[2] The telescope is located about 1.3 km northeast of Effelsberg, a southeastern part of the town of Bad Münstereifel in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The boundary is a stream, the Effelsberger Bach, which runs only a few metres east of the telescope.

A major technical difficulty in building a radio telescope of 100 m diameter was how to deal with the deformation of the mirror due to gravity when it is rotated to point in a different direction.

Tests after completion of the telescope showed that the intended accuracy of the mirror surface of 1 mm had not only been met, but exceeded significantly.

The Effelsberg 100-m telescope was involved in several surveys, including the one at 408 MHz (73 cm) by Haslam et al.[3][4]