Just getting started in Radio...

[Altair40]

Hi there,

This astronomy bug seems to have bitten me very deeply. After messing about with a 60mm refractor as a kid and bino's for the next thirty years I've just got a small newt which I think is brilliant for me at my level of expertise.

Then I read the 'Itty bitty scope' in this radio section and feel that's a challenge I have to take up!

I've no specific questions - just reading around at the moment. I do have a scientific background so might be able to understand what's out there and be able build most of the electronics myself which will be fun on it's own .

There's a whisker kit radio kit in my desk drawer at work, so I might start slowly with that. I might also be able to get hold of a six foot dish but understand that it's the reciever that's the important bit.

I may need to ask for help in specific areas, if that's ok but I'm not hoping to 'see' too much with a cobbled together set up. Just the easier targets to start with...

This Radio stuff sounds like fun. One aspect I'm interested in is interfacing with PC's - that would be useful for my day job and I can get some help in that area.

I can probably borrow an oscilloscope which will be useful - otherwise it'll just be the 'pointer meter' used to set up dishes for sat TV.

[LeoLion]

Have a look at Robin Leadbetters Ku band microwave set up . It looks a fun thing to do with a small satelite TV aerial and a 'satelite finder' such as you can find in your local Maplins ROBIN'S ASTRONOMY PAGE Radio Astronomy - Ku band experiments

There are a whole lot of links you can dig up with a Google search for ' satellite finder radio astronomy '. This should get you started fairly economically.

[Altair40]

If I could just get some sort of signal from any of the Sun, or Jupiter even that would be a massive boost to me as a starter in this. Even just to see a change in the finder meter over time as the sun passed over would class as a big sucsess for me.

We do have an identical small dish to the 'itty bitty' device in addition to the possible larger one.

Do you think Goonhilly would let me play with theirs?!! Don't worry - joke...

[Altair40]

This may sound very naive to most of you but I made a start last night. By fixing the telly!.

In the area of Co-axial cable to be specific. Our amp for the set top box had been playing up since I installed it several years ago. Get that: me. Not anyone else. The set top box is just one of those cheap signal boosters...?

The co-axial cables (in this case the RF input to the box) needed to be at certain 'jiggled' angles before we coud get a signal.

The decorators had been in and I'd ripped the whole set up apart and pulled the telly into a non plaster zone. It would not work after.

I had to think about co-ax for a while and then thought. I did this to start with so why not cut an extra 5mm off of the white insulation?

Oddly, there was a very strong signal after that! (And cutting away any extra external copper mesh.)

Still don't know how co-axial cables actually work. Don't worry, I'll find out.

It appears that duct tape will take you only so far!

[Altair40]

It just seems to me that in DIY electronics or consumer electronics in general the biggest problem arise from 'dodgy' connections. Shorts, ground loops, that sort of thing.

Oh or not switching a piece of equipment on. First question I try to ask is ' does it have power'?!

Anyone have any comments?!

[Altair40]

I have to admit, I'm trying for my 50 post's tonight - hope you don't mind?

[Altair40]

I'll go and welcome, as I should. But, another question if I may?

If I do go ahead and use the sky dish I physically have to use for an 'itty bitty' scope, I know I need one of the signafinding devices. To get a dial deflection or multimeter reading if nothing else.

Where do I go from there?

Recievers, of course - any advice? Is there anything I can do with a disused sky box in terms of a reciever?

Sorry to bother you all.

BTW six foot dish is still very much a probability. Somewhere between 0 and 1...

:-)

[Steveplanetsax]

I hope I'm not too late to join in, but I have a couple of questions. Instead of using a satelite dish, could a dish be made of say, thin plywood segments covered with alluminium foil and formed into a dish shape. Secondly, is the element that collects the signal from the dish simply a wire coil.

Steve.