Is there any way I can use my pc to directly recieve from an external antenna? I am using 50 ohm coax and a variety of antennae, looking at about 15 to 31mHz HF.
Can I plug antenna directly into my pc? Is there software that can turn ur PC into a reciever or is that a specialty hardware requirement only?
AstroMan, thanks mate, it's a start! I am looking for alternatives to buying an expensive receiver. As I obviously already have a PC, then maybe it is already capable somehow, or can be made capable easily.
I've got a DVICO dual digital TV tuner card in my PC which also gives me radio. The only connection I have is to a rabbit ears indoor Arial sitting on top of the curtain rail, although that window looks out directly to the TV transmitter masts.
When I installed the HW/SW it went into auto scan mode and found a few radio channels.
Thanks Dennis. I wonder if that tuner would pick up The frequencies I am interested in. I am doing a spot of radio astronomy just to have a crack at it, and thought I would start with simple targets like Jupiter. Its at about 21.09 mHz HF. I have built an antenna for it, but need some sort of reciever.
Here is a screen print of the scanning dialogue. It doesn't look promising as I cannot find any option to add frequencies other than those picked up by the auto scan.
I have to join the outer braid of the coax to some chicken mesh stretched across the back to act as a reflector. I thought that square bird avairy wire mesh would do the same job, but look neater and more proffessional.
Here's another blokes one that I got the idea from.
Boodhound, What is the Antenna you have constructed? It looks as though it could be a co-axial loop with a director, but your images only really show a high standard of construction but little of the coax termination etc.
mate, heres another pic. I will take a close-up tomorrow and post that, but basically I have soldered the braid to the mesh, and the centre wire to the copper ring.
There is a new page on my website titled "radio astronomy that details the whole construction for those interested.
Either google search "barrys home made observatory" or go to http://members.iinet.net.au/~armstead and look for the "radio astronomy" page in the hyperlinks list.
Basically as i understand it you need to create a short path of least resitance to the ground and drive a stake in. This way any hit you get will go down that path rather than down to your receiving equipment.
PC as a radio reciever?
