Believe it or not, we “captured” the image displayed on the banner! Well, the NOAA-19 Satellite did, and while it didn’t have Chippy on board, we definitely received the data!

The only items one would need to achieve the same are:

  • An SDR stick
  • An antenna
  • A computer

What we prepared

One of our talented members designed a 3D-printed holder for two pieces of wire: one connected to the central conductor of an RG58 coax cable and the other connected to its shielding.

mihai_antenna

We picked up 30m of bendable, 3mm wire, which the contestants used to assemble their own antennas.

We also provided slides (which you can find on the archive tab), guiding the attendees through basic physics concepts, just enough to understand the basic idea of an antenna and why it’s important to build one with the exact measurements, along with setup instructions with the necessary software.

How the event went

We had a fantastic turnout for this event! It was a bit of a thrill when we got 7 sign-ups in the last 5 hours before the event, as we were not anticipating for this many people to be interested!

While we initially struggled to capture NOAA-19, we succeeded when NOAA-15 passed about 40 minutes later!

Here’s some pictures of the event:

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Read more

We followed this guide to make the antennae. It provides the exact measurements necessary along with some tests to see the whole setup in action!