I've just built a Radio Solar Spectroscope and started receiving. A what? A radio telescope, looking at a broad spectrum of radio frequencies. So... why? To see the impacts of solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from my backyard.
It also satisfies my deep enjoyment in tinkering with gadgets and programming. As a bonus, the stuff cost me less than $200.
It also satisfies my deep enjoyment in tinkering with gadgets and programming. As a bonus, the stuff cost me less than $200.
What am I looking at (...or listening to)?
Flares and CMEs create some beautiful shows for us in the form of auroras, but you typically have to be in sub-polar regions at the right time, enduring temperatures of 30 below. In mainland Australia, you have to be pretty lucky to see them (I've seen ONE). The effects are present all the time though, just not in the visible spectrum. If we look in radio frequencies of say 25MHz to 1800MHz, we'll find them.
Above: an aurora from Tromso, Norway (thanks Harald) and a radio spectrograph showing radio bursts from solar flares (Radio and Space Weather).
What's the Spectroscope look like?
The Spectroscope consists of 3 modules - Reception; Logging; and Reduction & Output. The heart of the scope is a $12 USB TV stick from eBay.
It turns out you can do some amazing things with a USB TV stick. A while back someone realised they aren't just restricted to TV reception - they receive across an amazing range of radio bands covering CB, FM radio, digital TV and satellite TV. In this case I want to see all frequencies at once, and measure the radio signal intensity at each point, seeing how that varies over time (due to solar signals).
Above: The reception and logging happens in the observatory. Log files are accessed remotely via WiFi bridge.
See the Design and Specification details here.
Have I seen anything yet?
Here's the first scan, run on January 21st, 2015.
Easy to see some quiet patches in the 40-45MHz range (blue spikes), possibly from solar activity. Waiting for a decent event to really see how it shows up!
Now what?
Now it's a case of observing! I plan to keep track of solar activity through web sites like www.spaceweather.com and www.ips.gov.au, and correlate that activity to what I see from the Spectroscope and post the results.
The Spectroscope consists of 3 modules - Reception; Logging; and Reduction & Output. The heart of the scope is a $12 USB TV stick from eBay.
It turns out you can do some amazing things with a USB TV stick. A while back someone realised they aren't just restricted to TV reception - they receive across an amazing range of radio bands covering CB, FM radio, digital TV and satellite TV. In this case I want to see all frequencies at once, and measure the radio signal intensity at each point, seeing how that varies over time (due to solar signals).
See the Design and Specification details here.
Have I seen anything yet?
Easy to see some quiet patches in the 40-45MHz range (blue spikes), possibly from solar activity. Waiting for a decent event to really see how it shows up!
Now what?
Now it's a case of observing! I plan to keep track of solar activity through web sites like www.spaceweather.com and www.ips.gov.au, and correlate that activity to what I see from the Spectroscope and post the results.
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