First results from the LHC Schottky Monitor operated with Direct Diode Detection

The LHC is equipped with a Schottky diagnostic system based on 4.8 GHz resonant pick-ups. Their signals are processed according to a three-stage down-mixing scheme, working well in most beam conditions. An important exception is the period of energy ramp of proton beams, when the noise floor of the observed beam spectrum increases dramatically and the Schottky sidebands disappear. To study beam spectra in such conditions the signals from the Schottky pick-ups were split and the second half of their power was processed with a copy of the LHC tune measurement electronics, modified for this application. The experimental set-up is based on simple diode detectors followed by signal processing in the kHz range and 24-bit audio ADCs. With such a test system LHC beam spectra were successfully observed. This contribution presents the used hardware and obtained results.