This is a bit like a scaled down (in terms of telescope size) Project Argus [1]. You could probably use the SARA ‘scope in a box’ [2] to do it, too, which is slight;y cheaper than the projected cost ($350 vs $500) assuming you have a s-are r-pi hanging around. The far lower cost of entry will probably make it a lot more popular though - not to mention finding satellite dishes of that size is becoming harder by the year..
About 2 decades ago, I had a Project Argus setup taking up most of my back yard [3]. I moved to the US when Apple bought my company, and had it packed up to take with me, thinking (in my naivety) that all US dwellings would have way more space than the terraced house I was living in (in London) and I could use it there too. Gentle reader, I was wrong. That dish has remained in its packing crate since it arrived all that time ago.
I leave the US to return permanently to the UK on 4th July (yes, yes…). Once I’m settled, bought a new house, and have the kids schooling sorted out, I’ll definitely be looking to get it up and running again, to rise, phoenix-like, and stare boldly into the abyss once more.
> thinking (in my naivety) that all US dwellings would have way more space than the terraced house I was living in
As you've no doubt discovered, this highly depends on where you live. In a major US city? You're going to pay a premium for yard space. In rural Tennessee? Not so much.
explodes 7 hours ago [-]
This is so cool. As someone who used to run SETI@Home, this is exciting and I'll be doing what I can when they're ready for me.
What is lacking, or I cannot find, yet, is steps for me to take or contribute.
passwordoops 3 hours ago [-]
From the bottom of the FAQ at the end of the page:
How can I help?
We welcome help, especially from those with experience in RFI shielding and software GUI development. Your expertise could make a big difference as we refine both the hardware and user interface. While we’re actively pursuing funding to support the project long term, any assistance now would accelerate our progress and broaden the impact of Wow@Home. Whether it’s technical support, outreach, or collaboration, your contribution matters.
mk_stjames 5 hours ago [-]
The next step for a project like this would be to incorporate a better, perhaps bepsoke SDR device more focused on the astronomy to be performed as most small off the shelf RTLSDR dongles have pretty horrible frequency drift. The addition of a more stable local clock source, coupled with a GPSDO - GPS disciplined oscillator - would allow signals to be correlated in time across many stations and allow for some actual, albeit basic, interferometry / aperture synthesis.
I think that is what is needed for some actual science to be done with this kind of hardware and community support - similar to the work done by amateurs hosting hardware to record sferics in the VLF bands that sync up over the internet to do lightning strike tracking.
The original v4 RTL-SDR has a 1PPM TCXO. The problem is, the tons of shady clones don't.
As for the GPSDO, that should be easy to solve at least if the host platform is a Raspberry Pi - the SparkFun NEO-M9N board can be connected to the PPS input of the Pi. The problem is, that thing is expensive.
I'm not an interferometry expert, so I don't know what level of precision is required, but usually a GPSDO takes a lot more than a PPS output.
A PPS output makes for very accurate timekeeping over long time scales. A GPSDO is a very stable oscillator that gives you precise frequency.
Disciplining your oscillator with a PPS signal would be much harder than with the typically used 10 MHz signal. And I don't think an RPi would do very good at putting out a highly stable MHz signal disciplined to a PPS input.
ericye16 6 hours ago [-]
I would love to build something like this, but it looks like the project is not quite complete yet? And also I don't see anywhere on the page where I can sign up for updates.
explodes 58 minutes ago [-]
I reached out via email and got some more information and added to a mailing list. I'm glad they added the FAQ, it answers a few of the questions I had.
Joel_Mckay 5 hours ago [-]
Would recommend getting a Ham technician license, as it will prepare you to understand the LNA and filter hardware.
At the risk of retracting from the really cool project, I notice that a lot of highlighted phrases in a text is indicative of an LLM writer. Not that I have anything against that.
Aachen 2 hours ago [-]
You think that's why every sentence (outside of figure captions and intro) has a bold part? It's sprinkled throughout so much that it hinders regular reading (or maybe that's just me? I find it really hard to read any paragraph at normal speed and not get distracted and skip to a bold part only to be missing context) and anyone looking to read the important bit is not aided in any way
I've also seen this on human texts, but only quite long ago
stefanfis 2 hours ago [-]
As long as the content is great, this doesn‘t matter at all. It helps especially non-native speakers a lot to clearly communicate their ideas. And it saves time for the important work. We should get used to it as fast as we can.
multjoy 1 hours ago [-]
If you’re not going to write it, why should I read it?
spacedcowboy 11 minutes ago [-]
No-one is forcing you to.
Not everyone who has the knowledge of how to put together a radio telescope is also awesome at creating a website. It seems everyone is a critic, these days…
aspect0545 5 hours ago [-]
That would also fit because the image on the top is very clearly AI generated. I find that quite off-putting to be honest.
8 hours ago [-]
Rendered at 14:08:05 GMT+0000 (UTC) with Wasmer Edge.
About 2 decades ago, I had a Project Argus setup taking up most of my back yard [3]. I moved to the US when Apple bought my company, and had it packed up to take with me, thinking (in my naivety) that all US dwellings would have way more space than the terraced house I was living in (in London) and I could use it there too. Gentle reader, I was wrong. That dish has remained in its packing crate since it arrived all that time ago.
I leave the US to return permanently to the UK on 4th July (yes, yes…). Once I’m settled, bought a new house, and have the kids schooling sorted out, I’ll definitely be looking to get it up and running again, to rise, phoenix-like, and stare boldly into the abyss once more.
1: https://www.setileague.org/argus/
2: https://radio-astronomy.org/store/projects/scope-in-a-box
3: https://imgur.com/pCJvp9C
As you've no doubt discovered, this highly depends on where you live. In a major US city? You're going to pay a premium for yard space. In rural Tennessee? Not so much.
What is lacking, or I cannot find, yet, is steps for me to take or contribute.
How can I help?
We welcome help, especially from those with experience in RFI shielding and software GUI development. Your expertise could make a big difference as we refine both the hardware and user interface. While we’re actively pursuing funding to support the project long term, any assistance now would accelerate our progress and broaden the impact of Wow@Home. Whether it’s technical support, outreach, or collaboration, your contribution matters.
I think that is what is needed for some actual science to be done with this kind of hardware and community support - similar to the work done by amateurs hosting hardware to record sferics in the VLF bands that sync up over the internet to do lightning strike tracking.
As for the GPSDO, that should be easy to solve at least if the host platform is a Raspberry Pi - the SparkFun NEO-M9N board can be connected to the PPS input of the Pi. The problem is, that thing is expensive.
[1] https://www.berrybase.de/sparkfun-qwiic-gps-breakout-neo-m9n...
A PPS output makes for very accurate timekeeping over long time scales. A GPSDO is a very stable oscillator that gives you precise frequency.
Disciplining your oscillator with a PPS signal would be much harder than with the typically used 10 MHz signal. And I don't think an RPi would do very good at putting out a highly stable MHz signal disciplined to a PPS input.
Best regards =3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5uV6zI_978
https://github.com/AP-HLine-3D/HLine3D
https://www.rtl-sdr.com/buy-rtl-sdr-dvb-t-dongles/
https://github.com/byggemandboesen/H-line-software
I've also seen this on human texts, but only quite long ago
Not everyone who has the knowledge of how to put together a radio telescope is also awesome at creating a website. It seems everyone is a critic, these days…