RadioJove

More HAL RadioJove documentation with waveform screenshots See also the RadioJOve section on the HAL Gallery.

Yes, Radio Astronomy can really be done as a hobby on a shoe string budget. Tune in here to check out the progress of HAL's intrepid Radio Heads as they embark on the RadioJove Experiment.

About the NASA RadioJove Project

The Radio JOVE project is a hands-on inquiry-based educational project that allows students, teachers and the general public to learn about radio astronomy by building their own radio telescope from an inexpensive kit and/or using remote radio telescopes through the internet. Participants also collaborate with each other through interactions and sharing of data on the network.

The Radio JOVE project began in 1998. Since then, more than 800 teams of students and interested individuals have purchased our non-profit radio telescope kits and are learning radio astronomy by building and operating a radio telescope. This self-supporting program continues to thrive and inspire new groups of students as well as individuals.

The Chris Todd Chronicals

Dateline 7/15/08

Last night Michael Chesnes, Mike Beacom, Steve Rifkin and I finished soldering and assembling the RadioJove receiver. When we powered it up, plugged it into speakers and a dipole antenna Steve had around for other radio work, it actually made noise, and that noise changed as we tweaked the frequency tuning knob! Woo-Hoo! :-) We all suspect Mike Beacom's superior soldering skills were key to our success. Thanks for sticking with us late into the night, Mike, I know that was a long drive home...

So the only task left before we can start making radio observations of Jupiter is to wire up the antenna, and construct the antenna masts. We don't have a firm schedule for that, but anyone in the club that's interested in participating, let me know. We should be able to get everything ready by the end of this coming weekend.

If we're able to get it all ready, we'll be setting up the RadioJove receiver and antenna at the next HAL Star Party on Saturday the 26th of July (which I will be hosting). There's an IO-B storm that night that should be starting around 9:45 pm, and which should last about two and a half hours. I hope to see you all there.

Dateline 7/21/08

Well, this weekend we were able to finish up the Radio Jove antenna and tune the receiver. This evening, after finishing the antenna, I plugged everything in and listened for a few minutes (the antenna was just lying on my basement floor, so I didn't expect to hear anything other than the radio noise being emitted by the various electronics gear I had laying around). Sure enough, it turns out my MacBook Pro's power supply puts out a neat ounding signal at about 20.2 MHz. :-)

So we should be ready to try this out on Jupiter this Friday night. I need some assistance, however, since the antenna masts are twenty feet tall, so to setup everything safely and conveniently, I'll need at least two volunteers to meet me at Alpha Ridge this Friday night, probably sometime between 7 and 8 pm, weather permitting. Any takers?

Even if I don't get assistance for Friday night, I will definitely be bringing the Radio Jove setup to Alpha Ridge this coming Saturday night (July 26th), and with the Star-b-que and our regularly scheduled monthly star party (which I'm hosting anyway), I'm sure we'll be able to get everything setup in time for the IO-B storm that should start around 9:30 pm or so.

Clear, dark, and radio-quiet skies,
Chris Todd

Links

NASA's RadioJove Page

RadioJove HW/SW Tools

RadioJove Real-Time Results & Photos

Google RadioJove for additional resources