After 1936, Reber pioneered radio astronomy. He was a Radio Physicist from 1947-1951 at the National Bureau of Standards. Reber joined the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Tasmania, Australia in 1954. Australia’s atmosphere is one of the only places in which it is almost completely transparent to electromagnetic radiation.

 In 1957Reber had accepted a position at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), where his radio telescope is currently located, but in 1961 he returned to Bothwell, Tasmania to help complete a mapping the readings from a 270 meter wavelength.

 Reber was the American Astronomical Society Russell Lecturer in 1962. Also in that year, he received the Bruce gold metal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Then in 1963, Reber also received the Elliot Cresson gold metal from the Franklin Institute of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Then he received another award, the Jansky prize of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, in 1976.

 Reber has been associated with the Research Corporation conducting radio astronomy investigations in Hawaii and Tasmania from 1951-to present. Also Reber is currently Honorary Research Fellow of the Division of Radio Physics of the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. Finally, he is also presently a member of the American Astronomical Society.