Tag Archives: Radio Astronomy

Jul 18 2014

Microwave and VHF/UHF equipment available at Colloquium

V2 PCB assembled

On Sunday, July 27, Sam Jewell G4DDK and Dave Powis G4HUP will be attending the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium in Guildford to display and sell their range of Microwave/UHF/VHF kits and other equipment.

An assembled LNA Kit

An assembled LNA Kit

The stand will feature the popular Low Noise preamplifier (LNA) kits for 70cm, 23cm, 21cm (1420 MHz Hydrogen Line for Radio Astronomy), 13cm, 12cm and 9cm as well as PCB Microwave antennas, FETs, Amplifier PCBs and MMICs.

The highly regarded Anglian 2m transverter kits will also be available. This is a high performance 28 to 144 MHz transverter module featuring a ready-assembled PCB so that the amount of SMD soldering is minimised. The award winning Nacton 4m amateur band transverter module should also be there.

PCB Log Periodic Antenna

PCB Log Periodic Antenna

The AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium is being held at the Holiday Inn, Guildford, GU2 7XZ on July 26-27, 2014. The event is open to all, further details at https://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/colloquium-2014/

G4DDK Products http://www.g4ddk.com/

G4HUP Products http://g4hup.com/Products.htm

Mar 27 2014

RAG 2014 – Demonstrations, Posters and Tickets

National Space Centre Leicester

National Space Centre Leicester

The BAA Radio Astronomy Group will be holding its 2014 General Meeting on Saturday, May 17 at the National Space Centre, Leicester, LE4 5NS.

Paul Hyde G4CSD writes:

1. Demos and posters
With seven weeks to go we need to sort out the amount of space to be allocated for seating versus displays. If you are coming along to this event (NSC, Leicester, Saturday, May 17) and have something that you would like to exhibit in the lunchtime and tea intervals please let me know immediately by direct mail.

This could be hardware or poster material, or combinations of both. The electrically noisy environment of the NSC will limit live demonstrations but people always like see to hardware, whilst results and photographs from other people’s work can provoke ideas and encourage experimentation.

2. Filter alignment
If there is sufficient interest we have had a kind offer from Ian Lever to bring along equipment for measuring the performance of passive filters for hydrogen line receivers. The equipment is heavy and bulky so it is only worth doing this if there are several people who can make use of the opportunity. Conversely, Ian does not want to miss out on the main event so there will be a maximum of six slots, based on those making bookings before the day. Please note that this will be for checking performance only as there will not be time to do any alignment work. If you are interested, please contact me immediately so that we can decide whether to go ahead with this or not.

3. Ticket availability
Please note that two thirds of the tickets have already been sold and there is a piece in this month’s Astronomy Now, plus one in the next Sky at Night magazine, so I’m still expecting that tickets will not be available at the door. If you want further information about the event and the talks, or details of how to buy tickets, go to the RAG website at http://www.britastro.org/radio/

Supporting papers so far offered are: an ultra-low cost Hydrogen Line radio telescope (Peter East); the modelling of our local galactic topology (Gordon Dennis); the roles of Australian no deposit casinos in the growing online economy of Australia and New Zealand and on top of that, the comparethebets make an excellent list each year; the design of an Arduino-based magnetometer (Jonathan Rawlinson M0ZJO); making and analysing observations with Starbase (Laurence Newell); experiments with a small SDR radio telescope (David Morgan 2W0CXV); and reports on developments at EAARO (Jason Williams M0YJW) and the Harold Clayton Observatory (Dave James).

Tickets for the event cost £12 for BAA members and £15 for non-members, including free parking at the NSC and free admission to the main attraction, excluding the Planetarium show. Tea and coffee will be provided during the breaks but lunch is not included. Delegates are welcome to bring their own lunch or the NSC shop (Boosters) sells a range of sandwiches and other refreshments. It would help the NSC if you could also note the number of people in your party that are likely to use Boosters when you book tickets.

BAA-RAG Yahoo Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/baa-rag

Jan 14 2014

RAG 2014 tickets on sale

National Space Centre Leicester

National Space Centre Leicester

The BAA Radio Astronomy Group will be holding its 2014 General Meeting on Saturday, May 17 at the National Space Centre, Leicester, LE4 5NS. The last two meetings have both sold out ahead of the day and early booking is advisable.

This year Dr Klaas Wiersema (University of Leicester) will describe how new radio telescope technologies enable the exploration of the “transient” radio Universe, from the mysterious millisecond duration “fast radio bursts” to the energetic afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) which are sometimes visible for years. The presentation will show how new technology is allowing us to study afterglows and other transients in a completely new way.

Supporting papers so far offered are: an ultra-low cost Hydrogen Line radio telescope (Peter East); the modelling of our local galactic topology (Gordon Dennis); the design of an Arduino-based magnetometer (Jonathan Rawlinson M0ZJO); making and analysing observations with Starbase (Laurence Newell); experiments with a small SDR radio telescope (David Morgan 2W0CXV); and reports on developments at EAARO (Jason Williams M0YJW) and the Harold Clayton Observatory (Dave James).

Tickets for the event cost £12 for BAA members and £15 for non-members, including free parking at the NSC and free admission to the main attraction, excluding the Planetarium show. Tea and coffee will be provided during the breaks but lunch is not included. Delegates are welcome to bring their own lunch or the NSC shop (Boosters) sells a range of sandwiches and other refreshments. It would help the NSC if you could also note the number of people in your party that are likely to use Boosters when you book tickets.

All ticket sales will be via the BAA but you do not need to be a BAA member to purchase tickets.  A Booking Form is available at the BAA RAG website at http://www.britastro.org/radio/ from where you can also download the latest edition of RAGazine.

The closing date for the next edition of RAGazine is February 7. Please think whether you can offer any material for this or future editions.  This can be a technical or education article (inc. work in progress, or a negative experiment); project ideas; appeals for teaming; news items; practical tips; relevant professional developments; humour; book reviews; useful resources; parts and equipment news and reviews; observatories; calendar events, etc.  RAGazine covers newcomers through experienced folk, radio astronomy and geophysics, without restriction over frequency range or technology base.

If you have any queries regarding the RAG 2014 event, please mail me direct at: radiogroup <at> britastro.org

Best wishes
Paul Hyde G4CSD
BAA RAG Coordinator

BAA-RAG Yahoo Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/baa-rag

Nov 13 2012

Online Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances (SID) Monitoring Station

The Sun – Image Credit NASA SOHO

Tarif Rashid Santo has made his Solar Radio Telescope available online. He provides live data from his IONX Solar Radio Telescope in Demra, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Coordinates Lat: 23°42′26.83″N Long: 90°29′31.19″E.

The Spectrogram and the Plotter update in every hour with new data exported from the Radio Telescope. Beside this you will get Solar Flux measurement from NOAA and recent Sunspots updates.

New articles on How to make Radio Telescope, Antenna, other stunning experiments are coming soon!

Check out the Online Solar Radio Telescope Page: http://radioastronomybd.com/onlinesid.html

Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances http://www.radioastronomybd.com/sidvlf.html

Sep 26 2012

BAA-RAG Meeting – National Space Centre Leicester

The BAA Radio Astronomy Group (BAA-RAG) have an impressive line-up of speakers for their General Meeting taking place Saturday, October 27, 10:30 to 17:30 at the National Space Centre, Leicester, LE4 5NS. The event is open to all.

Continue reading →

Oct 13 2011

FUNcube Dongle at Northampton Radio Astronomy Meeting

There will be two talks on the AMSAT-UK FUNcube Dongle VHF/UHF Software Defined Radio (SDR) at the BAA Radio Astronomy Group (RAG) meeting on Saturday, November 12 at 10:30am in The Humfrey Rooms, Castilian Terrace, Northampton, NN1 1LD.

• Tony Abbey will talk about his experiences of using the AMSAT-UK FUNcube Dongle – a software defined radio receiver. Subject to orbital timings, he will be demonstrating reception from a satellite as it passes overhead using a hand held antenna and laptop.

• Dr David Morgan will describe how the FUNcube Dongle raises the prospect of amateurs being able to put together a low-cost radio telescope.

Tickets for the main event are £15 (£12 for BAA members) to include tea, coffee and a buffet lunch, or £10/£7 without the lunch. To obtain a ticket see http://www.britastro.org/radio/

Meeting flyer and map http://www.britastro.org/radio/downloads/RAGGM_detailsv4.pdf

The impressive line-up of speakers can be seen at http://www.britastro.org/radio/

Join the BAA RAG Yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/baa-rag

Join the FUNcube Yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FUNcube

OSCAR News is published quarterly by AMSAT-UK and posted to members. To get your copy join AMSAT-UK online at http://tinyurl.com/JoinAMSAT-UK/
Free sample issue at http://www.uk.amsat.org/on_193_final.pdf