A Bit Of History

Two Radio Amateurs, One NASA Space Scientist, and One Astronomer walked into a Ham Club meeting on the night of the peak of the Perseids Meteor Shower. Sounds like the set up for a joke right?

In 2022, three Radio Amateurs and one Astronomer interested in meteor related phenomenon agreed to make a series of briefings before the Huntsville Amateur Radio Club on August 11 2022 which is the peak date for the Perseid Meteor Shower one of the most prolific annual showers. Three of these folk were also members of the Von Braun Astronomical Society. 

Earlier in the year, a  group of Radio Amateurs formed a local  committee to look for grant opportunities based on the recently formed Amateur Radio Digital Communications  (ARDC) Foundation, a Trust that administers the 44.0.0.0/8 Internet address space assigned to Amateur Radio and manages a trust fund generated through commercial sales of these addresses to commercial interests. Funds, on the order of $7 million a year, are distributed by the trust and used to provide grants that forward the development of Amateur Radio, Radio Technology, and STEM Education among other goals. The presenters that night were all also members of the Grant seeking committee.

Presentations were given by Dr Rob Suggs/NN4NT, Larry Cagle/K4WLO, Jeff Delmas, and Bob Ehresman/KV4PC. Rob, a semi-retired Space Scientist and Meteor Scatter Communications  enthusiast, presented the physics of how meteor scatter communications works and how to apply it in Amateur Radio,  Larry, retired communications engineer from the WLO USCG Shore Station in Mobile Alabama along with his colleague Tim Urban/N4WLO have been running a long term meteor propagation experiment between Mobile AL and Manchester TN.  Larry presented the history of their experiment , the experimental apparatus, and interesting results collected over the course of 3 years running the 24/7/365 communications experiment. Jeff Delmas, Observatory Manager provided an introduction to the Von Braun Astronomical Society organization and facilities. Bob Ehresman provided a presentation about Meteor Scatter Phenomenon history, Passive Meteor Radars in Scientific and Academic groups, and by volunteer and hobbyist groups, and Citizen Science organizations and networks interested in the global collection of meteor observation data from these groups. He also operated a live meteor radar demonstration before and during in the meeting. 

Together, these individuals worked with the local Grant Committee, others at VBAS, and HARC, specifically including VBAS Development Director Alexandra Hall to develop a Radio Astronomy Outreach proposal. 

During the grant development period and subsequently at most Saturday Planetarium Shows, the Meteor Detection Radar Prototype has been demonstrated to the public. A nice feature of this is that it works rain or shine so on nights that are cloudy or rained out or for daytime events we still have a few interesting things to show our guests when the show lets out.

Our Grant Proposal is filed here: 

Engaging the Public with Amateur Radio Astronomy:

Developing an Initial Capability At the Von Braun Astronomical Society Huntsville, Alabama

During the grant writing period, we received a donation from Larry Cagle/K4WLO of a 40' tower,

Subsequently a grant was awarded to VBAS in the amount of approximately $14K.

Post reward we received a donation from Jon Carleton, VBAS Member, of a 3m TVRO dish that we have received and are pressing into service as a Galactic Neutral Hydrogen Receiver and "Water Hole" receiver.. 

Because the land that VBAS occupies is leased from the State Of Alabama Park Service in Monte Sano State Park, permission to do certain of the construction was necessary. After months of deliberation, Alabama State Parks granted permission for construction to proceed.

We have found a fairly reliable way to introduce the meteor detection radar into the Planetarium Show, by using NoMachine or Parsec, each are network desktop sharing software app that streams both desktop and audio. We can now project our Meteor Radar Demo on to the Planetarium Dome at the end of the show.

A pair of KrakenSDRs are in hand, and we are developing ways to use them to obtain azimuth and elevation of meteor signatures in real time.

The 3m dish has been been stood up, equipped with a simple L-band feed horn for reception of 21 cm Neutral Hydrogen, 18 cm Hydroxyl Radical emissions, and potentially listening around in the "Water Hole" region in between these two wavelengths that are so interesting to SETI Researchers. We have work to do on this still before it is ready for the public.

We have prepared a smaller very portable "Mesh Dish" Radio Telescope that has similar receiving capabilities only at lower performance. It may well be used at pop up star parties or at STEM Outreach events such as schools, Science Fairs or at other local museums and Science Centers. It got its debut as a display at the Bays Mountain "Skys For All" Planetarium Conference.

Check here for more bits of history as the continuing saga rolls on!