Software defined radio dongle & antenna ideas

[ozskywatcher]

Hi,

I have just started on my journey in radio astronomy with the purchase of a RTL-SDR software defined radio dongle (http://www.rtl-sdr.com/). I have successfully tested it on a spare laptop running 'KB1010 Andy's Ham Radio Linux' (http://sourceforge.net/projects/kb1oiq-andysham/) using the small antenna that came with the dongle.

I am now after ideas for an observing project which doesn't require that complicated an antenna.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Regards,

Paul Floyd.

[algwat]

I made this very simple antenna for Radio Meteor listing, needs a good LNA as it collects a lot of power and may cook your SDR dongle if not careful.

Not been very successful finding a good meteor frequency as yet...

http://cometal-comets.blogspot.com.au/2015/09/rough-dressler-antena.html

[ozskywatcher]

Alan,

Thanks for sending that through.

Given I am a total beginner to radio astronomy, could you please elaborate on what a LNA is.

Thanks in advance,

Paul Floyd.

[ozskywatcher]

Hi,

After quite a bit of Googling, I have decided to settle on making a simple radio telescope for listening to the Sun and Jupiter. The equipment seems quite simple (a piece of chicken wire, some copper wire, three 30 cm long dowels etc). There are a couple of versions on the web including one which uses a plastic table.

One link: http://www.ukaranet.org.uk/uk_amateurs/bobgreef/

Regards,

Paul Floyd.

[ozskywatcher]

Hi,

An update. I have completed my 21 Mhz Sun/Jupiter radio telescope (I will upload image once I have downsized it). Unfortunately I am not sure as yet if it works.

This has come about for two reasons. The first is that the software defined radio dongle's frequency range doesn't quite go down low enough to listen at the required frequency. I plan to buy a frequency changer which will allow it to hear at these frequencies. In the meantime, I purchased a cheap shortwave radio from Jaycar and tested the antenna using that. Pointing the antenna at the Sun didn't produce anything exciting.

This brings me to the second reason. I am not sure if the Sun is active enough for that set-up to detect anything. As for Jupiter, it turns out that you need to know when to listen. Apparently, Io has to be in a particular location in it's orbit to maximise your chance of hearing anything. Interesting article about that here: http://www.reeve.com/Documents/RadioScience/Jupiter%20Complete.pdf

So patience is going to be required.

Regards,

Paul Floyd.
www.nightskyonline.info