Category Archives: Space Radio

DIY space, Space participation, Space Radio

Low cost DIY ground station for weather satellite image reception

The HobbySpace Space Radio section has lots of information and web resources about home reception of satellite signals, especially for obtaining images from low earth orbit weather satellites. The price for such DIY systems was modest and now has gotten even cheaper.

Previously, one needed a wide-band radio tuner, which might cost a couple of hundred dollars, a simple antenna, a PC with a sound card, and some free software for turning the satellite data into images. Now with the arrival of Software Defined Radio programs, one can obtain a cheap “dongle”, i.e. a small device with a built-in tuner that plugs into a PC’s USB port for interfacing satellites signals to the PC.

Jason Davis of the Planetary Society gives a nice tutorial on building a system with about $50 in components (not counting a PC) that can be used for receiving weather sat images as well as data from a future LightSail mission: How to Download Weather Satellite Images from Space – The Planetary Society.

For additional info, Davis points to Receiving Weather Satellite Images for £8 – Matt Gray.

See also the RTL-SDR, a  very cheap software defined radio that uses a DVB-T TV tuner dongle”.

20150918_earth-noaa19_f537[1]A sample image from Jason Davis showing much of N. America
as received by his home ground station from the NOAA 19 satellite. 

Space Radio

Talking with astronauts on the ISS via ham radio

An overview of the history of ham radio communications with the Shuttle and the Int. Space Station : For Ham Radio Geeks, Contact With Space Station Is Exciting – Forbes –

This event at The Exploer Club in New York City on Oct.25th with a group of space travelers from the Apollo program up through SpaceShipOne, will include a live HAM radio contact with the ISS via the Club’s station K2XP : Astronaut Central – Space Stories – The Explorers Club. I

For more links to resources concerning the ISS amateur radio station, see the HobbySpace Space Radio section.

Space Music, Space Radio, Space Science

More sounds of space

I wrote the other day about naturally generated space sounds. One of the examples in that post is actually from a big collection of such recordings at Space Audio – YouTube (via The Unwanted Blog).

Here are more examples from that collection:

Astronomy, Space Music, Space Radio

All sorts of sounds of space

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Here’s an overview of “space sounds”, i.e. naturally produced radio signals from the planets, deep space, meteors, etc converted to audio: The spooky sounds of space:  Since the 1950s, probes sent into space have been sending back data that reveal eerie sounds from the vastness of the galaxy. – CNET.

Find more space sound resources in the Natural Space Radio, Natural Space Music, and Natural Space Sounds sections at HobbySpace.

Astronomy, Meteors, Space Radio

Seeing and listening to Perseid meteors

The 2014 Perseid meteor shower will be peaking between today and Wednesday. Here is some advice on observing them: Perseid Meteor Shower: How to See August’s ‘Shooting Stars’ – Space.com’.

The International Meteor Organization offers citizen scientists a way to participate in monitoring the event : Perseids 2014: visual data quicklook.

You can also listen to meteors via the radio signals they generate : Build Your Own Radio Telescope to Listen to Meteors – Science Friday.

Here’s a project on building your own radio telescope:

Find more amateur radio astronomy resources in the HobbySpace Space Radio section.