Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers

During May 18 to 20, the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers will have an exhibit at the annual Hamvention in Dayton, OH. One of the biggest gatherings of radio amateurs in the world, this event draws thousands of visitors each year.

SARA will share an exhibit booth with the Radio JOVE Project. Look for us at Booth #421 in the Ball Arena. (See http://www.hamvention.org/about.php for more details.)

by Julian Jove

The SARA 2012 Western Conference was held at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, USA (aerial photo right © aerialarchives.com/Alamy). Debra Scherrer, Coordinator of the Stanford Solar Center, helped us obtain facilities at the Physics and Astrophysics building on the Stanford campus. We used the same room as the 2010 Western Conference, so we were in a familiar setting.

The following abstracts will be presented at the 2012 SARA Annual Conference in Green Bank, West Virginia June 24 to 27.

RASDR Development Status
Bogdan Vacaliuc, David Fields, Paul Oxley, Marcus Leech, and Stan Kurtz
Abstract
SARA members are working on designs for a Software Defined Radio (SDR) that is optimized for Radio Astronomy. The resulting receiver design, RASDR, has the potential to be a common digital receiver interface useful to many SARA members. A benchtop version of RASDR has been completed. This “Phase 0” RASDR provides digitized radio data to a backend computer through a USB 2.0 interface. One component of RASDR is the Lime Microsystems Femtocell chip which tunes from a 0.4-4 GHz center frequency with several selectable bandwidths from 0.75 MHz to 14

We have a commitment from Dr. Namir E. Kassim as our keynote speaker for the annual conference to be held June 24 to 27. Dr. Namir E. Kassim received his B.Sc. from MIT in 1980 in physics, and his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in 1987 in astronomy. His thesis research was a survey of our Milky Way Galaxy at a wavelength of 10 meters under the supervision of low frequency radio pioneer Professor William C. Erickson. His scientific interests include low frequency radio astrophysics, large HF/VHF arrays, and HF/VHF Adaptive Optics. He has authored over 100 refereed journal articles in low frequency astronomy, several books and book chapters, and numerous conference proceedings.

The annual SARA meeting will be held at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO)Green Bank, West Virginia Sunday June 24th to Wednesday June 27, 2012. Contributors are invited to submit abstracts of their proposed talks to the Vice President (vicepres@radio-astronomy.org) on or before March 1st. A draft paper for publication in the Proceedings is needed by April 15th. The final copy is due May 15th. An optional short bio can be included with the abstract. Optional supporting documentation can be submitted by the final copy date but will not be published in the Proceedings.

The Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA) announces a regional conference will be held at Stanford University in California March 24 and 25, 2012. Deborah Scherrer of the Stanford Solar Center has offered to be our host for this event since SARA and Stanford are collaborating on the SuperSID project.

The Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA) hereby solicits papers for presentation at its 2012 Western Regional Conference, to be held March 24 through March 25, 2012, at Stanford University, California. Papers on radio astronomy hardware, software, education, research strategies, observations and philosophy are welcome.

By Bill Seymour; Secretary, SARA
The SARA 2011 Southeastern Conference was held at the Tamke-Allan Observatory (TAO), Roane State College in Harriman, TN. SARA member Dr. David Fields, Physics Professor and Observatory Director was our host. He provided a science lecture room in a building adjacent to the telescope domes for the meeting. After a full day of demonstrations and presentations in the classroom, this made it convenient for the attendees to walk outside and participate in optical telescope viewing and watching the Orionids meteor shower on a beautiful moonless night.

As required by Section 3 of SARA By-Laws, this is the official call for nominations for SARA officers and board members. If you are interested in running for office and would like to know more about the positions, please contact a board member or SARA President Bill Lord (president@radio-astronomy.org). The requirement to be on the board is to attend the board meetings at the annual meeting and to actively participate in board-related activities. If you are unable to attend the annual meetings, then the director at large position may be for you. This position is a full board position only attending the annual meeting is not required.