RADIO JOVE

Tennessee SkyNet

RADIO JOVE

The Radio Jove is a great project for a beginning radio astronomer. The receiver can be purchased assembled or in a kit. The kit is very well made and documentation on building the unit is excellent. If you have never soldered before, you might consider buying an inexpensive electronic kit. You will find if you have steady hands and can follow instructions, the Jove kit is very doable.

You will also want to join the Radio Jove discussion lists. There is a group for technical and general discussion and the Nasa list where observers are kept up to date on observing techniques, current observations, and predicted noise storms. We are on both lists.

You will want to download SkyPipe, a well written and well documented "strip chart" software program. Jim Sky graciously allows you to download and use a free version, or for a small price upgrade to the full featured program.

Another good website is Hannes Mayer Jupiter page. He has a prediction chart that lets you put in your lat/long, day and time and it will then display the rise and set of Jupiter and the sun. This is helpful for knowing when you might be able to hear storms caused by Jupiter and Io.

Here are a few pictures of our set up for Radio Jove. You will see we chose to use 4" x 4" x 12' pressure treated wood for the antenna poles. This allowed us to eliminate guy wires. Dick Castle built the antenna for us.

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Bill is checking parts for the Radio Jove.

Bill soldering parts in the kit.

The completed receiver.

The dual dipole antenna.

The five step calibrator.

Looking at the results of the calibration process.

Contact us:

Bill & Melinda Lord

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