Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers

On March 5, the SARA Western Conference coordinator was notified that the Very Large Array (VLA) facility would not be able to host the 2020 Western Conference this year due to concerns about the corona virus outbreak.

Day 1, Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ywZWheTwVI

Day, Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kikt5FqVbOY

Day 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B80tVNP6Cvo

Day 3, Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40YwUJ2rJAo

Day 3, Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aWryGalh7w

SARA was represented at the Dayton 2019 Hamvention this year again with a double booth in the Volta Building at the Greene County Fairgrounds in Xenia, Ohio. Ed Harfmann, Jim Sky, Bogdan Vacaliuc, Dave Fields, and Tom Hagen manned the exhibit for the 3-day event on Friday, May 17 through Sunday, May 19. Several hundred people stopped by and I am continually amazed by our visitors’ breadth of knowledge and experience. A number of possible SARA collaborations could result from these contacts.

For all the curious minds in the world, Paul M. Sutter is a new, fresh voice in science communication. Everywhere from his hit podcast Ask a Spaceman! to his role on TV’s How the Universe Works, Paul strives to bring science to new audiences.

Well, I had a great time at the SARA West conference. Everyone was really nice and welcoming, and there were many amazing presentations. Honestly, I didn't know quite what to expect. I've done a little bit, a very little bit, of radio astronomy with my students: some Project Jove, some meteorite detection using ionospheric reflection. But mostly, my astronomy work has been with neutrinos on the IceCube neutrino detector at the South Pole, and the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, and “regular” optical astronomy using telescopes that look like telescopes.