Arbitrary printed circuit board

Different projects were realised using passive monitoring of existing RF-sources as well as active monitoring by transmitting RF. The goal of this monitoring was to study the ionospheric propagation of RF-waves.

  • The set up and test of a basic monitoring system is described. It employed an AOR AR5000 communications receiver and a computer. A RS-232 interface allowed to control the receiver and to read the level of the automatic gain control (agc) representing the received RF-power. The necessary control software was written in PASCAL and can be downloaded freely. Examples of different measuring objectives are given.
  • For the monitoring of the solar eclipse in March 2015 over Europe a software defined radio (SDR) was used. It was connected to a computer via USB. The computer run the SDR-software and served as recording unit (Spectrum Lab from Wolfgang Büscher).
  • Development of a method to analyse the influence of coronal mass ejections on the ionosphere in detail with radio amateur equipment. An ICOM IC-7300 was connected to a computer via USB. The study was based on the WSPR-Software from Joe Taylor controlling the transmitter and generating the beacon signals. Signal reports from third persons were retrieved from the internet database wsprnet.org.