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Yours truly has to confess that I have never set up an RSP as a panadapter. Mike, KD2KOG and  Steve, KI5ENW are our resident experts but my practical knowledge is pretty limited.  So yesterday I finally decided it was time to dust off my ICOM-718 and Drake L7 linear amp and get them operational and working safely and in sync with an RSPdx as the main station receiver.  This video describes the process and may be helpful to others starting out using an RSP as a panadapter and much much more:

The folks who run the Radio JOVE project and usually monitor Jupiter, are teaming up with NASA’s citizen science project and Heliophysics Big Year. They want your help in making coordinated observations of the Sun for the October 14, 2023 and the April 8, 2024 solar eclipses.  They are organising a number of practice sessions to help people get prepared.  So get your RSPs ready! To find out more, go to: https://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/citizen_science/rj_eclipse2023.php

For more information about how they use an RSP in general, this video gives an  overview of Radio JOVE 2.0. It includes a short demonstration of the radio spectrograph using an RSP with a dipole antenna and the associated Radio-Sky Spectrograph (RSS) software.

JOVE is a US-based public outreach, education, and citizen science project using radio astronomy and a hands-on radio telescope for science inquiry and education. Radio JOVE 2.0 is a new direction using radio spectrographs to provide a path for radio enthusiasts to grow into citizen scientists capable of operating their own radio observatory and providing science-quality data to an archive. Radio JOVE 2.0 uses more capable software defined radios (SDRs) and spectrograph recording software as a low-cost ($350) radio spectrograph that can address more science questions related to heliophysics, planetary and space weather science, and radio wave propagation. Our goals are: (1) Increase participant access and expand an existing radio spectrograph network, (2) Test and develop radio spectrograph hardware and software, (3) Upgrade the science capability of the data archive, and (4) Develop training modules to help people become citizen scientists.

For more information about the  project, visit: radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov

For more about SARA, visit: https://www.radio-astronomy.org/

Many thanks to all the visitors who dropped by to see SDRplay and our multiplatform SDRconnect demos.  Here’s a short video thanks to Ham Radio Outlet, our US partners:

SDRconnect is the new multiplatform software from SDRplay – coming soon.  For the latest status see: https://www.sdrplay.com/sdrconnect

Gary from Martin Lynch and sons invited Andy from SDRplay to give an update on the imminent multiplatform SDRconnect software.  Andy answers questions and demonstrates some of the features of this complete re-write of SDRuno.

More information about SDRconnect can be found here: https://www.sdrplay.com/sdrconnect/

Martin Lynch website: https://www.hamradio.co.uk/

SDRconnect status update

The long awaited re-write of SDRuno for multiple hardware platforms is progressing.  Here’s more about why it’s taking longer than we originally thought:

Of the features not yet complete, the major effort has been with ensuring we have better support for the advanced feature-set of the RSPduo. Whilst SDRconnect is a ‘ground up’ development in terms of code base, certain approaches have been inherited from SDRuno as the radio API is almost identical. From the outset, decisions had to be made as to which approaches we would carry over from SDRuno and which would be re-designed from scratch. After a lot of reflection we have decided that the approach that we had carried over for ‘Device Selection’, which is key for the RSPduo was too ‘clunky’ and inefficient and so we decided to re-do this from scratch. Whilst this has certainly delayed us several weeks, the final approach will be a lot more robust and responsive and will stand us in better stead for the future.

Sometimes you have to take a step back to go forwards.

More details on: https://www.sdrplay.com/sdrconnect/

ICQ podcast caught up with Andy last weekend at the Hamzilla event in the UK. As we continue to edge ever closer to the long awaited release of SDRconnect, Andy talks about progress and some of the other aspects of software support with Chris Howard M0TCH :