Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers

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.

The Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA) hereby solicits papers for presentation at its 2014 Western Regional Conference to be held 22 and 23 March 2014. Our first day will be spent at Owens Valley Radio Observatory with presentations by SARA members and supporters and OVRO staff followed by a tour of the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA) in the nearby mountains. Our second day will be at a conference room in Bishop with presentations by SARA members and supporters.