DSES Technical and Operations Meeting Minutes- October 8, 2018

DSES Technical and Operations Meeting Minutes- October 8, 2018 by Bill Miller, DSES Vice President and Acting Secretary.

[Please click to read the PDF file.]

News & Announcement Board

Upcoming Activities

The next Plishner antenna site work trip is planned for the third weekend in November, 16th-18th, 2018. Radio Astronomy observing is planned for the evening of Friday the 16th, with infrastructure work during the rest of the weekend.

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Work trips to the Haswell antenna site are now scheduled for each third Saturday of the month, with weather alternates on Sunday. This third weekend was chosen because it comes between our engineering and science meetings. Having a regular date helps our members plan ahead, especially those who must travel long distances.

Our engineering meetings are held on the second Monday of each month. Members can participate remotely using Teamviewer. Our science meetings are held on the fourth Monday of each month. Start time is 5:30 PM. Please contact us if you would like information to attend.

News

An updated revision of Skip Crilly's presentation, SETI Geographically-spaced Synchronized Signal Detecction System – Simultaneous SETI Observations Oct 2017 to Nov 2018 has been posted. This replaces an earlier version.

Bob Haggard (N0CTV) has been working on building a new stairway and porch to the communications trailer at the radio telescope site. Today he traveled to the site and installed most of it. Please see today's post, Bob Haggart’s work building a new porch and stairway for the communications trailer.

The DSES Science Meeting Notes for October 22, 2018 are now posted. Written by Bill Miller. Accompanying the notes are Dr. Richard Russel's slideshow presentation about observations with the 60-foot dish during the previous weekend.

Our Plishner Site Report for the Weekend of October 19-21, 2018 is now posted. Written by Steve Plock, Ed Corn, and Gary Agranat.

The minutes from our Technical and Operations Meetings for September 10, 2018 and October 8, 2018 are now posted. Minutes are written by Bill Miller.

Slides from our Science Meeting on Sept. 24, 2018 are posted. The slides are Rich Russel's presentation about our 1420 MHz HI observations of the region around the galactic center done at the Plishner site the previous Saturday.

Our DSES Plishner Site Work Trip Report for September 14-16, 2018 is now posted. By Bill Miller and Gary Agranat. With photos.

Website Update Notes

Active Experiments

Current experiments now in progress at the Plishner Radio Astronomy & Space Science Center site in Haswell:

60-foot dish antenna:
[August 19, 2018] The 60 foot dish antenna is now periodically being used for joint observing runs for SETI with Skip Crilly at the Greenbank Observatory in West Virginia. These joint observations are discussed in Skip's presentation slides from the 2018 SARA Western Conference at Stanford. See the slides on our Publications Page, in the Science Section.

With the pointing systems and receivers now being validated, we also are starting to use the 60-foot dish antenna for detecting astronomical radio source objects and the Milky Way at 1.4 GHz. We currently are using a SpectraCyber 1420 MHz Hydrogen Line Spectrometer. And we are starting to try RASDR4 (Radio Astronomy Software Defined Radio). A 1.4 GHz feed designed by Steve Plock is at the focus.

Jupiter Radio Science Experiment "Radio Jove":
20.1 MHz monitoring of Jupiter and its moon Io, using a 2-element phased dipole antenna - currently down, pending repair of the receiver. [Aug. 18. 2018]

Experiments in Colorado Springs:

430 MHz drift scan

Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance Monitor (SID):
- 25 kHz VLF Solar flare monitoring

More information about our currently running experiments