SARA, RADIO JOVE & INSPIRE at Dayton Hamvention

    The Radio JOVE group, the INSPIRE Project and the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers will have an exhibit in the Ball Arena booths 0421 and 0420 at Hamvention in Dayton, Ohio on  May 15, 16 and 17, 2015.

    Representatives from each group will be there to answer questions and explain radio astronomy observations. There will be displays of past observations. Due to the high radio frequency interference (RFI) of the convention, real time data will not be able to be displayed.

    SARA plans to have SuperSID units available for sale as well as Radio JOVE kits and INPSIRE kits available for purchase.

2015 Western Conference KIPAC Tour

The Western Conference starts with a tour of The Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, or KIPAC on Friday at 3:00 pm. Dr. Mandeep S. S. Gill will be our guide.

For ID at the gate you will need a Driver's License or similar photo ID.

Be sure to allow plenty of time to get lost.  I will try to be there well
before 3:00 PM.  If you get lost, call me (Keith Payea) at (707)548-9532

Here's the basic scoop on where SLAC is and how to get there:

    https://www6.slac.stanford.edu/visiting-slac

with other information there too.

2015 Western Conference Abstracts as of 02/26/2015

 Author:  Tom Hagen

Title: Portable VLF Receiver for Making Calibrated Magnetic Field Strength Measurements

 

Abstract: This presentation is about the author's continuing efforts to get calibrated measurements of the field strengths of the various VLF stations used by the SuperSID program as reference sources to detect sudden ionospheric disturbances (SID’s). Presently, the amplitude of data coming in from the various SuperSID stations around the world is uncalibrated. When a SID is detected, there is a measurable change in relative signal strength, but actual field strengths are unknown. If a portable VLF receiver and loop antenna setup could be developed that is calibrated, then such a setup could be shipped to different sites for calibrated field strength measurements.  Users could even build their own receiver and loop antenna from standard plans. A small loop design and two receiver designs are discussed.  Estimated sensitivities of each receiver design are calculated. Calculations are verified with laboratory tests.

New Website Sections Introduced; Further Enhancements to Come

The latest addition to the SARA website is a new tab on the header bar called SARA Sections, in addition to the tabs already there for: Home; Education; Administrative Info; Forum; Projects; Links; Photo Gallery; The SARA Store; and RASDR. The tab for the SARA Sections will bring the visitor to an Introduction page, under which will be 6 SARA Sections. The purpose of these sections is to create a more intuitive website experience when visitors view the SARA webpage. This will help enhance the website with a similar feature seen with other national astronomy organizations like that of AAVSO and ALPO.

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