Saturn and Titan

One of the rewards of being an amateur astronomer is that from time to time you get to discover on your own astronomical facts that were actually discovered centuries ago. Like the orbital period of Titan. About ten days ago I reported on my early morning observations of Saturn. Titan was in the far right of my field of view. Then, a week later I looked again and saw that Titan was now in the far left of the field of view. It looked like it it had gone to the opposite end of its orbital track in about a week. I checked and, sure enough, Titan takes about 15 earth days to complete an orbit. Neat.

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The Giant Magellan Telescope

Wow, seven 28 foot mirrors! They just started blasting away the top of a mountain in Chile to make room for this magnificent 'scope. More details here: http://www.gmto.org/index.html
For those of you who are looking, they have some job openings (link at the bottom of their site).

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

NJORP's "Chat with the Designers" Podcast

N2APB and N2CX of the New Jersey QRP Club have been hosting weekly, live, on-line technical discussions called "Chats with the Designers." They are recording these sessions, and turning them into -- in effect -- podcasts. Yesterday I listened to their session on circuit simulators and really enjoyed it. Today, I'll be listening to the one on digital modes. I think you guys will like this. Lots to learn from the NJQRP guys:
http://www.njqrp.org/teamspeak/TeamspeakChat.html


Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

A Rare Tour of the HP Garage

Kim, VK5FJ, sent this to us. Amazing pictures. Inspiring! Look at that work bench. Note the ARRL antenna book.

http://dvice.com/archives/2012/03/rare-tour-of-th.php#25


Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

SolderSmoke Podcast #142

March 19, 2012

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke142.mp3

SWR meter as a poor man's spectrum analyzer
QRP Quarterly: Pete Juliano's SSB Rig, Idea Exchange, Mike's articles
Great contacts on 17 SSB
Squeezing the birdies out of 17 meter rig. Again.
STOP MURPHY'S WHISKERS! A PLEA FOR BELDEN 1671A!
My new 'scope
Zen and the Art of Telescope Maintenance
SETI Live: Search the waterfall for ET's sigs
Ade Weiss's wonderful new book
Chinese Knack?
Soul in the Machine: Billy's earliest toroids
Re-cycling my 20 meter CW rig (from cycle 22)
Winterfest report
Relay repairs and back EMF dangers
MAILBAG

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

The Allen Telescope Array

I'm really getting into the SETI Live project. Whenever I get a chance I go to the SETI Live page, log on, and classify a few signals. Today I was looking at the tech aspects of the antenna array. Very interesting, and very appealing to homebrewers. They are making use of dishes that were made for TV reception. And they are using software-defined receiver systems. All of this makes upgrades relatively easy.

Jill Tartar of "Contact" fame is running this project.

Check it out: http://www.seti.org/ata

So, I'll be I'll be using a big array to listen (watch really) for the REAL DX on .5 to 11.2 Gigahertz. I'll let you guys know if I hear any "new ones"!

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

UK Balloon Launch and a North Sea Splashdown

I like balloon projects.
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20