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

Dr. Richard Russel will be at the Haswell radio telescope site this Thursday January 17, 2019, by 10 AM, for observing. He will be onsite until Friday morning 8 AM, and leave before the forecast snow is due to arrive. Some other members are expected to join him. On Saturday January 19, Steve Plock and Ed Corn are planning to travel to the site to work then as well.

The next DSES Science Meeting will be held on Monday January 28, 2019 at 5:30 pm at the home of Dr. Richard Russel in Colorado Springs. Please contact us if you would like information to attend. Note, we will not have a science meeting on Monday December 24, 2018.

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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

Our 2019 Deep Space Exploration Society Membership Drive has started. Membership in DSES runs from the start of each calendar year. Dues continue to be $50 / year for voting members and $20 / year for non-voting members. Please renew your membership now. We welcome new members as well. Please read DSES Treasurer Myron Babcock’s membership message in our linked post, with more information about being a member, and on how to pay membership dues.

Results of the December 2018 Observing Trip slide set from the December Science Meeting, by Dr. Richard Russel.

A Haswell site work trip report for the weekend of December 14-16, 2018 is posted.

Now posted are the presentations from our DSES Science Meeting, hosted by Dr. Richard Russel, held on November 26, 2018. Those include 1) results from the latest galactic rotation rate observations, 2) a compilation of all individual radio sources observed to date with Spectracyber and the 60 foot antenna, and 3) Dayton Jones's presentation "Small Antenna Calibration at JPL".

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