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Friday, October 25, 2019

Radio Telescope Homebrewed from Cake Pans and Chicken Wire

 

https://altaonline.com/the-low-tech-search-for-signs-of-intelligent-life/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

at 7:45 AM
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2 comments:

  1. MichaelOctober 25, 2019 at 8:20 AM

    It says a lot, but says nothing. A radio telescope is not just the antenna, but the focus is cheap antennas, to make up a large array. Presumably each needs a preamp, and either a receiver for each or some way to combine the output. And nkthing said about cost cutting on the electronics. It does mention a super computer, eityer tge writer being dazzled or something completely out of the realm of the hobbyist.

    Yes this seems more serioys tgan recent entrues elsewhere where it seems about "having a radio telescope" than doing something useful.

    People have long known about hearing Jupiter at 18MHz, but tge new ave has people using a tiny satellite dish and one of those USB SDR gizmos and their results are far from a useful radio telescope. More dazzle.

    Amateur moonbounce replicated the US signal corp's work n the tooic, undoubtedly doing it cheaper. But early it was expensive, and required building and skill. They had to understand, and scrounge equipment. Now people can just buy off the shelf, but it's not the same.

    I'vve seen comments suggesting the world is better when everyone can do things by throwing together some boards. But it overlooks the time when building was required.

    Michael

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  2. Phil EricksonOctober 27, 2019 at 8:11 AM

    I hang around with radio astronomers a lot. The article misses most of the point: cheap has absolutely nothing to do with capable. (This is the Soldersmoke blog!) Greg Hallinan is a world class astronomer and this is a serious scientific instrument - check the literature. Basic antenna theory says you can construct a collecting area electrically by phasing up smaller things. Computing is now fast enough that we can do that job. The author should have focused much more on what is now possible with thousands of individual antennas. Frustrating.

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