Category Archives: Tech

Astrobotic will launch to the moon on Christmas Eve

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After months of waiting — and 16 years of development — North Shore-based Astrobotic finally has a launch date for its first commercial lander.

Peregrine is set to journey into space aboard a United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket on December 24.

Astrobotic CEO John Thornton said it will be “a fantastic Christmas present” and “the dawn of a new era for the moon.”

“I’m especially excited because the whole world will be at home watching the launch and cheering us on,” he said.

Read The Full Article On The: Post Gazette
Astrobotic Video Tour By: John KC3MMC 

NASA Need Ham Radio Operators

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The HamSCI Festivals of Eclipse Ionospheric Science will occur October 14, 2023 and April 8, 2024 during spectacular North American solar eclipses.

​The Festivals will consist of multiple events, each with a goal of increasing our understanding of sun-ionosphere-earth relationships. ​Participants will include volunteer amateur radio operators, short wave listeners and science researchers from multiple US universities.

HamSCI FoEIS Events in which you can participate

  • The Solar Eclipse QSO Party (SEQP)
  • The Gladstone Signal Spotting Challenge (GSSC)
  • Learn how to participate by visiting the HamSCI FoEIS Contest Info Page
Planned Events – Details To Be Announced at a Future Time
  • Doppler Effects on the Reception of WWV and CHU Utilizing the Grape 2 Low-IF Receiver
  • The Use of Time Delay of Arrival (TDOA) Measurements to Profile Ionospheric Layer Height Changes During Solar Eclipses
  • Tracking Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances Using Doppler-shifts of AM Broadcast Stations
  • ​VLF Reception Exercise

Read More about this here:
https://science.nasa.gov
https://hamsci.org/eclipse

Software Defined Radio

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Did you know that the club has an Airspy HF+ Discovery SDR available for use by the public? What better way to see how propagation conditions look than to listen in or even see the traffic on the map.

Check the propagation across North America, or the world with FT4 and FT8.

Or perhaps you’d rather listen to air traffic from KPIT? Or listen to KDKA? Whatever your interest, our SDR may have something for you.

Give it a whirl!
https://www.w3kwh.net/openwebrx/

PS – Click around the dial as you like, but don’t forget that if you change bands, you do so for all other connected users. So, be sure to have a look at the bottom of the page. “Clients” will tell you how many listeners are connected.