WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.620 This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you 00:00:02.620 --> 00:00:06.019 by Tower Electronics. For connectors, cables, 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:12.939 and more, call 920 -435 -2973 or visit pl -259 00:00:12.939 --> 00:00:17.640 .com. And by ICOM, heard it, worked it, logged 00:00:17.640 --> 00:00:22.859 it. Visit www .icomamerica .com slash amateur 00:00:22.859 --> 00:00:31.829 for more information about ICOM radios. Here 00:00:31.829 --> 00:01:00.439 we go, welcome to everyone it's time for ham 00:01:00.439 --> 00:01:06.819 talk live episode number 279 the Antarctic Eclipse 00:01:06.819 --> 00:01:10.040 Festival of Frequency Measurement recorded live 00:01:10.040 --> 00:01:14.459 on Thursday November 4th 2021 I'm your host Neil 00:01:14.459 --> 00:01:18.420 Rapp WB9VPG thanks for tuning in to this episode 00:01:18.420 --> 00:01:22.159 of ham talk live tonight we're joined by Christina 00:01:22.159 --> 00:01:29.489 Collins KD8OXT and Dr. Nathaniel Frisell, W2NAF, 00:01:29.510 --> 00:01:32.430 and we will take your calls live in just a few 00:01:32.430 --> 00:01:35.349 minutes. Last week here on the show, we were 00:01:35.349 --> 00:01:38.189 talking about the Collegiate Amateur Radio Initiative 00:01:38.189 --> 00:01:43.849 with Andy Malusi, KK4LWR, and Tony Malusi. KD8RTT. 00:01:44.010 --> 00:01:46.549 So if you missed that show, you can listen anytime 00:01:46.549 --> 00:01:52.430 over at HamTalkLive .com or on your favorite 00:01:52.430 --> 00:01:56.310 podcast app or on YouTube. And don't forget, 00:01:56.329 --> 00:01:59.250 you can catch the rebroadcast of HamTalk Live 00:01:59.250 --> 00:02:06.250 every Saturday afternoon on WTWW. That's 508. 00:02:06.430 --> 00:02:10.150 five on your a .m. dial that's usually about 00:02:10.150 --> 00:02:13.949 3 30 p .m. eastern time when they play the rebroadcast 00:02:13.949 --> 00:02:19.289 there so thanks to WTWW for allowing us to be 00:02:19.289 --> 00:02:24.650 on their airwaves as well okay so later on tonight 00:02:24.650 --> 00:02:28.090 we've got a couple of giveaways that we're going 00:02:28.090 --> 00:02:32.250 to do so be sure you hang around for that But 00:02:32.250 --> 00:02:35.469 we're going to talk to Christina and Nathaniel 00:02:35.469 --> 00:02:40.569 first. So if you have a question, get it ready 00:02:40.569 --> 00:02:44.009 to go. Let me give you the telephone number. 00:02:45.270 --> 00:02:48.650 And after a while, after the next commercial 00:02:48.650 --> 00:02:51.669 break, we will open up the phone lines and take 00:02:51.669 --> 00:02:55.610 your comments and questions. And here is the 00:02:55.610 --> 00:03:03.449 phone number to have ready. It is 859. nine eight 00:03:03.449 --> 00:03:09.710 two seventy three seventy three again eight five 00:03:09.710 --> 00:03:16.050 nine nine eight two seventy three seventy three 00:03:16.050 --> 00:03:20.939 have that number written down punched in Whatever 00:03:20.939 --> 00:03:24.620 works for you and have it ready to go and here 00:03:24.620 --> 00:03:27.020 in a little bit. We'll let you know when it's 00:03:27.020 --> 00:03:30.539 time to call in If you're listening to us live 00:03:30.539 --> 00:03:33.659 on Thursday night, you'll be able to do that 00:03:33.659 --> 00:03:39.240 You can also tweet us. We're at ham talk live 00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:42.639 Over on Twitter. So I'll be back with Christina 00:03:42.639 --> 00:03:45.939 and Nathaniel right after this word from tower 00:03:45.939 --> 00:03:52.650 electronics Right here on ham talk live I'm sorry 00:03:52.650 --> 00:03:54.930 to bother you, but I'm having an antenna party 00:03:54.930 --> 00:03:58.669 and I ran out of PL259s. Oh, come in. Thank you. 00:03:59.030 --> 00:04:02.909 Would silver -plated PL259s from Tower Electronics 00:04:02.909 --> 00:04:05.969 be too good for your guests? Those will be fine. 00:04:06.090 --> 00:04:09.539 Thank you. You saved my life the other night. 00:04:10.139 --> 00:04:13.699 Oh, the PL -259s from Tower Electronics? Yes, 00:04:13.699 --> 00:04:16.040 they were very successful at the antenna party. 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:19.699 My antenna works like a charm. Then how can you 00:04:19.699 --> 00:04:22.180 ever thank me? I'll try to think of something. 00:04:22.459 --> 00:04:25.740 Don't be caught without PL -259s. Visit Tower 00:04:25.740 --> 00:04:28.600 Electronics at a ham fest near you or visit them 00:04:28.600 --> 00:04:34.060 online anytime at PL -259 .com or call 920 -435 00:04:34.060 --> 00:04:37.920 -2973. They have adapters, cables, antennas, 00:04:38.199 --> 00:05:13.410 soldering supplies and meters too. Welcome back 00:05:13.410 --> 00:05:21.029 to Ham Talk Live. Tower Electronics will be at 00:05:21.029 --> 00:05:24.170 Chickasaw, Alabama. That's the Stone Mountain, 00:05:24.170 --> 00:05:26.990 Georgia, for all intents and purposes, Ham Fest 00:05:26.990 --> 00:05:30.629 this weekend. That's November 6th and 7th. And 00:05:30.629 --> 00:05:32.930 then it'll be off to Fort Wayne, Indiana, November 00:05:32.930 --> 00:05:36.629 13th and 14th. Montgomery, Alabama, November 00:05:36.629 --> 00:05:40.529 19th and 20th. Calif, Florida, December 4th. 00:05:40.519 --> 00:05:44.639 Plant City, Florida December 11th 10th and 11th 00:05:44.639 --> 00:05:48.180 and you can visit them anytime From the comfort 00:05:48.180 --> 00:05:55.860 of your own home at PL -259 .com Welcome back 00:05:55.860 --> 00:05:59.720 to ham talk live tonight Christina Collins KD8OXT 00:05:59.720 --> 00:06:05.300 and dr. Nathaniel Frisell W2NAF join us On the 00:06:05.300 --> 00:06:08.899 Orlando Amateur Radio Club and hamcation hotline, 00:06:09.240 --> 00:06:12.139 Christina Collins, KD8OXT is an electrical engineering 00:06:12.139 --> 00:06:15.899 graduate student at Case Western Reserve University 00:06:15.899 --> 00:06:19.180 in Cleveland, Ohio. She's been an officer of 00:06:19.180 --> 00:06:22.920 the W8EDU Case Western Reserve Amateur Radio 00:06:22.920 --> 00:06:26.250 Club for several years. and she's in charge of 00:06:26.250 --> 00:06:28.389 this event that we're going to be talking about 00:06:28.389 --> 00:06:30.889 tonight. She's in charge of gathering up all 00:06:30.889 --> 00:06:35.750 the data. It's HamSci's Antarctic Eclipse Festival 00:06:35.750 --> 00:06:39.889 of Frequency Measurement coming next month to 00:06:39.889 --> 00:06:45.509 a radio near you. Also with us is the lead of 00:06:45.509 --> 00:06:49.920 HamSci, Dr. Nathaniel Frisell, W2NAF. He is an 00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:52.259 assistant professor at the University of Scranton 00:06:52.259 --> 00:06:55.259 in physics, where he teaches digital signal processing, 00:06:55.759 --> 00:06:58.399 fundamental physics and electromagnetics. He's 00:06:58.399 --> 00:07:00.939 the lead organizer of HamSci, a project that 00:07:00.939 --> 00:07:03.639 explores how amateur radio can help us understand 00:07:03.639 --> 00:07:07.620 more about the physics of the ionosphere. Nathaniel 00:07:07.620 --> 00:07:10.120 completed his PhD in electrical engineering. 00:07:10.589 --> 00:07:15.709 in 2016 at Virginia Tech and worked with the 00:07:15.709 --> 00:07:20.050 super darn HF radar lab there and was named the 00:07:20.050 --> 00:07:24.810 2019 Hamvention amateur of the year. So welcome 00:07:24.810 --> 00:07:29.350 Christina and welcome back, Nathaniel. Thank 00:07:29.350 --> 00:07:33.689 you very much. Thank you. Well, Nathaniel, it's 00:07:33.689 --> 00:07:36.589 great to have you back here with us. You've come 00:07:36.589 --> 00:07:41.730 up with a lot of really interesting ham radio 00:07:41.730 --> 00:07:49.290 physics studies and bagged some major grant money 00:07:49.290 --> 00:07:52.529 for some of that. And so we're going to talk 00:07:52.529 --> 00:07:55.930 about one of these events tonight, but you're 00:07:55.930 --> 00:07:59.910 kind of handing this one off to Christina. And 00:07:59.910 --> 00:08:04.709 so she's working finishing up her doctorate as 00:08:04.709 --> 00:08:09.730 well so let's let's let Christina answer and 00:08:09.730 --> 00:08:13.449 then we'll let Nathaniel jump in here in a little 00:08:13.449 --> 00:08:16.910 bit but Christina first just tell us about the 00:08:16.910 --> 00:08:19.629 eclipse itself that's going to be taking place 00:08:19.629 --> 00:08:22.470 next month because you know there hasn't been 00:08:22.470 --> 00:08:25.589 a whole lot of talk about that because we're 00:08:25.589 --> 00:08:29.189 not going to see it so Tell us about the eclipse 00:08:29.189 --> 00:08:35.230 and what you hope to measure with your ham radio 00:08:35.230 --> 00:08:40.090 observations. Absolutely. Thank you, Neil. So 00:08:40.090 --> 00:08:44.549 the, the eclipse is going to be on December 4th 00:08:44.549 --> 00:08:47.789 and it will be over Antarctica this year, which 00:08:47.789 --> 00:08:51.639 is a, uh, a relatively unusual spot for an eclipse 00:08:51.639 --> 00:08:54.840 to be all things considered. If you go to timeanddate 00:08:54.840 --> 00:08:58.120 .com they have a really fantastic eclipse calendar 00:08:58.120 --> 00:09:01.279 and you can see when various eclipses will cross 00:09:01.279 --> 00:09:03.899 over your path of totality. We started getting 00:09:03.899 --> 00:09:07.100 interested in this around case because we have 00:09:07.100 --> 00:09:10.769 the big eclipse coming up in 2024. that will 00:09:10.769 --> 00:09:14.149 be in totality for here at Cleveland, Ohio. Or 00:09:14.149 --> 00:09:18.169 as we like to say around W8EDU, we paid handsomely 00:09:18.169 --> 00:09:20.350 to ensure that case would be in totality for 00:09:20.350 --> 00:09:29.679 this and MIT would not. So as to why this is 00:09:29.679 --> 00:09:32.460 an interesting thing. So as a ham radio operator, 00:09:32.659 --> 00:09:37.120 right, you work HF, you're used to the idea that 00:09:37.120 --> 00:09:39.820 radio waves during the day and at night are different, 00:09:40.039 --> 00:09:43.899 that you get propagation paths that disappear 00:09:43.899 --> 00:09:46.860 when the sun goes down or that come out at night 00:09:46.860 --> 00:09:50.460 and things like that. And even if it's just when 00:09:50.460 --> 00:09:52.440 you were going through, I think it's on the general 00:09:52.440 --> 00:09:54.809 exam that they have a lot of it. You will have 00:09:54.809 --> 00:09:56.549 seen all of the stuff about the different layers 00:09:56.549 --> 00:09:59.570 of the ionosphere and their different behaviors. 00:10:01.970 --> 00:10:07.110 And all of the effects that are associated with 00:10:07.110 --> 00:10:11.210 the terminator, the gray line, that line between 00:10:11.210 --> 00:10:14.909 night and day that passes over the surface of 00:10:14.909 --> 00:10:20.970 the earth. So as a general, simple model of this... 00:10:20.970 --> 00:10:24.669 One moment, I must move my cat here. He was so 00:10:24.669 --> 00:10:26.710 quiet and then he decided to be on the keyboard. 00:10:27.850 --> 00:10:30.830 Yes. Go Oscar, shoo. Do something cat -like. 00:10:31.029 --> 00:10:34.269 All right. Thank you. So, uh, so as a simple 00:10:34.269 --> 00:10:38.690 model of this, um, the, uh, the sun ionizes electrons 00:10:38.690 --> 00:10:42.629 in the ionosphere and it changes what we use 00:10:42.629 --> 00:10:46.269 a, a simple, um, derived component of that that 00:10:46.269 --> 00:10:50.090 we call the virtual height. So we have a model 00:10:50.090 --> 00:10:52.809 of the ionosphere that's like a mirror. And this 00:10:52.809 --> 00:10:56.490 is not so very different from the models that 00:10:56.490 --> 00:10:58.929 have been used since the very beginning of ionospheric 00:10:58.929 --> 00:11:02.330 physics. The big difference is that now we have 00:11:02.330 --> 00:11:05.820 precision timing. And we have GPS disciplined 00:11:05.820 --> 00:11:08.460 oscillators and Raspberry Pis and all of these 00:11:08.460 --> 00:11:11.200 wonderful bits of inexpensive instrumentation 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:13.980 and the ability to connect to people in the ham 00:11:13.980 --> 00:11:16.620 radio and shortwave listening community to make 00:11:16.620 --> 00:11:20.720 observations of these things. So the solar eclipse 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:23.659 is something that's worth characterizing because 00:11:23.659 --> 00:11:25.419 it's the closest thing that you get to being 00:11:25.419 --> 00:11:28.720 able to do a controlled experiment in space where 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:33.299 you have this bit of darkness that goes over 00:11:33.299 --> 00:11:37.360 an area that's normally in daylight. And there 00:11:37.360 --> 00:11:42.059 are many interesting scientific papers on effects 00:11:42.059 --> 00:11:45.000 of this on the ionosphere. If you look at research 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:49.960 being done from the 2017 eclipse and the, for 00:11:49.960 --> 00:11:53.759 instance, the GPS measurements of total electron 00:11:53.759 --> 00:11:59.470 content that show bow waves. And there's all 00:11:59.470 --> 00:12:02.090 sorts of things about that. So what we're working 00:12:02.090 --> 00:12:06.370 on with these, where we have about two solar 00:12:06.370 --> 00:12:10.389 eclipses a year that are well positioned around 00:12:10.389 --> 00:12:14.490 the globe for science, is an opportunity to kind 00:12:14.490 --> 00:12:18.509 of engage the global community and to also use 00:12:18.509 --> 00:12:23.049 these as pilot experiments for the personal space 00:12:23.049 --> 00:12:25.250 weather station, which is Ham's size flagship 00:12:25.250 --> 00:12:32.610 product. So the general procedure that we use 00:12:32.610 --> 00:12:38.629 for the experiment is that you do, you know, 00:12:38.690 --> 00:12:40.090 the same thing that you might do if you're used 00:12:40.090 --> 00:12:43.009 to the frequency measuring test where you are 00:12:43.009 --> 00:12:47.629 listening for the movement of a carrier signal 00:12:47.629 --> 00:12:54.730 from a time standard station such as WWV or WWVH. 00:12:54.840 --> 00:12:57.399 And I'll make a note here that your listeners 00:12:57.399 --> 00:13:00.340 may want to tune into those stations at either 00:13:00.340 --> 00:13:03.120 8 or 48 minutes past the hour sometime in the 00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:08.139 next few weeks. But yes, so when you listen to 00:13:08.139 --> 00:13:11.259 that station, right, that signal leaves the transmitter 00:13:11.259 --> 00:13:16.539 at precisely, you know, let's say 10 .000, one 00:13:16.539 --> 00:13:21.000 part and 10 to the 12th, precision megahertz. 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:27.940 And when it arrives at your receiver, it will 00:13:27.940 --> 00:13:32.840 have changed a little bit in frequency. And if 00:13:32.840 --> 00:13:35.879 you record this over the course of the day, you 00:13:35.879 --> 00:13:40.220 can actually see that there is a fairly typical 00:13:40.220 --> 00:13:42.940 daily trend that has all of these other noise 00:13:42.940 --> 00:13:46.539 components layered on top of it that is the Doppler 00:13:46.539 --> 00:13:50.419 shift associated with that day -night transition 00:13:50.419 --> 00:13:52.960 that is familiar to us when we're operating HF. 00:13:53.519 --> 00:13:57.200 So we did a pilot experiment with this, with 00:13:57.200 --> 00:14:01.059 WWV for the centennial of that station in 2019. 00:14:01.840 --> 00:14:10.120 And we published on that in the IEEE, let's see, 00:14:10.220 --> 00:14:15.700 it was GRSL, that's Geoscience, gosh, I should 00:14:15.700 --> 00:14:18.299 remember the... title of this journal. You can 00:14:18.299 --> 00:14:21.100 find the paper online. It was called Citizen 00:14:21.100 --> 00:14:24.080 Scientists Collect Distributed Doppler Measurement 00:14:24.080 --> 00:14:27.559 for Ionospheric Remote Sensing. And this was 00:14:27.559 --> 00:14:30.779 about 50 ham radio operators who helped us out 00:14:30.779 --> 00:14:34.080 with collecting data for this. And if you go 00:14:34.080 --> 00:14:35.899 to that Geoscience and Remote Sensing letters, 00:14:35.940 --> 00:14:37.960 there we go. If you go to that and you check 00:14:37.960 --> 00:14:41.980 out figure three, you'll see the stacked plot 00:14:41.980 --> 00:14:44.120 that shows the frequency graphs for all of these 00:14:44.120 --> 00:14:46.690 ham stations. And it shows you how you can get 00:14:46.690 --> 00:14:51.929 a snapshot of the ionosphere with many distributed 00:14:51.929 --> 00:14:55.750 stations in a way that has not really been done 00:14:55.750 --> 00:15:00.389 before using a citizen science network. And the 00:15:00.389 --> 00:15:02.990 ham radio community, as it turns out, is extremely 00:15:02.990 --> 00:15:06.549 well positioned to do this type of work because 00:15:06.549 --> 00:15:08.809 you have a lot of people who already know how 00:15:08.809 --> 00:15:12.940 to do radio, things in general. who are technically 00:15:12.940 --> 00:15:17.480 literate and who are often willing to volunteer 00:15:17.480 --> 00:15:20.639 their time and their equipment to conduct large 00:15:20.639 --> 00:15:25.200 experiments. So as we're transitioning from this 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:28.899 model of doing this one campaign to the personal 00:15:28.899 --> 00:15:30.500 space weather station where people would have 00:15:30.500 --> 00:15:34.639 dedicated hardware, eclipses, because of the 00:15:34.639 --> 00:15:36.759 fact that they're already on the calendar and 00:15:36.759 --> 00:15:39.730 you're not going to be able to move them. and 00:15:39.730 --> 00:15:41.909 because they're, of course, you know, quite visually 00:15:41.909 --> 00:15:44.950 spectacular and they kind of, you know, engage 00:15:44.950 --> 00:15:48.950 that natural component of international collaboration, 00:15:49.429 --> 00:15:54.830 these make ideal pilot experiments for the different 00:15:54.830 --> 00:15:57.289 aspects of the personal space weather station 00:15:57.289 --> 00:16:00.850 that we want to learn about and test. So the 00:16:00.850 --> 00:16:03.049 instrumentation thing that I'm hoping to test 00:16:03.049 --> 00:16:09.879 out for this experiment, this is a project of 00:16:09.879 --> 00:16:14.399 three senior project students here at Case. And 00:16:14.399 --> 00:16:20.860 they have been working on a piece of audio recording 00:16:20.860 --> 00:16:27.139 software, which we've been calling Snash. Actually, 00:16:27.179 --> 00:16:29.139 there are four senior project students, I'm sorry. 00:16:29.820 --> 00:16:35.460 There's Martin Bui, Daniel Warner. Shiv, I don't 00:16:35.460 --> 00:16:38.259 actually know your last name, sorry Shiv, and 00:16:38.259 --> 00:16:41.519 Zach Kadish, and they have been developing a 00:16:41.519 --> 00:16:47.360 piece of audio recording software that is intended 00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:50.200 for distributed citizen science recording for 00:16:50.200 --> 00:16:53.840 this type of thing. So this was a need that we 00:16:53.840 --> 00:16:56.940 only discovered because we had previous experiments 00:16:56.940 --> 00:16:59.159 where people were recording with audacity and 00:16:59.159 --> 00:17:01.159 we were finding that it wasn't a good surveillance 00:17:01.159 --> 00:17:04.119 reporter and things like that. And so each of 00:17:04.119 --> 00:17:07.180 these campaigns, we add another component, we 00:17:07.180 --> 00:17:11.660 develop some new thing that we can use to collect 00:17:11.660 --> 00:17:14.980 data or we look at the different observations 00:17:14.980 --> 00:17:18.940 that we've had and use those things to enhance 00:17:18.940 --> 00:17:20.900 the development of the personal space weather 00:17:20.900 --> 00:17:25.420 station. I should note that... Yeah, let's talk 00:17:25.420 --> 00:17:28.980 a little bit about the equipment that people 00:17:28.980 --> 00:17:34.920 will need If they're going to try to help, what 00:17:34.920 --> 00:17:37.380 kind of equipment are they going to need? What 00:17:37.380 --> 00:17:40.579 do they need to do? How do they sign up? How 00:17:40.579 --> 00:17:43.980 does that happen? Absolutely. So the first thing 00:17:43.980 --> 00:17:47.160 to do is to go to hamsci .org slash festivals 00:17:47.160 --> 00:17:49.460 and that has all of the Eclipse Festival pages. 00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:52.299 You can find the one for the Antarctic Eclipse 00:17:52.299 --> 00:17:54.539 Festival and then sign up for the mailing list 00:17:54.539 --> 00:17:57.559 and I'll be sending out updates on there. The 00:17:57.559 --> 00:18:00.559 only thing that you need to take part in the 00:18:00.559 --> 00:18:02.420 experiment is the same thing that you need for 00:18:02.420 --> 00:18:04.160 the Festival of Frequency Measurement, which 00:18:04.160 --> 00:18:08.500 is an HF radio connected to a computer and audio 00:18:08.500 --> 00:18:11.539 recording software like the ones that we are 00:18:11.539 --> 00:18:14.000 prototyping or whatever you happen to have on 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:17.660 hand. And we'll be taking those audio recordings 00:18:17.660 --> 00:18:25.279 and processing them to look at the change in 00:18:25.279 --> 00:18:29.000 frequency over time. You'll want to listen to 00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:31.059 whatever your favorite time standard station 00:18:31.059 --> 00:18:33.779 is. In the United States, you'll probably tune 00:18:33.779 --> 00:18:39.980 into WWV, but there's also RWM in Russia, there's 00:18:39.980 --> 00:18:43.259 BPM in China. In South America, they have some 00:18:43.259 --> 00:18:47.099 really excellent call signs. They have PPE and 00:18:47.099 --> 00:18:53.000 they have LOL. in Argentina. It's a good one. 00:18:53.140 --> 00:18:55.900 I think BPM is probably still my favorite, but 00:18:55.900 --> 00:18:59.059 LOL is a good one. That one actually was turned 00:18:59.059 --> 00:19:03.819 on partway through the December 2020 Eclipse 00:19:03.819 --> 00:19:07.140 Festival when we had the path of totality across 00:19:07.140 --> 00:19:14.509 South America. Generally, we've got some procedures, 00:19:14.569 --> 00:19:18.609 some things to try. And for this particular event, 00:19:19.289 --> 00:19:22.430 it's a, you set things up and you make a recording 00:19:22.430 --> 00:19:24.609 and then you send in the data and we'll be putting 00:19:24.609 --> 00:19:28.470 it through the high performance computing cluster 00:19:28.470 --> 00:19:30.910 here at CASE to extract the frequency data from 00:19:30.910 --> 00:19:34.890 all of these data sets. Because we want to be 00:19:34.890 --> 00:19:36.869 able to try out different algorithms. So that's 00:19:36.869 --> 00:19:39.779 why we record audio data rather than doing what 00:19:39.779 --> 00:19:41.480 we did for the first experiment, which was to 00:19:41.480 --> 00:19:45.680 use fldigi to just make an estimation of the 00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:50.619 frequency for each operator. So it takes a while 00:19:50.619 --> 00:19:54.700 to get the data processed. That's the only downside 00:19:54.700 --> 00:19:58.299 of going to audio. But we've learned a lot from 00:19:58.299 --> 00:20:01.680 it about how to set things up for the personal 00:20:01.680 --> 00:20:07.240 space weather station, how to do science with 00:20:07.440 --> 00:20:11.200 other ham radio operators in the same area. And 00:20:11.200 --> 00:20:16.119 you can run a Doppler experiment on your own 00:20:16.119 --> 00:20:19.859 and get sort of an idea of things. But I find 00:20:19.859 --> 00:20:22.500 that really the best way to do it is if you make 00:20:22.500 --> 00:20:25.660 a recording and then you also have your friend 00:20:25.660 --> 00:20:28.099 who lives not too far away make a recording and 00:20:28.099 --> 00:20:30.740 then you compare your graphs. Because that lets 00:20:30.740 --> 00:20:33.059 you make sure that when you see the graph zig 00:20:33.059 --> 00:20:36.630 or zag, if it goes the same direction as your 00:20:36.630 --> 00:20:39.289 friend's graph does, then you can make a reasonable 00:20:39.289 --> 00:20:42.589 assumption that that was something that was geophysical 00:20:42.589 --> 00:20:44.529 in nature and not just your dishwasher turning 00:20:44.529 --> 00:20:48.089 on and off. And it can really give you kind of 00:20:48.089 --> 00:20:52.769 a sense of what is going on in the geospace environment 00:20:52.769 --> 00:20:55.450 at your QTH. That's something that's very remarkable 00:20:55.450 --> 00:20:59.720 about it. Another thing about it is that You 00:20:59.720 --> 00:21:01.920 can see when you look at these that you'll have 00:21:01.920 --> 00:21:05.019 a very clear snapshot that looks one way in California 00:21:05.019 --> 00:21:07.640 and you'll have a very clear snapshot that looks 00:21:07.640 --> 00:21:11.039 completely different, you know, in the area around 00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:13.980 Cleveland, Ohio. on a given day. So we have a 00:21:13.980 --> 00:21:16.079 lot of people who are doing prototype stations 00:21:16.079 --> 00:21:19.099 of the low -cost personal space weather station, 00:21:19.140 --> 00:21:21.619 which is the version I'm working on in my PhD 00:21:21.619 --> 00:21:25.160 work, which looks only at these Doppler shifts 00:21:25.160 --> 00:21:30.019 and signals from time standard stations, essentially 00:21:30.019 --> 00:21:32.420 taking that infrastructure and using them as 00:21:32.420 --> 00:21:37.890 passive radar beacons. And, uh, so we have these 00:21:37.890 --> 00:21:39.890 collections of plots that we get every day and 00:21:39.890 --> 00:21:42.549 we go and compare them. And, you know, there's, 00:21:43.250 --> 00:21:45.490 uh, whenever we have a CME, it's always fun to 00:21:45.490 --> 00:21:47.509 watch everybody say, Oh, look, mine did this 00:21:47.509 --> 00:21:49.750 or mine did that. And you start to get some very 00:21:49.750 --> 00:21:52.650 interesting, uh, some interesting jumps, especially 00:21:52.650 --> 00:21:56.369 as you accumulate data over time. Oh, very good. 00:21:56.970 --> 00:21:59.589 Uh, we're going to talk a little bit more about 00:21:59.589 --> 00:22:02.349 that and the personal weather station after the 00:22:02.349 --> 00:22:06.059 break, but, uh, before we take our break. Nathaniel, 00:22:06.059 --> 00:22:09.619 talk a little bit about Christina's role in this 00:22:09.619 --> 00:22:14.759 and kind of starting to branch out to where you're 00:22:14.759 --> 00:22:19.980 not the only one heading up these projects. Oh, 00:22:19.980 --> 00:22:23.460 well, it's fantastic. Christina's just an excellent, 00:22:23.460 --> 00:22:26.480 excellent leader. Oh, thank you. Well, you're 00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:31.660 welcome. But yeah, I mean, Case Western has really, 00:22:32.359 --> 00:22:34.980 they're the ones that came up with the idea for 00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:38.019 the Grape Low Cost Personal Space Weather Station. 00:22:38.420 --> 00:22:41.079 And they've really taken the reins on this. And 00:22:41.079 --> 00:22:43.900 every Thursday morning at 10 a .m. Eastern, we 00:22:43.900 --> 00:22:47.140 get on Zoom and Christina runs the group meeting. 00:22:47.440 --> 00:22:51.299 And she just does a wonderful job, you know, 00:22:51.299 --> 00:22:53.660 keeping everything in line, keeping track of 00:22:53.660 --> 00:22:57.559 everything, interacting with the general public, 00:22:58.559 --> 00:23:00.779 keeping track of the different things that need 00:23:00.779 --> 00:23:03.200 to be done for the Grape with the Case Western 00:23:03.200 --> 00:23:06.619 team. You know, she is advising the undergraduate 00:23:06.619 --> 00:23:09.880 students. So it's just great working with her. 00:23:09.940 --> 00:23:12.859 And I'm so glad that she's on the project and 00:23:12.859 --> 00:23:16.799 doing all of this. So it's really wonderful for 00:23:16.799 --> 00:23:20.559 HamSci to have her participate and lead. And 00:23:20.559 --> 00:23:28.970 it's just really great. The challenge of this, 00:23:29.029 --> 00:23:32.269 you know, is you've got the groundbreaking stuff 00:23:32.269 --> 00:23:36.990 done. Now it's time to spread it out and let 00:23:36.990 --> 00:23:40.190 it start growing exponentially. And this is a 00:23:40.190 --> 00:23:43.750 great move for that. Oh my gosh. Yes. And so, 00:23:43.750 --> 00:23:45.009 I mean, that is one of the things, you know, 00:23:45.269 --> 00:23:47.849 when HamSci first started, we had you know, one 00:23:47.849 --> 00:23:50.309 project and essentially we were very focused 00:23:50.309 --> 00:23:53.089 on it. And, you know, now that we have a number 00:23:53.089 --> 00:23:55.589 of funded projects and, you know, we're always 00:23:55.589 --> 00:24:00.609 encouraging people to participate in different 00:24:00.609 --> 00:24:03.630 ways. And we like to see people bring up their 00:24:03.630 --> 00:24:06.569 own ideas. So you start seeing these side projects 00:24:06.569 --> 00:24:10.990 take off and you kind of can identify some natural 00:24:10.990 --> 00:24:14.069 leaders of different projects. And so we're growing 00:24:14.069 --> 00:24:16.390 organically. So Christine is certainly one of 00:24:16.390 --> 00:24:18.750 those natural leaders. She's doing this. She 00:24:18.750 --> 00:24:21.990 also has another project where we're actually 00:24:21.990 --> 00:24:28.170 putting some signals onto the WWV transmissions. 00:24:28.250 --> 00:24:30.750 We're doing some test signals with that. That's 00:24:30.750 --> 00:24:35.490 coming up. So you really need people like Christina 00:24:35.490 --> 00:24:38.509 to help lead and guide these different projects. 00:24:39.700 --> 00:24:43.039 Now that's that's really cool and great to see 00:24:43.039 --> 00:24:47.440 that that you're already passing on some of the 00:24:47.440 --> 00:24:51.039 work and spreading it out and hopefully get it 00:24:51.039 --> 00:24:55.200 to where it's a perpetual thing so that's that's 00:24:55.200 --> 00:25:01.680 great and We can tune in to WWV all time all 00:25:01.680 --> 00:25:05.079 the time. So there we go Alright, we're going 00:25:05.079 --> 00:25:07.680 to take a break when we come back. We'll open 00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:13.220 up the phone lines and check the tweets and probably 00:25:13.220 --> 00:25:15.660 talk a little bit more about this personal weather 00:25:15.660 --> 00:25:19.440 station thing going on. So we'll do that right 00:25:19.440 --> 00:25:23.819 after this word from Icom America right here. 00:25:24.029 --> 00:25:27.829 on HamTalk Live. Spice up your ham shack with 00:25:27.829 --> 00:25:31.410 ICOM's IC705. This portable radio is perfect 00:25:31.410 --> 00:25:34.730 for staying in or venturing out and working your 00:25:34.730 --> 00:25:38.089 favorite bands this winter season. Happy holidays 00:25:38.089 --> 00:25:42.569 from ICOM. The IC -705 is the perfect sidekick 00:25:42.569 --> 00:25:45.650 and QRP companion. It has base station features 00:25:45.650 --> 00:25:48.029 and functionality at the tip of your fingers 00:25:48.029 --> 00:25:51.910 in a portable package covering HF 6 meters, 2 00:25:51.910 --> 00:25:54.710 meters, and 70 centimeters. This compact rig 00:25:54.710 --> 00:25:57.650 weighs in at just over 2 pounds with RF direct 00:25:57.650 --> 00:26:00.849 sampling for most of the HF band and IF sampling 00:26:00.849 --> 00:26:03.650 for frequencies above 25 megahertz. It has a 00:26:03.650 --> 00:26:07.009 4 .3 inch color touchscreen with live band scope 00:26:07.009 --> 00:26:09.549 and waterfall, five watts with a battery, 10 00:26:09.549 --> 00:26:13.230 watts with a power supply, sideband CWAM FM, 00:26:13.450 --> 00:26:17.490 full D star functions, micro USB connector, Bluetooth, 00:26:17.890 --> 00:26:21.309 wireless LAN, integrated GPS with antenna, a 00:26:21.309 --> 00:26:24.250 micro SD card slot, a speaker might come standard 00:26:24.250 --> 00:26:28.910 and supports QRP and QRPP operations. The perfect 00:26:28.910 --> 00:26:32.910 accessory is the optional backpack, LC192 with 00:26:32.910 --> 00:26:36.000 a special compartment for your IC 705 and room 00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:39.019 for accessories for soda activations or a day 00:26:39.019 --> 00:26:41.640 out in the wild. Our family of favorite ICOM 00:26:41.640 --> 00:26:44.319 amateur radios are also available this holiday 00:26:44.319 --> 00:26:49.859 season. The IC 9700, IC 7300, and IC 7610 base 00:26:49.859 --> 00:26:53.690 stations. ID52 handheld coming soon, and the 00:26:53.690 --> 00:26:57.410 ID5100A mobile are the perfect gift, and it's 00:26:57.410 --> 00:27:00.410 the most wonderful time of year to give the gift 00:27:00.410 --> 00:27:04.690 of ICOM. Visit icomamerica .com slash amateur 00:27:04.690 --> 00:27:08.390 for more information on ICOM radios. Join the 00:27:08.390 --> 00:27:14.730 conversation. Give us a call at 859 -982 -7373. 00:27:15.049 --> 00:27:20.369 Again, the number to call is 859 -982 - 73 -73. 00:27:20.809 --> 00:27:23.789 Or, if you'd rather type than talk, tweet us 00:27:23.789 --> 00:27:27.690 at HamTalk Live. Now, here's Neil Rapp with more 00:27:27.690 --> 00:27:32.569 HamTalk Live. Here's the snap. Rapp takes the 00:27:32.569 --> 00:27:35.490 rig. He breaks through the pile up. He's on 80. 00:27:35.769 --> 00:27:41.430 Now 40. Now 20. 15. 10. Two meters. Touchdown. 00:27:41.670 --> 00:27:58.170 HamTalk Live. Welcome back to HamTalk Live. We're 00:27:58.170 --> 00:28:00.549 on the air every Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern 00:28:00.549 --> 00:28:04.970 Time right here at HamTalkLive .com and be sure 00:28:04.970 --> 00:28:08.910 to check us out on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 00:28:09.109 --> 00:28:14.849 Well before we open up the phone lines at 859 00:28:14.849 --> 00:28:22.289 -982 -7373 and check the tweets and talk some 00:28:22.289 --> 00:28:26.220 more with Christina and Nathaniel, we have once 00:28:26.220 --> 00:28:30.380 again the Ham Radio Joke of the Week. Now it's 00:28:30.380 --> 00:28:33.779 time for the Ham Talk Live Ham Radio Joke of 00:28:33.779 --> 00:28:35.920 the Week, the part of the show where Rick tells 00:28:35.920 --> 00:28:39.519 us a ham radio joke. The Ham Talk Live Ham Radio 00:28:39.519 --> 00:28:42.799 Joke of the Week is brought to you by QRM Labs. 00:28:43.140 --> 00:28:47.039 Now here's Rick Garrett in 9GSU with today's 00:28:47.039 --> 00:28:55.190 Ham Talk Live Joke of the Week. I started a band 00:28:55.190 --> 00:28:57.369 with a bunch of fellow ham radio operators and 00:28:57.369 --> 00:29:01.269 we're calling ourselves 999 megabytes. Well, 00:29:01.470 --> 00:29:05.410 we haven't got a gig yet. This has been the Ham 00:29:05.410 --> 00:29:08.509 Talk Live Ham Radio Joke of the Week with Rick 00:29:08.509 --> 00:29:12.230 Garrett in 9GSU. Tune in again next week for 00:29:12.230 --> 00:29:19.670 another joke from Rick. Oh my goodness. That 00:29:19.670 --> 00:29:26.839 was good. I like that one. There's no gig. Well, 00:29:27.180 --> 00:29:30.759 it's time for your phone calls now, so now is 00:29:30.759 --> 00:29:36.259 the time to punch those buttons. It's 8 5 9 9 00:29:36.259 --> 00:29:50.299 8 2 73 73 again 8 5 9 9 8 2 73 73 or you can 00:29:50.299 --> 00:29:54.339 tweet us it's at ham talk live on Twitter And 00:29:54.339 --> 00:29:57.900 if you're listening to us on WTWW or the podcast 00:29:57.900 --> 00:30:01.319 version You won't be able to reach us live since 00:30:01.319 --> 00:30:06.460 we're doing this on Thursday evening. So Let's 00:30:06.460 --> 00:30:09.660 let's Kind of jump back in here and we'll see 00:30:09.660 --> 00:30:12.259 if we have any questions from anybody tonight 00:30:13.789 --> 00:30:16.789 Nathaniel talk a little bit about this this personal 00:30:16.789 --> 00:30:19.609 space weather station that that's been put together 00:30:19.609 --> 00:30:25.829 and and and how that's being deployed Sure Thanks 00:30:25.829 --> 00:30:28.869 Neil. So as Christina said before the personal 00:30:28.869 --> 00:30:32.230 space weather station is the flagship project 00:30:32.230 --> 00:30:36.049 of the hamsai community right now and essentially 00:30:36.049 --> 00:30:40.289 The goal of it is to design some sort of device 00:30:40.289 --> 00:30:44.369 that you could operate in your own backyard that 00:30:44.369 --> 00:30:47.029 helps you to measure space weather. And what 00:30:47.029 --> 00:30:50.150 does that mean? Well, it means a number of different 00:30:50.150 --> 00:30:52.049 things. We're interested in anything that can 00:30:52.049 --> 00:30:55.470 affect radio propagation or that could sense 00:30:55.470 --> 00:30:58.410 currents in space or changes in the ionosphere. 00:30:58.990 --> 00:31:03.809 So the personal space weather station, the original 00:31:03.809 --> 00:31:09.029 design, we have three major components. We have 00:31:09.029 --> 00:31:13.279 a radio component. We have a ground magnetometer 00:31:13.279 --> 00:31:18.579 component and there's also a GPS component. So 00:31:18.579 --> 00:31:23.099 the radio component, what that does, if you have 00:31:23.099 --> 00:31:25.740 the great low cost personal space weather station, 00:31:26.519 --> 00:31:29.940 the goal of that is to listen to WWV and look 00:31:29.940 --> 00:31:33.359 for these changes in received frequency, the 00:31:33.359 --> 00:31:36.400 Doppler shift. And that is caused by changes 00:31:36.400 --> 00:31:39.319 in the ionosphere. And we can take that information 00:31:39.319 --> 00:31:42.480 and we can back out information about how the 00:31:42.480 --> 00:31:44.380 ionosphere is changing. So that's one component. 00:31:45.099 --> 00:31:51.200 The second component is the ground magnetometer 00:31:51.200 --> 00:31:54.720 and that particular system is used to measure 00:31:54.720 --> 00:31:57.920 changes in the Earth's magnetic field. And these 00:31:57.920 --> 00:32:01.779 changes are very small changes are actually due 00:32:01.779 --> 00:32:05.839 to currents flowing overhead either in the ionosphere 00:32:05.839 --> 00:32:09.039 or in space. So if there's a geomagnetic storm 00:32:09.150 --> 00:32:11.650 or a big auroral event, you should be able to 00:32:11.650 --> 00:32:14.849 sense those changes with the ground magnetometer. 00:32:15.630 --> 00:32:19.410 The GPS system has a couple of different purposes. 00:32:20.029 --> 00:32:23.789 One purpose is to provide a very stable frequency 00:32:23.789 --> 00:32:27.549 and time references to the radio device and also 00:32:27.549 --> 00:32:32.430 to the magnetometer. And also, with certain GPS 00:32:32.430 --> 00:32:34.829 receivers, you can actually measure the total 00:32:34.829 --> 00:32:37.190 number of electrons between the GPS receiver 00:32:37.190 --> 00:32:40.950 on the ground and the satellite in space. We 00:32:40.950 --> 00:32:44.890 do have one other version of the personal space 00:32:44.890 --> 00:32:47.470 weather station that is still very much under 00:32:47.470 --> 00:32:49.450 development, and that's this Tangerine software 00:32:49.450 --> 00:32:52.529 -defined radio. So we're still working on developing 00:32:52.529 --> 00:32:56.410 that right now. It's not quite ready, but the 00:32:56.410 --> 00:32:58.650 great, low -cost personal space weather station 00:32:58.650 --> 00:33:00.990 version one, you have a number of people deploying 00:33:00.990 --> 00:33:03.589 that and using it already. The ground magnetometer, 00:33:03.690 --> 00:33:05.990 a number of people are using that already. And 00:33:05.990 --> 00:33:08.900 so those are Those are out and are being used. 00:33:10.680 --> 00:33:14.200 Well, Christina, we kind of shifted gears there 00:33:14.200 --> 00:33:16.960 a little bit. You were making some connections 00:33:16.960 --> 00:33:21.779 to this weather station that Nathaniel just explained 00:33:21.779 --> 00:33:26.440 to us. So if you can kind of pick up where we 00:33:26.440 --> 00:33:30.039 kind of left that and make the connections here 00:33:30.039 --> 00:33:35.700 between the eclipse measurements and this personal 00:33:35.700 --> 00:33:40.740 weather station. Yeah, absolutely. So what the 00:33:40.740 --> 00:33:42.940 the grape is we call it and the reason we call 00:33:42.940 --> 00:33:47.740 it the grape is because the main PSWS is called 00:33:47.740 --> 00:33:50.799 the tangerine. It's being developed by the Tucson 00:33:50.799 --> 00:33:55.660 amateur packet radio network Tapper crowd. And 00:33:55.660 --> 00:33:57.420 they have a very active development list and 00:33:57.420 --> 00:34:00.359 all of this is on, I think it's hamsi .org slash 00:34:00.359 --> 00:34:06.160 PSWS. We call the grape The Grape, which was 00:34:06.160 --> 00:34:12.820 a moniker that was coined by AC8YV because it's 00:34:12.820 --> 00:34:15.659 a, first of all, it's a tiny piece of electronics 00:34:15.659 --> 00:34:18.199 and people always name tiny pieces of electronics 00:34:18.199 --> 00:34:20.880 after tiny pieces of fruit. So you've got, you 00:34:20.880 --> 00:34:23.440 know, your raspberry pie, your kiwi SDR, your 00:34:23.440 --> 00:34:26.719 lime SDR, et cetera, and grape wasn't taken yet. 00:34:27.420 --> 00:34:29.019 But the other thing that we like to say is that 00:34:29.019 --> 00:34:32.070 it does its best work in bunches. And I mentioned 00:34:32.070 --> 00:34:37.010 earlier that the best way to do the deployments 00:34:37.010 --> 00:34:39.269 of these is to have one at your house and then 00:34:39.269 --> 00:34:41.809 one at your friend's house that's down the block 00:34:41.809 --> 00:34:46.650 or five miles away. And there are various lessons 00:34:46.650 --> 00:34:49.369 that we've been incorporating into the development 00:34:49.369 --> 00:34:52.230 that we've learned through doing pilot experiments. 00:34:52.969 --> 00:34:55.869 Because one of the nice things about putting 00:34:55.869 --> 00:35:00.280 a pilot experiment together for a short term 00:35:00.280 --> 00:35:05.980 recording what you call a campaign in is that 00:35:05.980 --> 00:35:08.880 it has sort of the same kinds of aspects as a 00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:11.260 ham radio contest. It's something that you do 00:35:11.260 --> 00:35:14.760 for a certain period of time. And then it's over, 00:35:14.760 --> 00:35:18.820 you know, and you can try different things and 00:35:18.820 --> 00:35:22.119 you can set it up to sort of encourage the, the 00:35:22.119 --> 00:35:24.199 things that you want to see happen. So in the 00:35:24.199 --> 00:35:28.469 same way that, you know, you structure A contest, 00:35:28.570 --> 00:35:30.110 you know, field day, you get points for owning 00:35:30.110 --> 00:35:32.630 a fire extinguisher, for example. I'm pretty 00:35:32.630 --> 00:35:35.309 sure it's the only contest that does that. School 00:35:35.309 --> 00:35:37.949 club roundup is my favorite example, how the 00:35:37.949 --> 00:35:39.789 way that the point structure is set up makes 00:35:39.789 --> 00:35:45.289 it so that you want to talk to schools. But you 00:35:45.289 --> 00:35:47.429 can do very similar things where you can leverage 00:35:47.429 --> 00:35:51.210 this towards data collection in science campaigns. 00:35:51.469 --> 00:35:54.769 And so when we do this for the eclipses, there 00:35:54.769 --> 00:35:57.610 have been sort of different kind of scientific 00:35:57.610 --> 00:36:00.949 themes or different data collection themes. I 00:36:00.949 --> 00:36:04.949 started doing this in, this was for June of last 00:36:04.949 --> 00:36:10.510 year, and it was a very, you know, sort of let's 00:36:10.510 --> 00:36:12.449 put something together and see what happens kind 00:36:12.449 --> 00:36:17.570 of experiment, because there was an annular solar 00:36:17.570 --> 00:36:24.079 eclipse across China. And so I put together a 00:36:24.079 --> 00:36:27.219 webpage and duplicated the same protocol that 00:36:27.219 --> 00:36:30.039 we did for the original festival of frequency 00:36:30.039 --> 00:36:34.400 measurement and said, okay, let's use this same 00:36:34.400 --> 00:36:38.039 protocol, but we'll try tuning to BPM instead 00:36:38.039 --> 00:36:43.079 of WWV. And interesting things sort of began 00:36:43.079 --> 00:36:46.380 to come out of the woodwork. For one thing, someone 00:36:46.380 --> 00:36:48.739 came in and translated the instructions into 00:36:48.739 --> 00:36:51.570 Dutch. So then I had a whole bunch of ham radio 00:36:51.570 --> 00:36:55.309 operators in the Netherlands who were collecting 00:36:55.309 --> 00:36:59.090 Doppler data all of a sudden. And where you get 00:36:59.090 --> 00:37:03.050 these little pockets of participation are always 00:37:03.050 --> 00:37:05.210 interesting and really impossible to predict 00:37:05.210 --> 00:37:07.769 because I was showing the map to a friend last 00:37:07.769 --> 00:37:09.010 night and she was like, why do you have so many 00:37:09.010 --> 00:37:11.170 people in Greece? And I think it was because 00:37:11.170 --> 00:37:13.889 somebody brought it to their club and showed 00:37:13.889 --> 00:37:16.550 it around. But I wound up with a huge amount 00:37:16.550 --> 00:37:18.949 of European participation We actually got there 00:37:18.949 --> 00:37:21.610 were participants on six continents for that 00:37:21.610 --> 00:37:24.090 event and also for the the one in December that 00:37:24.090 --> 00:37:26.269 followed it for the eclipse across South America 00:37:26.269 --> 00:37:33.949 and So for the the June 2020 event One of the 00:37:33.949 --> 00:37:36.769 things that the European stations noticed was 00:37:36.769 --> 00:37:40.789 that just using FL digi's frequency estimation 00:37:40.789 --> 00:37:45.250 mode you would end up with really noisy data 00:37:45.250 --> 00:37:47.610 because there was a station in Italy that I hadn't 00:37:47.610 --> 00:37:50.289 known about. So there were actually two different 00:37:50.289 --> 00:37:52.610 stations that were just off frequency from each 00:37:52.610 --> 00:37:54.949 other. And the algorithm that was looking for 00:37:54.949 --> 00:37:57.889 the carrier would bounce between them. So this 00:37:57.889 --> 00:38:02.010 was how we started with audio recording. And 00:38:02.010 --> 00:38:05.909 the entire community of people that were volunteering 00:38:05.909 --> 00:38:08.909 for this experiment, you know, we did one test 00:38:08.909 --> 00:38:10.750 round, figured out this was happening about a 00:38:10.750 --> 00:38:14.630 week before the actual event. And then I asked 00:38:14.630 --> 00:38:19.170 them to record audio and everyone just, you know, 00:38:19.389 --> 00:38:22.070 pivoted and about half of the group did that. 00:38:22.309 --> 00:38:25.449 And so I had, I think, maybe 50 stations from 00:38:25.449 --> 00:38:28.590 that experiment. I know for December there were 00:38:28.590 --> 00:38:33.429 about 83 stations that recorded audio of various 00:38:33.429 --> 00:38:39.679 stations for June of this year, where there was 00:38:39.679 --> 00:38:46.760 a partial eclipse that went sort of, it had a 00:38:46.760 --> 00:38:48.840 very strange path of totality. You can see this 00:38:48.840 --> 00:38:51.400 in the maps online. It went over the Arctic. 00:38:51.659 --> 00:38:54.559 And I'm curious to see what people will figure 00:38:54.559 --> 00:38:59.860 out about the overlap between that and, you know, 00:38:59.980 --> 00:39:05.079 auroral precipitation in that region. For that 00:39:05.079 --> 00:39:11.019 one, we had people try different, you know, time 00:39:11.019 --> 00:39:12.820 standard stations according to their preference. 00:39:13.300 --> 00:39:15.139 And, you know, I suggested, well, you might want 00:39:15.139 --> 00:39:17.800 to try RWM, but really try whatever station you 00:39:17.800 --> 00:39:20.360 want. And so seeing, you know, what people chose 00:39:20.360 --> 00:39:23.219 to record, what people found at their various 00:39:23.219 --> 00:39:26.519 areas, just kind of playing with it, you pick 00:39:26.519 --> 00:39:30.260 up these different insights about where stations 00:39:30.260 --> 00:39:32.940 are that you can use as beacons, what you can 00:39:32.940 --> 00:39:36.340 do with them. And then also, you know, how far 00:39:36.340 --> 00:39:40.920 apart should these stations be to be able to 00:39:40.920 --> 00:39:43.840 sort of distribute them around? When you do this 00:39:43.840 --> 00:39:46.900 as a campaign, you're doing everything that you 00:39:46.900 --> 00:39:51.599 would do with setting up a network, but you get 00:39:51.599 --> 00:39:56.019 to sort of see some of the end results. in kind 00:39:56.019 --> 00:39:58.980 of preview mode. You skip over several of the 00:39:58.980 --> 00:40:01.300 really hard decisions that you would be making 00:40:01.300 --> 00:40:04.460 if you were trying to set up a scientific, you 00:40:04.460 --> 00:40:06.760 know, remote sensing network from scratch. Like, 00:40:06.780 --> 00:40:09.300 you don't know where you would put the stations, 00:40:09.760 --> 00:40:12.719 so you just see what happens. You know, you don't 00:40:12.719 --> 00:40:16.639 know what particular set of data you necessarily 00:40:16.639 --> 00:40:18.340 even want to collect, so you just try to get 00:40:18.340 --> 00:40:22.659 whatever you can. And there were many interesting 00:40:22.659 --> 00:40:25.420 elements of looking at you know, the participation 00:40:25.420 --> 00:40:28.500 maps all by themselves and sort of the social 00:40:28.500 --> 00:40:32.119 aspect of it and the international collaboration, 00:40:32.179 --> 00:40:33.679 which of course is one of the core principles 00:40:33.679 --> 00:40:36.360 of ham radio, the way in which the community 00:40:36.360 --> 00:40:39.380 steps up. And then also just looking at what 00:40:39.380 --> 00:40:41.440 happens in the plots, the different types of 00:40:41.440 --> 00:40:43.719 noise and things that you see. Now when we move 00:40:43.719 --> 00:40:46.639 to doing this with the grape network, we will 00:40:46.639 --> 00:40:52.059 be able to have a certain level of known good 00:40:52.059 --> 00:40:54.280 stations will know, for instance, that if somebody 00:40:54.280 --> 00:40:57.559 is running a grape station, that they have the 00:40:57.559 --> 00:40:59.860 same signal chain as somebody else who's running 00:40:59.860 --> 00:41:03.639 a different grape station. And that this will 00:41:03.639 --> 00:41:06.820 be set up in such a way that probably they will 00:41:06.820 --> 00:41:10.139 have, you know, done it maybe in a cluster with 00:41:10.139 --> 00:41:11.980 some other people, as I've been talking about, 00:41:12.000 --> 00:41:14.159 and you'll be able to reference them off of each 00:41:14.159 --> 00:41:20.639 other. So the The real, you know, my favorite 00:41:20.639 --> 00:41:23.380 thing I think of all of the communications that 00:41:23.380 --> 00:41:28.000 I've had with volunteers was I got this wonderful 00:41:28.000 --> 00:41:33.199 email from one of the radio operators in the 00:41:33.199 --> 00:41:35.780 Netherlands where he sent me this graph that 00:41:35.780 --> 00:41:38.179 he had made with, you know, two or three of his 00:41:38.179 --> 00:41:40.320 friends where they had lined their charts up. 00:41:40.659 --> 00:41:43.980 And he said, you know, I don't know what we're 00:41:43.980 --> 00:41:46.420 seeing here. I don't know if this is the ionosphere 00:41:46.420 --> 00:41:49.329 or if it's local noise. But we're having a lot 00:41:49.329 --> 00:41:51.969 of fun. And that was really kind of the whole 00:41:51.969 --> 00:41:54.190 point of doing the pilot experiments was that 00:41:54.190 --> 00:41:58.269 it was a way for people to to come together and 00:41:58.269 --> 00:42:00.369 try this out and sort of get a better understanding 00:42:00.369 --> 00:42:02.849 of your own environment and tie it into what 00:42:02.849 --> 00:42:05.510 other people are doing. So really, the eclipse 00:42:05.510 --> 00:42:08.230 is just an excuse to do that in the same way 00:42:08.230 --> 00:42:10.730 that a contest is just an excuse to operate. 00:42:11.909 --> 00:42:16.090 Well, it's some fascinating stuff, Christina 00:42:16.090 --> 00:42:19.989 and Thank you so much for taking this one on 00:42:19.989 --> 00:42:26.510 and Nathaniel for the overarching scientific 00:42:26.510 --> 00:42:30.630 tie -in to amateur radio. It's one that's near 00:42:30.630 --> 00:42:35.289 and dear to my heart being a science educator 00:42:35.289 --> 00:42:40.590 and just really impressed with what you've been 00:42:40.590 --> 00:42:43.530 able to do. So thank you so much for coming on 00:42:43.530 --> 00:42:48.239 and telling us about it. Thanks for all the work 00:42:48.239 --> 00:42:52.639 and good luck on the Eclipse next month and Nathaniel, 00:42:52.639 --> 00:42:56.619 remind everybody where they can sign up and do 00:42:56.619 --> 00:43:01.260 this stuff. Sure, so for the Eclipse specifically, 00:43:01.679 --> 00:43:05.300 you can go to hamside .org slash festivals or 00:43:05.300 --> 00:43:07.719 you can go to hamside .org, you click projects 00:43:07.719 --> 00:43:10.500 and then you see Eclipse and frequency measurement 00:43:10.500 --> 00:43:13.320 festivals and you can pick the December 2021 00:43:13.320 --> 00:43:15.869 Eclipse measurement festival. All the way at 00:43:15.869 --> 00:43:17.809 the bottom, there's a link for the Google group 00:43:17.809 --> 00:43:20.130 there. There's also a main Google group. You 00:43:20.130 --> 00:43:22.349 just go to hamside .org, click get involved, 00:43:22.449 --> 00:43:26.210 and all the information is right there. All right, 00:43:26.309 --> 00:43:31.429 very good. Christina, any final comments? Other 00:43:31.429 --> 00:43:34.710 than HamSci .org slash festivals, none in particular, 00:43:34.769 --> 00:43:38.150 but I hope that we get some good participation 00:43:38.150 --> 00:43:40.250 this year. And I will say one thing for, cause 00:43:40.250 --> 00:43:42.789 this is a question I get a lot. Folks often ask, 00:43:42.889 --> 00:43:45.489 is it still worthwhile for me to collect data, 00:43:45.570 --> 00:43:47.869 even if I'm far from the path of totality? And 00:43:47.869 --> 00:43:50.789 of course, for this particular experiment, everyone's 00:43:50.789 --> 00:43:54.769 far from the path of totality, really. And the 00:43:54.769 --> 00:43:57.489 answer is yes, because what we're looking for 00:43:57.489 --> 00:44:01.510 with the Grape Network are wave -like structures 00:44:01.510 --> 00:44:03.269 that propagate through the ionosphere. We're 00:44:03.269 --> 00:44:05.369 looking for traveling ionospheric disturbances, 00:44:05.750 --> 00:44:08.929 and those can go for hundreds of kilometers. 00:44:08.989 --> 00:44:11.929 They can travel a very great distance. So even 00:44:11.929 --> 00:44:15.829 if, you know, you're looking at things that are 00:44:15.829 --> 00:44:18.429 away from the sort of perturbing force, we may 00:44:18.429 --> 00:44:20.429 still be able to observe some quite interesting 00:44:20.429 --> 00:44:25.630 things together. Sounds great. Nathaniel, any 00:44:25.630 --> 00:44:30.150 final comments? We look forward to everyone participating 00:44:30.150 --> 00:44:35.110 and it's been a real pleasure being on your show. 00:44:36.570 --> 00:44:39.090 All right. We'll look forward to seeing you again 00:44:39.090 --> 00:44:44.170 soon and look forward to hearing about how this 00:44:44.170 --> 00:44:48.190 next big project goes. So thanks for being here. 00:44:48.619 --> 00:44:51.139 And we're going to talk a little bit about a 00:44:51.139 --> 00:44:54.059 couple of giveaways here before we go. First 00:44:54.059 --> 00:44:58.840 of all, Christian K0STH over at 100WattsInAWire 00:44:58.840 --> 00:45:02.860 is giving away $1 ,000 on his show. You can go 00:45:02.860 --> 00:45:07.920 over to 100WattsInAWire .com and read the rules 00:45:07.920 --> 00:45:11.460 there, but basically you go on and make a wish 00:45:11.460 --> 00:45:14.710 list and then... You get all the stuff if you 00:45:14.710 --> 00:45:19.670 win. So make sure you check that out. 100wattsandawire 00:45:19.670 --> 00:45:24.269 .com. Also here at HamTalk Live, we have a giveaway 00:45:24.269 --> 00:45:28.969 for the month of November. One of my friends 00:45:28.969 --> 00:45:38.130 and listeners of the show, Tanner Jones, W9TWJ, 00:45:38.440 --> 00:45:43.739 is giving away two free remote license testing 00:45:43.739 --> 00:45:48.679 opportunities. So you can take your test by remote, 00:45:49.659 --> 00:45:55.519 Zoom usually, and we're gonna give away one for 00:45:55.519 --> 00:45:59.719 a listener of HamTalk Live that hasn't been licensed 00:45:59.719 --> 00:46:03.079 yet, so you're brand new to Ham and Radio. We 00:46:03.079 --> 00:46:07.119 want to give you a chance to win a free license 00:46:07.119 --> 00:46:11.619 test and it's a remote one so you can do it from 00:46:11.619 --> 00:46:15.579 anywhere. And then we're also going to give away 00:46:15.579 --> 00:46:19.340 one for someone who wants to upgrade. So if you're 00:46:19.340 --> 00:46:21.639 already a licensed amateur, there's a separate 00:46:21.639 --> 00:46:25.800 giveaway for that one. So here's how you enter. 00:46:26.170 --> 00:46:34.349 You go to win win .hamtalklive .com And that 00:46:34.349 --> 00:46:37.869 will give you all the details and then you can 00:46:37.869 --> 00:46:41.329 click and fill out the form there For a chance 00:46:41.329 --> 00:46:44.809 to win. We're going to cut that off at on November 00:46:44.809 --> 00:46:47.050 30th so you have until the end of the month to 00:46:47.050 --> 00:46:52.269 sign up and We'll give these two remote testing 00:46:52.269 --> 00:46:57.230 sessions Tanner's going to pay the fees for those, 00:46:57.230 --> 00:47:02.070 so we're going to give those away to one random 00:47:02.070 --> 00:47:11.829 entry from those forms. So again, it's win .hamtalklive 00:47:11.829 --> 00:47:16.570 .com to enter. Well, that is a wrap for this 00:47:16.570 --> 00:47:19.010 week's edition of HamTalk Live. Thanks to my 00:47:19.010 --> 00:47:23.110 guests, Christina Collins, KD8OXT, and Dr. Nathaniel 00:47:23.110 --> 00:47:26.309 Frisell, W2NAF, and everybody out there in cyberspace 00:47:26.309 --> 00:47:28.730 for listening and calling in, and invite you 00:47:28.730 --> 00:47:31.909 back next Thursday night, 9 p .m. Eastern Time, 00:47:32.289 --> 00:47:36.440 right here at HamTalkLive. And if you'd like 00:47:36.440 --> 00:47:38.900 to see who's coming up on the show next, you 00:47:38.900 --> 00:47:44.000 can also find that at HamTalkLive .com. So for 00:47:44.000 --> 00:47:47.719 now, this is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, saying seven 00:47:47.719 --> 00:47:52.599 three, seven five, and may the good DX be yours.