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Wow@Home – Network of Amateur Radio Telescopes

196 points by visviva 1y ago

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
explodes 1y ago
This is so cool. As someone who used to run SETI@Home, this is exciting and I'll be doing what I can when they're ready for me. What is lacking, or I cannot find, yet, is steps for me to take or contribute.
- passwordoops 1y ago
  From the bottom of the FAQ at the end of the page: How can I help? We welcome help, especially from those with experience in RFI shielding and software GUI development. Your expertise could make a big difference as we refine both the hardware and user interface. While we’re actively pursuing funding to support the project long term, any assistance now would accelerate our progress and broaden the impact of Wow@Home. Whether it’s technical support, outreach, or collaboration, your contribution matters.
dmos62 1y ago
At the risk of retracting from the really cool project, I notice that a lot of highlighted phrases in a text is indicative of an LLM writer. Not that I have anything against that.
- aspect0545 1y ago
  That would also fit because the image on the top is very clearly AI generated. I find that quite off-putting to be honest.
- stefanfis 1y ago
  As long as the content is great, this doesn‘t matter at all. It helps especially non-native speakers a lot to clearly communicate their ideas. And it saves time for the important work. We should get used to it as fast as we can.
  - multjoy 1y ago
    If you’re not going to write it, why should I read it?
    - spacedcowboy 1y ago
      No-one is forcing you to. Not everyone who has the knowledge of how to put together a radio telescope is also awesome at creating a website. It seems everyone is a critic, these days… And if you don’t think that having an appealing website is at least as important as the content within when doing outreach, I may have a bridge to sell you.
      - multjoy 1y ago
        They don't need to be awesome, they just need to write their own words. If someone can't be bothered to write the copy for their project, what else have they handed over to an LLM?
        lucb1e 1y ago
        > what else have they handed over to an LLM? A version in their own language or with lots of spelling mistakes that take people out of the story as well (Charitably, that is)
        Xss3 1y ago
        ChatGPT is a better writer than me. Simple as that. It takes my words and ideas and communicates them more effectively. They're still my words and ideas being fed to it. It just transforms them into something others enjoy reading. It asks me questions I forgot to answer. Etc.
        multjoy 1y ago
        No it doesn't. It makes them average. It regresses as far as it can to the mean because that's what it does. It has no creativity, it cannot think. It has no idea what is right, only that it can make your input look like the corpus of data that it has been trained on. If you think that's better, then that's your look out.
- Aachen 1y ago
  You think that's why every sentence (outside of figure captions and intro) has a bold part? It's sprinkled throughout so much that it hinders regular reading (or maybe that's just me? I find it really hard to read any paragraph at normal speed and not get distracted and skip to a bold part only to be missing context) and anyone looking to read the important bit is not aided in any way I've also seen this on human texts, but only quite long ago
ericye16 1y ago
I would love to build something like this, but it looks like the project is not quite complete yet? And also I don't see anywhere on the page where I can sign up for updates.
- Joel_Mckay 1y ago
  Would recommend getting a Ham technician license, as it will prepare you to understand the LNA and filter hardware. Best regards =3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5uV6zI_978 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5uV6zI_978 https://github.com/AP-HLine-3D/HLine3D https://github.com/AP-HLine-3D/HLine3D https://www.rtl-sdr.com/buy-rtl-sdr-dvb-t-dongles/ https://www.rtl-sdr.com/buy-rtl-sdr-dvb-t-dongles/ https://github.com/byggemandboesen/H-line-software https://github.com/byggemandboesen/H-line-software
  - ericye16 1y ago
    I do have a ham license! I just need something to do with it haha.
- explodes 1y ago
  I reached out via email and got some more information and added to a mailing list. I'm glad they added the FAQ, it answers a few of the questions I had.
mk_stjames 1y ago
The next step for a project like this would be to incorporate a better, perhaps bepsoke SDR device more focused on the astronomy to be performed as most small off the shelf RTLSDR dongles have pretty horrible frequency drift. The addition of a more stable local clock source, coupled with a GPSDO - GPS disciplined oscillator - would allow signals to be correlated in time across many stations and allow for some actual, albeit basic, interferometry / aperture synthesis. I think that is what is needed for some actual science to be done with this kind of hardware and community support - similar to the work done by amateurs hosting hardware to record sferics in the VLF bands that sync up over the internet to do lightning strike tracking.
- multjoy 1y ago
  https://www.crowdsupply.com/krakenrf/discovery-dish https://www.crowdsupply.com/krakenrf/discovery-dish
- mschuster91 1y ago
  The original v4 RTL-SDR has a 1PPM TCXO. The problem is, the tons of shady clones don't. As for the GPSDO, that should be easy to solve at least if the host platform is a Raspberry Pi - the SparkFun NEO-M9N board can be connected to the PPS input of the Pi. The problem is, that thing is expensive. [1] https://www.berrybase.de/sparkfun-qwiic-gps-breakout-neo-m9n-sma https://www.berrybase.de/sparkfun-qwiic-gps-breakout-neo-m9n...
  - BenjiWiebe 1y ago
    I'm not an interferometry expert, so I don't know what level of precision is required, but usually a GPSDO takes a lot more than a PPS output. A PPS output makes for very accurate timekeeping over long time scales. A GPSDO is a very stable oscillator that gives you precise frequency. Disciplining your oscillator with a PPS signal would be much harder than with the typically used 10 MHz signal. And I don't think an RPi would do very good at putting out a highly stable MHz signal disciplined to a PPS input.
spacedcowboy 1y ago
This is a bit like a scaled down (in terms of telescope size) Project Argus [1]. You could probably use the SARA ‘scope in a box’ [2] to do it, too, which is slight;y cheaper than the projected cost ($350 vs $500) assuming you have a spare r-pi hanging around. The far lower cost of entry will probably make it a lot more popular though - not to mention finding satellite dishes of that size is becoming harder by the year.. About 2 decades ago, I had a Project Argus setup taking up most of my back yard [3]. I moved to the US when Apple bought my company, and had it packed up to take with me, thinking (in my naivety) that all US dwellings would have way more space than the terraced house I was living in (in London) and I could use it there too. Gentle reader, I was wrong. That dish has remained in its packing crate since it arrived all that time ago. I leave the US to return permanently to the UK on 4th July (yes, yes…). Once I’m settled, bought a new house, and have the kids schooling sorted out, I’ll definitely be looking to get it up and running again, to rise, phoenix-like, and stare boldly into the abyss once more. 1: https://www.setileague.org/argus/ https://www.setileague.org/argus/ 2: https://radio-astronomy.org/store/projects/scope-in-a-box https://radio-astronomy.org/store/projects/scope-in-a-box 3: https://imgur.com/pCJvp9C https://imgur.com/pCJvp9C
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 1y ago
  > thinking (in my naivety) that all US dwellings would have way more space than the terraced house I was living in As you've no doubt discovered, this highly depends on where you live. In a major US city? You're going to pay a premium for yard space. In rural Tennessee? Not so much.
  - spacedcowboy 1y ago
    Oh $deity yes, I was rapidly disabused of the notion, given I was living in San Jose or Cupertino, or Mountain View, … or anywhere in reasonable traveling time to the Apple campus, really. Going to buy a place by the beach in the UK, with a little (half acre or so) land, and plenty of space (for Space :) now that I’m retiring. I have an interest in optical astrophotography too, so as low a Bortle sky as I can finagle given the other constraints (school proximity, wife’s opinion, …)
  - 1y ago
spacecadet 1y ago
This is awesome! Built a radio telescope during covid thanks to someone posting some cool raspberry pi project here on hacker news.
spaceport 1y ago
Does not need... gets wallet
javiramos 1y ago
Nice to see that this project came from the University of Puerto Rico! The university has a cluster of activity in astronomy thanks to the legacy of the Arecibo telescope.
- rovr138 1y ago
  eso es! Seeing the title I was a bit bummed seeing radio telescopes and what happened with the radio telescope there. Clicking the link, I was really happy to see upr.edu domain and then the title, 'PHL @ UPR Arecibo'. I like the legacy that the radio telescope has left behind and I'm very happy to see others there working with radio.

196 points by visviva 1y ago

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

This is so cool. As someone who used to run SETI@Home, this is exciting and I'll be doing what I can when they're ready for me. What is lacking, or I cannot find, yet, is steps for me to take or contribute.

passwordoops 1y ago
From the bottom of the FAQ at the end of the page: How can I help? We welcome help, especially from those with experience in RFI shielding and software GUI development. Your expertise could make a big difference as we refine both the hardware and user interface. While we’re actively pursuing funding to support the project long term, any assistance now would accelerate our progress and broaden the impact of Wow@Home. Whether it’s technical support, outreach, or collaboration, your contribution matters.

dmos62 1y ago

At the risk of retracting from the really cool project, I notice that a lot of highlighted phrases in a text is indicative of an LLM writer. Not that I have anything against that.

aspect0545 1y ago
That would also fit because the image on the top is very clearly AI generated. I find that quite off-putting to be honest.
stefanfis 1y ago
As long as the content is great, this doesn‘t matter at all. It helps especially non-native speakers a lot to clearly communicate their ideas. And it saves time for the important work. We should get used to it as fast as we can.
- multjoy 1y ago
  If you’re not going to write it, why should I read it?
  - spacedcowboy 1y ago
    No-one is forcing you to. Not everyone who has the knowledge of how to put together a radio telescope is also awesome at creating a website. It seems everyone is a critic, these days… And if you don’t think that having an appealing website is at least as important as the content within when doing outreach, I may have a bridge to sell you.
    - multjoy 1y ago
      They don't need to be awesome, they just need to write their own words. If someone can't be bothered to write the copy for their project, what else have they handed over to an LLM?
      - lucb1e 1y ago
        > what else have they handed over to an LLM? A version in their own language or with lots of spelling mistakes that take people out of the story as well (Charitably, that is)
      - Xss3 1y ago
        ChatGPT is a better writer than me. Simple as that. It takes my words and ideas and communicates them more effectively. They're still my words and ideas being fed to it. It just transforms them into something others enjoy reading. It asks me questions I forgot to answer. Etc.
        multjoy 1y ago
        No it doesn't. It makes them average. It regresses as far as it can to the mean because that's what it does. It has no creativity, it cannot think. It has no idea what is right, only that it can make your input look like the corpus of data that it has been trained on. If you think that's better, then that's your look out.
Aachen 1y ago
You think that's why every sentence (outside of figure captions and intro) has a bold part? It's sprinkled throughout so much that it hinders regular reading (or maybe that's just me? I find it really hard to read any paragraph at normal speed and not get distracted and skip to a bold part only to be missing context) and anyone looking to read the important bit is not aided in any way I've also seen this on human texts, but only quite long ago

ericye16 1y ago

I would love to build something like this, but it looks like the project is not quite complete yet? And also I don't see anywhere on the page where I can sign up for updates.

Joel_Mckay 1y ago
Would recommend getting a Ham technician license, as it will prepare you to understand the LNA and filter hardware. Best regards =3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5uV6zI_978 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5uV6zI_978 https://github.com/AP-HLine-3D/HLine3D https://github.com/AP-HLine-3D/HLine3D https://www.rtl-sdr.com/buy-rtl-sdr-dvb-t-dongles/ https://www.rtl-sdr.com/buy-rtl-sdr-dvb-t-dongles/ https://github.com/byggemandboesen/H-line-software https://github.com/byggemandboesen/H-line-software
- ericye16 1y ago
  I do have a ham license! I just need something to do with it haha.
explodes 1y ago
I reached out via email and got some more information and added to a mailing list. I'm glad they added the FAQ, it answers a few of the questions I had.

mk_stjames 1y ago

The next step for a project like this would be to incorporate a better, perhaps bepsoke SDR device more focused on the astronomy to be performed as most small off the shelf RTLSDR dongles have pretty horrible frequency drift. The addition of a more stable local clock source, coupled with a GPSDO - GPS disciplined oscillator - would allow signals to be correlated in time across many stations and allow for some actual, albeit basic, interferometry / aperture synthesis. I think that is what is needed for some actual science to be done with this kind of hardware and community support - similar to the work done by amateurs hosting hardware to record sferics in the VLF bands that sync up over the internet to do lightning strike tracking.

multjoy 1y ago
https://www.crowdsupply.com/krakenrf/discovery-dish https://www.crowdsupply.com/krakenrf/discovery-dish
mschuster91 1y ago
The original v4 RTL-SDR has a 1PPM TCXO. The problem is, the tons of shady clones don't. As for the GPSDO, that should be easy to solve at least if the host platform is a Raspberry Pi - the SparkFun NEO-M9N board can be connected to the PPS input of the Pi. The problem is, that thing is expensive. [1] https://www.berrybase.de/sparkfun-qwiic-gps-breakout-neo-m9n-sma https://www.berrybase.de/sparkfun-qwiic-gps-breakout-neo-m9n...
- BenjiWiebe 1y ago
  I'm not an interferometry expert, so I don't know what level of precision is required, but usually a GPSDO takes a lot more than a PPS output. A PPS output makes for very accurate timekeeping over long time scales. A GPSDO is a very stable oscillator that gives you precise frequency. Disciplining your oscillator with a PPS signal would be much harder than with the typically used 10 MHz signal. And I don't think an RPi would do very good at putting out a highly stable MHz signal disciplined to a PPS input.

spacedcowboy 1y ago

This is a bit like a scaled down (in terms of telescope size) Project Argus [1]. You could probably use the SARA ‘scope in a box’ [2] to do it, too, which is slight;y cheaper than the projected cost ($350 vs $500) assuming you have a spare r-pi hanging around. The far lower cost of entry will probably make it a lot more popular though - not to mention finding satellite dishes of that size is becoming harder by the year.. About 2 decades ago, I had a Project Argus setup taking up most of my back yard [3]. I moved to the US when Apple bought my company, and had it packed up to take with me, thinking (in my naivety) that all US dwellings would have way more space than the terraced house I was living in (in London) and I could use it there too. Gentle reader, I was wrong. That dish has remained in its packing crate since it arrived all that time ago. I leave the US to return permanently to the UK on 4th July (yes, yes…). Once I’m settled, bought a new house, and have the kids schooling sorted out, I’ll definitely be looking to get it up and running again, to rise, phoenix-like, and stare boldly into the abyss once more. 1: https://www.setileague.org/argus/ https://www.setileague.org/argus/ 2: https://radio-astronomy.org/store/projects/scope-in-a-box https://radio-astronomy.org/store/projects/scope-in-a-box 3: https://imgur.com/pCJvp9C https://imgur.com/pCJvp9C

kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 1y ago
> thinking (in my naivety) that all US dwellings would have way more space than the terraced house I was living in As you've no doubt discovered, this highly depends on where you live. In a major US city? You're going to pay a premium for yard space. In rural Tennessee? Not so much.
- spacedcowboy 1y ago
  Oh $deity yes, I was rapidly disabused of the notion, given I was living in San Jose or Cupertino, or Mountain View, … or anywhere in reasonable traveling time to the Apple campus, really. Going to buy a place by the beach in the UK, with a little (half acre or so) land, and plenty of space (for Space :) now that I’m retiring. I have an interest in optical astrophotography too, so as low a Bortle sky as I can finagle given the other constraints (school proximity, wife’s opinion, …)
- 1y ago

spacecadet 1y ago

This is awesome! Built a radio telescope during covid thanks to someone posting some cool raspberry pi project here on hacker news.

spaceport 1y ago

Does not need... gets wallet

javiramos 1y ago

Nice to see that this project came from the University of Puerto Rico! The university has a cluster of activity in astronomy thanks to the legacy of the Arecibo telescope.

rovr138 1y ago
eso es! Seeing the title I was a bit bummed seeing radio telescopes and what happened with the radio telescope there. Clicking the link, I was really happy to see upr.edu domain and then the title, 'PHL @ UPR Arecibo'. I like the legacy that the radio telescope has left behind and I'm very happy to see others there working with radio.