The planet Jupiter emits in the radio spectrum strongly in the 10 − 100m wavelength range. A low cost radio telescope based on NASA’s Radio Jove design was built to capture frequencies within this range. A HackRF radio transceiver was used to allow data collection, while a software defined radio solution was implemented in GNURadio to perform data processing with the hope of helping to identify these Jovian emissions. Several utilities were developed to aid in the analysis of captured data. As the cost of software defined radio receivers fall and the availability of free open source software becomes more prevalent, capabilities once available only to government institutions or large universities are now within reach of the determined amateur enthusiast.
Keywords: radio astronomy, software defined radio, digital signal processing, gnuradio, hackrf
A software defined radio telescope developed as part of my dissertation during a MSc in Computing degree at the Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland.
The antenna design is a dual dipole antenna which offers 10, 15 or 20ft configurations which offers the means to aim the antenna at multiple points in the sky. The system is aided further with the use of phasing cables. For more information see the NASA Radio Jove Antenna Manual.
