHF band), corresponding to 73.5 cm wavelength. The older receivers of the telescope function with a 2.5 MHz wide frequency band, while the upgraded parts have a 16 MHz bandwidth. The telescope is steerable only in declination, meaning that it can solely observe objects that are culminating on the local celestial meridian. The telescope is T-shaped and consists of: E/W (east–west) arm – Single reflector 35 m (1536 dipoles) N/S (north–south) arm – Array of 64 reflectors 23.5 m (4096 dipoles) The telescope can provide 22880 possible theoretical independent beams and has a field of view of 55.47 degrees (east–west) by 1.8 degrees (north–south). The resolution is around 4–5 arcminutes in the north–south direction, and 4 arcminutes in the east–west direction. While less than the resolution of large optical telescopes, the amount of radiation that can be gathered with the Northern Cross is much greater, proportional to the mirror surface of approximately 27400 square meters. Northern Cross represents the largest UHF-band antenna in the Northern hemisphere, with an aperture efficiency of 60%, making it second in the world, after the Arecibo radio telescope. This allows the Northern Cross to identify and measure extremely faint sources, making the telescope is particularly suitable to extragalactic research. There are plans upgrade of the east–west arm telescope to a LOFAR SuperStation, due to the good performances of a cylindrical-parabolic antenna in the 100–700 MHz frequency range. Since LOFAR operates in the 120–240 MHz range, some of the sensors on the Northern Cross Radio Telescope, optimized for 408 MHz, will have to