thanks to Mike for our new forum section!

[ZL4PLM]

a public thanks to Mike for setting up this section!

Hope I can help throw some info into it that will help.....

What kind of topis first would people like to see answered

I saw Erics question of Jupiter radio reception.

anything else .... for starters?

rgds

Simon

[Dennis]

Ah, so you’re the guys that can do astronomy in the daytime, in the rain and when it’s cloudy!;)

Cheers

Dennis

[sheeny]

I don't know, Simon...

What about simple low cost project ideas to get started?

Is it possible to do anything like radio astronomy with a yagi?

:shrug::P

:thumbsup: to Mike. Hopefully just having the separate forum will encourage people with an interest to come here.

Al.

[GeoffW1]

Hi,

Might be an opportunity for colour-blind astronomers! ;);)

Here's a link from an enthusiast

http://www.signalone.com/radioastronomy/telescope/

and one here in Oz

http://my.integritynet.com.au/purdic/radio-telescope.htm

Cheers

[seeker372011]

something I would interesting would be data mining project ideas from professional Radio Astronomy data that is freely available..a tutorial on what the databases contain and how to go about searching for stuff in them

[ZL4PLM]

Hi Al,

well yes and no!

sure with yagis (for those not knowing what a yagi is ...its a directional antenna design like your tv antenna)... you can do some astronomy ... such as drift scans of strong radio sources etc ... you can also look for solar noise bursts etc ... but probably more interesting is meteor reception or radio based aurora reception.

I guess rather than worry about what antenna you have its more important to worry about what receiver capability you have .. ie what frequency coverage and type of receiver. Ie a wide band HF receiver, or a AM/FM only scanner for VHF or a modern multimode wide band receiver that is capable of HF through to high UHF ranges.

So I guess to kick off the discussion thats more important.

Antennas can be built from all sorts .. and in particular NZ / AU have a lovely thing called C band Satellite TV.... which gives a vertitable treasure trove of astronomy parts.

but ... lets look at the basics first!

rgds

Simon

[ZL4PLM]

Hi

A quick internet search reveals that the starting point should be the NRAO website :)

they conducted a sky survey from 1993 - 97 doing a series of 200,000 snap shot observations at 1.4 GHz .

Data is available on line - principal data is a 4 x 4 degree image from the telescopes.

Data and viewers are available from FTP at NRAO

http://www.cv.nrao.edu/nvss


They are continuing the survey at 74 MHz and that data is also available for use using FTP and readily available from NRAO.

The low frequency survey can be found at

http://lwa.nrl.navy.mil/VLSS/

have a look and let me know you get on!

rgds

Simon

[ZL4PLM]

another really important sky survey was carried by Sydney Univerity too ..

http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/ioa/Main/SUMSS

quite impressive arrays near Canberra too


Data also available online.

rgds

Simon

[MrB]

Ok, so I have a Yupiteru bench scanner(kinda like the handheld ones but better ;)) that I used to listen to the police with. Now they've gone digital it's gathering dust. I tried picking up the airports but they're too far away :(

Anyway, it's open(no blocked bands) from 100khz to 1.3GHz, has WFM, NFM and AM... is it any good for anything?

[ZL4PLM]

Hi Simon

yep sure is useful.

Again you can do Jupiter reception same as the previous mail I mentioned.

20.1 MHz using AM is fine with ext antenna.

Of course you can also do meteor scatter reception on VHF FM using either a band 1 TV transmitter on 48-60 MHz or using a distant |FM transmitter on 100 MHz range.

So yes useful!

again have a go!

rgds

Simon

[anthony.tony]

Hello We belong to the CWAS Parkes we have our monthly meetings at the Parkes Dish.It blows me away to just sit and look at the dish.I have never Dabbled in Rad. Astronomy before. It would be very interesting for Some IIS members to get Some Am Radio Ast. Projects going.I am interested but need some tuition on the Subject.This is a good Year to Kick Off, Being the International Year of Astronomy.Reguard's Tony

[anthony.tony]

Hello I work In a Corregated Iron Shed . You can park about 6 cars with space long ways It has a High Roof 25feet or better . I listen to the Radio when working When it is on Am Band No problems With regional ABc . But I am Plagued with a Hissing sound on FM 105.1 amd FM 105.9. It acn get that bad you have to select another Radio Channel. What Causes this. Tony

[ZL4PLM]

hmm difficult to diagnose remotely Tony

do you a computer near by?

power lines?

other electrical equipment??

usually its a case of electromagnetic interference from something close by .... computers are terrible for it at VHF ... or power supplies ...

[anthony.tony]

Thanks for that help with the Hissing Noise. It is the Computer . Tony