HOMEMADE RADIO TELESCOPE

            Hello, Hai. I am Karthick from Dindigul, Tamilnadu. In this blog I am going to explain, "How to build your own radio telescope" with in the budget. First of all I would like to say that I am not a RADIO GUY just like all I am but little bit interested in astronomy. In my Radio Telescope, backyard project I haven’t took too much risk, I just used readily available materials in the market. I have been interested in radio astronomy for years but have only recently been able to find the time to assemble my own radio telescope. I have completed construction of a 3.6 meter parabolic antenna which I use to detect the radio emissions of neutral hydrogen found throughout the galaxy, solar wind from Sun and Jupiter’s Strom. I have included some information on construction and sources of material, and there is also a description of how I am using it and what type of information can be gained from these types of observations. It is my hope that this information will be helpful to others who are interested in radio astronomy or who may even be considering a project of their own.

          So far visiting many sites in Internet and Google, finally I designed this Radio Telescope. By using this Radio Telescope we can able to track Jupiter’s Strom, Solar Wind of Sun and Radio signals from other galaxies. I am not sure it delivers 100% accurate result. Because we are not using high resolution UHF and VHF Radio Frequency receivers and analyzers to receive the microwaves and analyze the data, here we are going to use simple spectrum analyzer and receiver in order to plot graph for the RF. But I am pretty sure with the results that are reality exits.

WARNING
           if you are going to build your own Radio Telescope make sure that you are away from High Voltage electric line nearby your dish antenna". Because these antennas are very sensitive (not really) so the electrical line may hard your entire system. Please avoid to use the system during the lightening and storm.

The objective of the Small Radio Telescope Project is to acquire and operate a small radio telescope in support of a comprehensive educational and research purpose only. The author will not take any responsibilities for any disobedience of this content.

My Own Radio telescope Construction [Homemade Radio Telescope]:-
In this topic I gave the step by step procedure for building you own radio telescope.

Materials Needed for RT:

1.) Eyes of the scope:-

            12 feet parabolic dish antenna. The bigger in size, the lower in frequency. If you a bigger size dish as much you can, then you can able to receive the low frequency signals as well as..

 

2.) KU band LNBF.                                 LNBF are the eyes of the radio telescope. These will receive the signal which is reflected in the parabolic surface of the dish and collected in a point, so make sure that your LNBF is good quality or branded. Normally the KU band LNBF will receive the frequency range of 10.7 GHz to 12.75 GHz, which is used to observe the solar wind activities of our own star Sun.         
         The other frequency range such as 1420 MHz for Moon bounce, 20 MHz for Jupiter signal are under construction. So far it is developed only to observe  the Solar wind alone, soon it will be enlarged
         The following picture shows the customized LNBF to receive more signals, from the dish.

3.) Power Source:-

The LNBF requires an input of 13v – 18v 500mA power source in-order-to work. In our case we are going to use a satellite TV receiver to provide the required power for the LNBF, you can use an external power using 15v – 500mA power adapter to your LNB. The choice is yours.

Here is the Melbon DVB which I used to provide power supply for the LNBF

 

4.) Satellite Meter:

        In order to measure the received signal we need a meter. For budget purpose use a satellite meter to measure the signal strength. This meter only indicates the signal strength only apart from the signal strength it doesn’t show any thing.  There are two types of meter available

            1.)          Analog Meter

            2.)          Digital Meter

        It is suggested to use an analog meter because it less expensive compare with digital. For my project I have used KOING Electronic Analog Satellite Meter for measuring the signal strength. 

         By default the satellite meters are designed to show the TV signal strength which for the particular transponder of a satellite. If you want to just measure the signal strength of the solar wind or the Sun’s mood, you don’t need any extra operation to the satellite meter.  For recording purpose you have to do some magic on your meter.

         The following guide will help to do the Magic,

                      I.)   Open the back panel of the meter

                     ii.)   Once you open the panel you will find the buzzer and analog meter circuit (i.e. sensor)

                    iii.)               Remove the buzzer and bypass the line to a 3.5 mm mono female pin.



                     iv.) Use a male-to-male mono cable to connect the jack and input phase of the computer.

                      v.)Use radio astronomy software such as Radio Sky Pipe, Ham scope, Stream and etc., to record the data and analyze.

                       So far we have prepared what we need to operate a Radio Telescope.  Now its show time.

1.)    Installing the Dish

2.) Installing the pipeline:-

                     It is a preventive step to protect the cables from direct sun light and other nature hazardous. So all the cables are send through a hose to protect the cable.

3.) Collecting the Date:
              After installing everything the data is sent to the computer for recording and analyze purpose.