The purpose of this site is to document and share my experiences with a backyard radio astronomy project I began early in 2020.   Partly inspired by the knowledge that I'd be spending a lot of time at home during the pandemic, and also by other people who have shared similar projects online, I decided to try this out.  I'm also involving students at the high school where I teach.  They have built their own telescope and are currently analyzing data from it.

An integral component of this design is the software defined radio (SDR) unit.   This inexpensive device does digitally, what used to be done by analog RF receiver circuits.   The digitized output signal from the SDR can be analyzed in open-source GNU radio software allows users to create all sorts of programs tailored to process digital signals in different ways.

I am a high school physics teacher and have degrees in physics and chemistry, with a focus on experimental research and instrumentation.  However, I don't think that this training and experience are pre-requisite for a project like this.  A motivated high school student who can problem-solve and who is willing to apply/learn some basic technical skills can succeed as well.  They will also need a lot of aluminum foil.

This project is a work in progress.  Along the way, I found many resources, but had to learn a lot of things by trial and error.  Part of the motivation for creating this website is to provide information to help others to build and use their own radio telescopes.  I just got started on this website  and plan to add lots more soon!

Dave