Go to the Amateur Radio Astronomy Site here:

Follows are some of my thoughts, ideas, and philosophies as pertains to Amateur Radio Astronomy. This is a hobby

I have been pursuing for about 20 years, in addition to my Amateur Radio Endeavours. A lot of the equipment

used in my set-ups, comes from the U.S.Government, AKA military surplus, I use this type of equipment because

its cheaper than starting from scratch with the same design. Also I paid taxes which bought this stuff for "Uncle Sam"

and as a tax-payer I wanted to get my moneys' worth! There are a lot of really good items available to get a receive

site up and running, most of it "High Quality" extremely stable, and easily restored/repaired.

I Also participate in "EME", which is the transmission and reception of signals over the Earth - Moon- Earth path.

Most of my equipment for this type of radio survey is converted military and commercial equipment, which has

been modified to accomplish this task. I have transmitted and listened for signals in the 1296 Mhz region, and my

latest endeavours are centered on low noise receivers for 1296 Mhz and 2304 Mhz. It is NOT true that you have

to be running "Kilowatts of Power" in order to do Moon Bounce, if you are carrying out a good scheme of receiver

design, and antenna improvements. With the advent of all the good quality low noise RF transistors out now one

can come up with some interesting receive equipment.

First and foremost, K.I.S.S. is a very good attitude to have, if this is to truly be a low budget (" I.E.; you are not

the U.S. government") endeavour. Your first job is to look around and ask questions of people around you.

Several good starter questions are really good to have on your list. Such as what are you going to do with that VCR in

your garage that doesn't work? Thats an awful lot of left over fence pipe you've got there, what are you going

to do with it? Or how about, are you throwing that Shower-Radio away? My all time favorite is, Can I help

you carry some of this stuff to the curb? My point is, YOU live in the land of plenty, plenty of this , plenty of

that and plenty of STUFF, most of which collects dust and dirt until it is finally thrown out. This also works at

"Ham-Fests" and closing down yard sales, and "Flea-Markets".

The above example questions are very pertinent, have you ever considered the sensitivity of the "Front-End"

on the newer VCR units. Are you aware that they tune from approximately 50 Mhz up to almost 950 Mhz?

Have you considered that the noise figure and selectivity have to be EXTREMELY good to work with a set

of Rabbit ears, or an outside rotatable antenna, or the Cable Company Feed?

If you are good with your hands, you options are greatly expanded because, you can use things to make other

things. Four pieces of scrap plywood 1/2 inch thick, a few rolls of institutional Reynolds wrap, some wood screws

or the new drywall screws will yield up a very nice corner reflector that is large enough to need steering. An old rear

wheel from a bicycle and an old low rpm D.C. motor, the bicycle chain and you have a steerable corner-reflector.

Well, a corner reflector is a good start, but what about the antenna? Hum is that some 1 and 1/2 inch pvc pipe

scraps over there in the trash? Say those are almost three feet long, and there are four of them, Humm well lets

see. If I wind a helical coil on the outside of a piece of this and cut it for the dimensions of the water-hole frequency

I'll have an antenna that is light in weight, and can be mounted right in front of my corner reflector. If one antenna

exhibits 10 DB of gain, and I build four and space them correctly, and mount them in front of the corner reflector

I can have a 20 to 30 DB gain antenna system (Theoretically) it doesn't work that way in "REAL LIFE".

I acquired from the "Salvation Army Recycling Center", of all places, three (3) Agile Modulators and knowing

what they were made them quite the bargain at 5.00 for (3) three of these little beauties. Here is the spec sheet

from the manufacturer, Blonder Tongue.

NASA and JPL have lots

of receive stations!

Here are a few photos of the

Amateur Radio Astronomy equivalent

types of antennas, which can be

assembled from parts gathered at

HOME DEPOT!

Dual Helical steerable.

A helical for 400 +/- Mhz.

A 2.4 Ghz helical built from "PVC"

Bob W0LMD, an Amateur Radio, and Amateur Radio Astronomer, operator has a detailed web-site that has

lots of information on assembling Dish Antennas for Amateur Satellite and Radio Astronomy endeavours. With

lots of descriptions on putting together different pieces of equipment for the activities desired.

http://www.astrosurf.com/lombry/menu-radioastro.html

If you are interested in MARS Satellite communications here is a little info to help determine frequencies in use.

What is the communications delay between Earth and Mars?

We communicate with the Pathfinder lander using radio waves, which travel at a speed of 2.9979245x10⁸meters
per second. During the July 4 landing Mars and Earth were 192 million Km apart. At that distance it took 10 minutes and 39 seconds for the radio signal to travel in one direction. Because of their orbits, Mars and Earth are moving farther apart. As of November 6 Mars is approximately 291 million Km from Earth. At that distance it now takes 16 minutes and 10 seconds for the signals to travel in one direction. On May 13, 1998 Earth and Mars will be in conjunction (opposite sides of the sun) at a distance of 2.49 AU (1 AU is defined as 1.4956x10¹¹ meters). At that distance it will take 20 minutes and 42 seconds for a radio signal to reach Mars. On June 22, 1998 Earth and Mars will be their farthest apart at 2.52 AU. At that distance it will take 20 minutes and 57 seconds for a radio signal from Earth to reach mars. It is these time delays which makes it impossible to communicate with and control
 the rover in real time.

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