Tangent: I know this is communications related — but I was wondering today (just read something about some new FRB's) if radio astronomy, of a kind, could be something an amateur could deep dive into and actually contribute to.
I recall a project that allowed you to tune into long radio emissions from the sun — perhaps keep tabs on the solar weather?
(And stupid me thought astronomy was more or less headed for stagnancy decades ago.)
jdougan•1d ago
Recently: "Radio Astronomy Software Defined Radio (Rasdr) (radio-astronomy.org)"
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44134364
goku12•1d ago
I'm out of touch with RF technology lately. But there are some immediate applications that I can think of, where a community approach can yield interesting results. That 'long wavelength' part in your question would necessitate receiver antennas with a large radio aperture to get some reasonable spatial resolutions - sometimes on the order of kilometers. The practical way in which this problem is addressed is using signal processing techniques like Aperture Synthesis and Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI).
If the worldwide community can share the cost by deploying cheap receivers and donating compute time, it can lead to some interesting results. Much of these already exist, but they do have room for innovations and improvements. It's also a fun way to demystify these seemingly esoteric concepts.
CapricornNoble•1d ago
Nifty to see this. I was recently brainstorming about FOSS satellite tracking tools that could be pressed into service for military operations planning. Stuff ranging from planning attacks when certain space-based sensors have gaps in coverage, to working out minimum requirements for targeting adversary satellites. A lot of budget-constrained forces might be able to leverage SkyRoof to fill this gap.
zombot•1d ago
Since macOS 14 (Sonoma) I'm unable to find SDR software that works with my SDRPlay device. CubicSDR still worked in Ventura. I was hoping this app also had a macOS build.
brewtide•14h ago
Perhaps https://www.sdrpp.org/ would work for you? Just throwing it out there -- I've learned that my few SDRplay devices def. require a lot more pieces and parts on my linux machines than any of the other SDR devices that I own.
It's in .NET so I'd think it ought to be buildable on Linux too? Unless there are some specific hardware/driver requirements involved (there isn't much in the readme right now)
runjake•16h ago
It’s not buildable on Linux. The app uses WinForms and a number of other Windows-only .net libraries.
JKCalhoun•1d ago
Tangent: I know this is communications related — but I was wondering today (just read something about some new FRB's) if radio astronomy, of a kind, could be something an amateur could deep dive into and actually contribute to.
I recall a project that allowed you to tune into long radio emissions from the sun — perhaps keep tabs on the solar weather?
(And stupid me thought astronomy was more or less headed for stagnancy decades ago.)
jdougan•1d ago
goku12•1d ago
If the worldwide community can share the cost by deploying cheap receivers and donating compute time, it can lead to some interesting results. Much of these already exist, but they do have room for innovations and improvements. It's also a fun way to demystify these seemingly esoteric concepts.