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

A combined observing and work trip to the Plishner radio telescope site is planned for the weekend of March 15-16, 2019. Several members are planning to be at the site by Friday afternoon March 15 to observe through the evening. The next day Saturday will be used for equipment and infrastructure work.

Western Conference of the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers, in Boulder, March 23-24, 2019. DSES is cosponsoring the conference, which includes a field trip visit to our radio telescope site in Haswell on Sunday March 24. Registration deadline is February 25.

There will be no DSES Science meeting scheduled during March 2019. Normally scheduled on the 4th Monday of the month, in March on that day members will be hosting the SARA conference field trip at the Plishner antenna site.

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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

DSES members Bill Miller, Tony Bigbee, and Gary Agranat served as judges at the Pikes Peak Regional Science Fair in Colorado Springs on Saturday February 23, 2019.

Skip Crilly gave a presentation to the New Hampshire Astronomical Society in Concord, NH on February 8, 2019: Geographically-spaced Synchronized Signal Detection System - Radio Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence is Fun.

The The Deep Space Exploration Society 2018 Annual Year End Report is now online.

The DSES Technical & Operations Meetings Minutes for November 12, 2018 and January 14, 2019 are now online. Written by DSES Vice President and Acting Secretary Bill Miller.

Paul Berge wrote this memorial to Winston W. Scott Jr. “ Scotty”, an early Deep Space Exploration Society member who significantly helped the group develop from its beginnings. We only learned recently that Scotty had passed away.

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.

Website Update Notes

We added a page for our K0PRT Ham Radio Certificates.

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