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      • Solar Monitor Core Module
        24/02/10

        This is the core of the Solar Monitor project. There is a schematic here. This board holds the A/D converter which takes the signals from up to 8 bar graph/amp boards to be digitized and logged by Radio Sky. It also does the power distribution and some other house keeping functions.
      • Cloud Computing
        22/02/10
        I was thinking about "Cloud Computing" today as I was driving along with the roof down. When you have been a nerd as long as I have, you begin seeing long term patterns in technology. Cloud Computing is a phase in computing that we have experienced in the past.

        The earliest co

      • Solar Tracking VHF Antenna Part 2
        21/02/10
        Figuring out how to make the antenna track the sun was fun and interesting. I started out with a book called "Sundials: Their Theory and Construction" by Albert E. Waugh (ISBN: 0-486-22947-5). It takes you through the basics of how the sun appears to move through the sky. Remember that

      • Solar Tracking VHF Antenna Part 1
        20/02/10


        This is my semi-homemade alt-az mount with broadband VHF antenna attached, ready to go on the roof. Well, almost ready... I still need to do some testing on the ground. It's a lot more convenient than climbing a ladder to fix something.

        It all starts with a pretty gene

      • Radio Astronomy - SARA Western Conference
        19/02/10
        I'm really looking forward to the upcoming Western Regional Conference of the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers coming up next month at Stanford. It's just too much of a trek for me to get from Sonoma County, CA to the big SARA meeting at Greenbank in the summer. I do hope to make th

      • Radio Astronomy - Multi-Frequency Monitor Part 1
        19/02/10
        Now that the seismometer has been delivered, I can get back to work on my Multi-Frequency Monitor project. The basic idea is to monitor radio activity in several parts of the the spectrum, from VLF up to Microwaves. I was inspired to do this because of the long, deep, solar minimum we just experie

      • Seismometer Build Pt. 2
        16/02/10
        Well, here's the finished seismometer ready for delivery. It was picking up the heavy surf off the Sonoma County coast for the last week, and also recorded a 3.0 at The Geysers.
        To get here, I changed the upper suspension to be mostly rigid. It's hard to tell in the photo, but the a

      • Happy Birthday Charles Darwin!
        12/02/10
        In my book, Charles Darwin was one of the great original thinkers. I put him right up there with Galileo in his willingness to question conventional wisdom and make the leap from creation to evolution. He agonized over his theory, knowing that everyone, including his family, would have a very diff

      • Seismometer Build Pt 1.
        11/02/10

        This is a side view of a Lehman style Seismometer I am building for a friend. I found some great base material at Bataeff Salvage here in Santa Rosa. It's 1/2" plate aluminum, about 6" x 18". The vertical section is 3/4" galvanized pipe and fittings. Here I'm j

      • Welcome to my Amateur Science Blog
        08/02/10
        This is the first entry in my new blog dedicated to Amateur Science of all kinds. I use the word "Amateur" in the original sense: One who pursues an interest just for the love of it. My focus lately is Radio Astronomy, but I am also interested in Seismology and darn near anything else ab