Category: Radio Astronomy

Receiving a 10 GHz Reflected Moon Beacon with the RTL-SDR

There is an amateur radio group in Germany known as DL0SHF which transmits a 10 GHz (QRG = 10.368.025 MHz) beacon at the moon whenever it is visible at their site. The goal of this transmission is to detect the very weak beacon reflection.

Amateur radio hobbyist Rein (W6SZ) has written in to let us know about his, DK7IJ’s and the DL0SHF groups success with receiving the beacon using the RTL-SDR. He writes

DL0SHF transmit a signal to the moon when the moon is visible at the site. The run 2 modes 50 and 500 W output, 20 seconds on, 40 seconds off.

Last night, I managed to detect the beacon with a very simple receiving package. Amazing enough, using WSJT moon tracking data, the signal appeared right away when the moon appeared here above the trees.

The signal lasts only 20 seconds but then 40 seconds later, it returned! By the books.

I use a simple 10 GHz receiver here that I use for scouting signals on 10 GHz terrestrial as member of the San Bernardino Microwave Society.

It consists of a RTL Dongle IF block tuned to 618 MHz as IF.
Front-end is a PLL LNB, not modified, running with 9.750 GHz LO

The LNB is powered with 12 Volts by means of a Bias Tee.

Both items can be acquired for about USD 25.- on eBay and other places.

The antenna is a standard 18 inch satellite off-set dish.

The antenna has some elevation control and the feed ( LNB ) can be rotated for polarity control.

Every variable is manually operated.

At times I measured the beacon as high as 15 dB above the noise using HDSDR as DSP processor software.

The beacon was running in the 500 W output mode during these observations.

Moon bounce Visisble on the waterfall
Moon bounce visible on the waterfall
Moonbounce Equipment Setup
Moonbounce Equipment Setup

Funcube SDR Radio Telescope

A Radio Astronomer by the name of Dr David Morgan has released a tutorial/paper he wrote detailing how he uses the Funcube dongle Pro+ as a tool for radio astronomy. The Funcube dongle Pro+ is a software defined radio similar to the RTL-SDR, with higher cost, but better performance in some areas.

Dr Morgan uses his Funcube dongle with the SpectrumLab Windows software, which is a specialized audio analyzer. For the hardware, David uses a 3m focal plane dish antenna and a 1200 MHz high pass filter.

The paper goes into good detail about some of the technical side of radio astronomy, shows how to calibrate the telescope using the sun and also shows several measurements made. We note that the same procedures could also likely be done with the RTL-SDR.

Signal Intensity during Drift Scan through Cygnus Spiral Arm
Signal Intensity during Drift Scan through Cygnus Spiral Arm

RTL-SDR Spectrometer for a Small Radio Telescope

Marc Higginson-Rollins of the University of Kentucky has published an academic styled paper in conjuction with Dr. Alan E.E. Rogers of the MIT Haystack Observatory showing how they used an RTL-SDR to implement a Small Radio Telescope (SRT).

In the paper they discuss how they dealt with the frequency drifting and offset problems common in the RTL-SDR. They also show how they dealt with the center spur by correcting the bias that it introduced and how they filtered out RFI noise from a nearby radar station and electronics.

Using the RTL-SDR and SRT they were able to measure the spectra of several well known regions of neutral hydrogen emissions, and measure the galactic rotation curve shown below.

Galactic Rotation Measurements with the SRT
Galactic Rotation Measurements with the SRT and RTL-SDR

Horn Antenna for RTL-SDR Radio Astronomy

Rishi Patel has written on his blog about his radio astronomy project which involves an RTL-SDR and an impressive homemade horn antenna.

The horn antenna is constructed from cardboard foam and aluminium foil and is mounted on a telescopic mount. The horn then connects to a waveguide feed which is constructed out of a large metal can. The antennas waveguide then connects to a microstrip filter and LNA before finally connecting to an RTL-SDR. Rishi then uses a simple python program to gather the IQ samples from the RTL-SDR, and then draw the power spectral density plots.

Horn Antenna
Homemade Horn Antenna for Radio Astronomy

With this setup Rishi was able to detect the Hydrogen line. Rishi also used a second even larger horn with a different design to plot the spectrum shown below of the Cygnus (red), Cassiopeia (green), and Cepheus (blue) constellations.

largeHornSpectra
Spectral Plots of Cygnus (red), Cassiopeia (green), and Cepheus (blue) constellations.

Detecting the Perseids Meteor Shower with an RTL-SDR Passive Radar

Amateur radio hobbyist EB3FRN has made a post on his blog showing how he was able to use an RTL-SDR to act as a passive radar and detect meteors from the Perseids meteor shower. To do this he tuned to 143.050 MHz which is the the frequency of the Graves radar, a French space surveillance radar used to spot satellites and detect their orbits. He then used the Baudline software to record the radar signal scatters which occur when a meteor reflects the Graves radar signal.

Graves Radar - 2013 Perseids Meteor Shower

Passive RADAR With a Dual Coherent Channel RTL-SDR

Juha Vierinen from the Kilpisjarvi Atmospheric Imaging Receiver Array has been working on a Dual Coherent Channel RTL-SDR modification. This modification essentially involves using the same clock source for two RTL-SDR dongles, which can be done by desoldering and removing the clock on one dongle, and then using a cable to connect the clock from another dongle to the clock input of the desoldered dongle.

RTL-SDR Dual Coherent
Dual Channel Coherent RTL-SDR Receiver

Juha then was able to use his new dual coherent channel RTL-SDR to create a passive RADAR system. To do this, he connected the two RTL-SDRs to two log periodic Yagi antennas. From this setup he was able to detect airplanes and meteor echoes. An image cap and video showing RADAR detections over time is shown below.

Passive RTL-SDR RADAR
Passive RTL-SDR RADAR
Longer rtlsdr fm radio passive radar video

Perseids Meteor Reflection Observations with the RTL-SDR

In this video YouTube user ek6rsc shows a timelapse of meteor reflection observations during the yearly Perseids meteor shower which occurred in 2013 during August 10-15. To do this he uses an R820T RTL-SDR tuned to 59.25 MHz, and the HROFFT software to do the recording.

Meteors entering the atmosphere can cause radio frequency reflections which may allow extremely distant radio signals to be received briefly. Reception of such a signal may be a good indicator that a meteor has fallen. A good informational guide on meteor scatter with the RTL-SDR can be found in this pdf file by Marcus Leech.

2013 Perseids Aug10-15 radio observations Meteor reflection 59.25Mhz