TY - CONF T1 - Amateur digital mode based remote sensing: FT8 use as a radar signal of opportunity for ionospheric characterization T2 - HamSCI Workshop Y1 - 2020 A1 - P. J. Erickson A1 - W. Liles A1 - E. S. Miller AB -

The K1JT / WSJT suite of digital modes for amateur QSOs, provided to the community by Joe Taylor K1JT and Steve Franke K9AN, has revolutionized the use of weak signal HF propagation to carry short digital messages. Traffic on the FT8 mode has become a large fraction of all digital transmissions by amateurs since its introduction in 2017 near solar minimum. FT8 is a 15 second cadence, 8‐tone FSK mode using a sophisticated combination of stacked low‐density parity coding (LDPC) and cyclical redundancy check (CRC) codes. Combined with a deep search retrieval algorithm that takes advantage of the sparse information for messages within typical QSOs, the effective FT8 communications detection threshold is considerably lower than other traditional modes such as CW.

FT8 signals undergo changes on reception caused by ionospheric refraction. Observational study of this feature opens up compelling avenues for research into the time and space dependent behavior of ionospheric variations. A technique long known to the passive radio remote sensing community involves intercepting transmissions of opportunity and processing them to yield information on reflecting targets on the transmit‐to‐receive path. We present initial simulations and studies of the use of FT8 in this manner as an ionospheric range‐Doppler passive radar, and will discuss the qualities of these signals for crowdsourced upper atmospheric research, including an explanation and examples of their effective range‐Doppler ambiguity in typical QSO exchanges. Also discussed will be the particular effectiveness for radar applications of the three Costas array frequency/time synchronization sequences used by FT8 in the start, middle, and at the end of transmissions.

JF - HamSCI Workshop PB - HamSCI CY - Scranton, PA ER - TY - CONF T1 - EclipseMob: Initial Planning for 2024 T2 - HamSCI Workshop Y1 - 2020 A1 - K. C. Kerby-Patel A1 - L. Lukes A1 - J. Nelson A1 - W. Liles AB -

During the lead up to the 2017 Solar Eclipse and its aftermath, the EclipseMob team learned many things about crowdsourcing technology development and data collection. We are taking those lessons along with lessons learned from other crowdsourced citizen science programs to improve the EclipseMob experience for the upcoming 2024 Solar Eclipse. One such lesson is to start planning, building, and recruiting much earlier, and we are. EclipseMob is on schedule to finalize the design and testing of a new receiver system this summer. The 2017 Solar Eclipse collection platform relied on participants’ personal smartphones, which supplied the analog to digital converter (ADC), local oscillator, time, location, web access, and computational power. Our platform for 2024 eliminates the need for a smartphone by using a Raspberry Pi (RPi), analog amplifier, ADC, and GPS, in a self‐contained unit. By eliminating the smartphone, the new design standardizes the hardware and increases economic accessibility. The 2024 platform is designed to collect WWVB signals at 60 kHz, as was the 2017 platform, but will also collect signals at lower frequencies such as the US Navy VLF transmitters. Those lower frequencies had to be ignored during the 2017 effort due to the limited bandwidth of the ADC in the smart phones. The construction process for the 2024 receiver kit has been heavily simplified, which we expect will result in increased participant success and satisfaction. In addition to modifying the data collection platform, 2024 EclipseMob is also changing its outreach approach. Instead of the centrally recruiting, training, and supporting participants, EclipseMob is switching to a train the trainer model. The EclipseMob team will work with and train a small subset of community leaders (from schools, libraries, ham radio clubs, etc.) to recruit and support participants locally. This should also increase the geospatial distribution of participants. In 2017 most participants were located in areas near the two main schools involved, which resulted in dense sampling in the Boston, MA and Fairfax, VA area. EclipseMob training materials will continue to meet the standards necessary for teacher continuing education credits and student learning.

JF - HamSCI Workshop PB - HamSCI CY - Scranton, PA ER - TY - CONF T1 - HamSCI Distributed Array of Small Instruments Personal Space Weather Station (DASI-PSWS): Architecture and Current Status (Invited) T2 - NSF CEDAR (Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions) Y1 - 2020 A1 - N. A. Frissell A1 - D. Joshi A1 - K. Collins A1 - A. Montare A1 - D. Kazdan A1 - J. Gibbons A1 - S. Mandal A1 - W. Engelke A1 - T. Atkison A1 - H. Kim A1 - A. J. Gerrard A1 - J. S. Vega A1 - S. H. Cowling A1 - T. C. McDermott A1 - J. Ackermann A1 - D. Witten A1 - H. W. Silver A1 - W. Liles A1 - S. Cerwin A1 - P. J. Erickson A1 - E. S. Miller AB -

Recent advances in geospace remote sensing have shown that large-scale distributed networks of ground-based sensors pay large dividends by providing a big picture view of phenomena that were previously observed only by point-measurements. While existing instrument networks provide excellent insight into ionospheric and space science, the system remains undersampled and more observations are needed to advance understanding. In an effort to generate these additional measurements, the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI, hamsci.org) is working with the Tucson Amateur Packet Radio Corporation (TAPR, tapr.org), an engineering organization comprised of volunteer amateur radio operators and engineers, to develop a network of Personal Space Weather Stations (PSWS). These instruments that will provide scientific-grade observations of signals-of-opportunity across the HF bands from volunteer citizen observers as part of the NSF Distributed Array of Small Instruments (DASI) program. A performance-driven PSWS design (~US$500) will be a modular, multi-instrument device that will consist of a dual-channel phase-locked 0.1-60 MHz software defined radio (SDR) receiver, a ground magnetometer with (~10 nT resolution and 1-sec cadence), and GPS/GNSS receiver to provide precision time stamping and serve as a GPS disciplined oscillator (GPSDO) to provide stability to the SDR receiver. A low-cost PSWS (< US$100) that measures Doppler shift of HF signals received from standards stations such as WWV (US) and CHU (Canada) and includes a magnetometer is also being developed. HF sounding algorithms making use of signals of opportunity will be developed for the SDR-based PSWS. All measurements will be collected into a central database for coordinated analysis and made available for public access.

JF - NSF CEDAR (Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions) CY - Santa Fe, NM (Virtual) UR - http://cedarweb.vsp.ucar.edu/wiki/index.php/2020_Workshop:MainVG ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Modeling Amateur Radio Soundings of the Ionospheric Response to the 2017 Great American Eclipse JF - Geophysical Research Letters Y1 - 2018 A1 - N. A. Frissell A1 - J. D. Katz A1 - S. W. Gunning A1 - J. S. Vega A1 - A. J. Gerrard A1 - G. D. Earle A1 - M. L. Moses A1 - M. L. West A1 - J. D. Huba A1 - P. J. Erickson A1 - E. S. Miller A1 - R. B. Gerzoff A1 - W. Liles A1 - H. W. Silver AB -

On 21 August 2017, a total solar eclipse traversed the continental United States and caused large‐scale changes in ionospheric densities. These were detected as changes in medium and high frequency radio propagation by the Solar Eclipse QSO Party (SEQP) citizen science experiment organized by the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (hamsci.org). This is the first eclipse‐ionospheric study to make use of measurements from a citizen‐operated, global‐scale HF propagation network and develop tools for comparison to a physics‐based model ionosphere. Eclipse effects were observed ±0.3 hr on 1.8 MHz, ±0.75 hr on 3.5 and 7 MHz, and ±1 hr on 14 MHz and are consistent with eclipse‐induced ionospheric densities. Observations were simulated using the PHaRLAP raytracing toolkit in conjunction with the eclipsed SAMI3 ionospheric model. Model results suggest 1.8, 3.5, and 7 MHz refracted at h ≥ 125 km altitude with elevation angles θ ≥ 22°, while 14 MHz signals refracted at h < 125 km with elevation angles θ < 10°.

VL - 45 UR - https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL077324 ER - TY - CONF T1 - On the use of solar eclipses to study the ionosphere T2 - 15th International Ionospheric Effects Symposium IES2017 Y1 - 2017 A1 - W. Liles A1 - C. Mitchell A1 - M. Cohen A1 - G. Earle A1 - N. Frissell A1 - K. Kirby-Patel A1 - L. Lukes A1 - E. Miller A1 - M. Moses A1 - J. Nelson A1 - J. Rockway AB -

Exploring the effects of solar eclipses on radio wave propagation has been an active area of research since the first experiments conducted in 1912. In the first few decades of ionospheric physics, researchers started to explore the natural laboratory of the upper atmosphere. Solar eclipses offered a rare opportunity to undertake an active experiment. The results stimulated much scientific discussion.
Early users of radio noticed that propagation was different during night and day. A solar eclipse provided the opportunity to study this day/night effect with much sharper boundaries than at sunrise and sunset, when gradual changes occur along with temperature changes in the atmosphere and variations in the sun angle.
Plots of amplitude time series were hypothesized to indicate the recombination rates and re- ionization rates of the ionosphere during and after the eclipse, though not all time-amplitude plots showed the same curve shapes. A few studies used multiple receivers paired with one transmitter for one eclipse, with a 5:1 ratio as the upper bound. In these cases, the signal amplitude plots generated for data received from the five receive sites for one transmitter varied greatly in shape.

JF - 15th International Ionospheric Effects Symposium IES2017 CY - Alexandria, VA ER -