Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers

Green Bank, WV National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), USA

The Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA) solicits papers for presentation at its 2014 Annual Conference to be held 29 June - 4 July 2014.

Sunday 29 June, will start with an introduction to Radio Astronomy at the Science Center classroom, followed by learning to operate the forty foot radio telescope (1,420 MHz (21 cm). Presentations by SARA members and guests on Monday and Tuesday. a High Tech tour of the NRAO facility will be conducted on Tuesday 1 July.

Introduction to Amateur Radio Astronomy, Tom Hagen. Amateurs have a number of opportunities to pursue radio astronomy as a hobby in the Hz to GHz frequency range. At the lowest frequencies, radio frequency (RF) energy in the audio frequency range (wavelengths of hundreds of miles) can be detected with a natural radio receiver comprising a whip antenna and a high input impedance audio amplifier. At higher frequencies, ionospheric solar disturbance monitoring may be done with a computer sound card and a simple pre-amplifier in the 15-48 kHz range.

The Northern Virginia Astronomy Club (NOVAC) hosted the Fall 2013 Star Gaze on October 5, 2013 at C.M. Crockett Park in Midland, VA. One of the speakers was Ciprian Sufitchi, who introduced our radio astronomy club to NOVAC members and had a presentation with the title "A Radio-Astronomy Project: Detect Solar Flares From Your Backyard", offering practical solutions to monitor SID events using SuperSID. He also provided live demonstrations on the field. Weather was great and the star gaze party turned out to be a success.

The Radio Jove team has announced they will conduct a conference immediately following the SARA conference at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, West Virginia. The SARA Annual Conference will be June 29 to July 2 and the Radio Jove Conference will be July 2 to July 4, 2014. Anyone interested in radio astronomy is invited to attend either or both conferences, membership is not required.