Self-triggering of radio signals from cosmic ray air showers

LOPESSTAR is a prototype detector for future experiments on the observation of radio emission of ultra high energy cosmic rays. Absolutely calibrated measurements of the electric field strength with the LOPESSTAR detector were performed in coincidence with the well-established air shower detector KASCADE-Grande. The experinmental configuration allowed a simultaneous observation of east-west and north-south polarised components of the electric field per antenna used. This thesis discusses in detail the influence of background sources on the detector configuration as well as the resulting self-trigger system. The implemented trigger suppresses strong background signals from the industrial environment on the site of the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (rejection >99.9 %) and is the basis for a hardware self-trigger. Therefore, the system is adequate for any other detector site. Two different calibration methods are performed and cross-checked to convert the measured raw data into an electric field strength. Both methods result in the same frequency dependent calibration values within their uncertainties. Furthermore, the probable scale parameter of d0=(137±18) m. The comparison of selected events with Monte Carlo simulations on an event-by-event basis points out a good correspondence within the given uncertainties and confirms the geosynchrotron model. The overall angular resolution of the arrival direction results in only a few degrees. The presented methods and algorithms are developed for the trigger system and the analysis and are now standard tools for the data analysis in the LOPES collaboration. (orig.)