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In London, member Simon Gornall has come up with a unique way to mount his Project Argus dish in bird-bath mode. The rest of Simon's station consists of the Radio Astronomy Supplies feedhorn and LNA, along with a WinRadio 1550e receiver.
Simon Gornall photo
Bertrand Pinel, F5PL (left), receives The SETI League's W2ETI Moonbounce Beacon with this seven-meter dish. He has also been highly successful at radio astronomy in the 1296 MHz amateur radio band. At right is the late Walter "Hoppy" Hopkins, N6BQ, who was long a prominent force in 1296 MHz amateur moonbounce activity.
F5PL photo
Tom Hutter's bird-bath -- er, Project Argus 10-foot dish -- lies on the ground pointing straight up. This is a minimal-impact installation which keeps families and neighbors happy, while still providing valuable sky coverage.
K2UYH photo
Mike (K5CDA) and Flo (KC5PPL) Adams put their Argus station on the air in March, 2000, after several years of effort. Mike writes:
"We have yet to detect ET. However, as Tommy Lee Jones said in the movie Men In Black, 'Five hundred years ago everyone knew the world was flat.' Personally, we believe that God did not plant this cosmos with the intention of leaving us alone."
K5CDA photo
In Massachusetts, Rich Tyndall (NJ1A) shows off his Project Argus station, one of the first on the air. Rich is extremely active on our Argus technical email discussion list, and can always be counted on to help fellow Argonauts with their technical questions.
NJ1A photo
Nicolaas Heijblok, our volunteer Regional Coordinator for the Netherlands, built this beautiful dish as part of a hydrogen line meridian transit radio telescope. Nicolaas is a dentist by profession. His steady hand and precision craftsmanship are evident in the construction of his dish.
DJ0BI photo
How do you transport two twenty foot diameter parabolic reflectors hundreds of miles over narrow roads? Member Leon Darcy, assisted by SETI enthusiasts Gregg Gibbons and Alex Hamill (seen here), cut them in half and stacked the pieces on a trailer. The Australian threesome are now trying to figure out how to put the dishes back together!
ETRC photo
These 4.7 meter Scientific Atlanta dishes are part of a cable TV system on property belonging to member Ken Meyer, K9KJM. Although they are not now available for SETI, they may become so in the future. In the interim, Ken is working toward putting a 12 foot dish (not shown) on the air as a Project Argus station.
K9KJM photo
SETI League member Jack Riggs, N7AM, spent the summer of 1998 preparing this rotating tower to accept the thirty-foot mesh dish seen behind it. Jack has been operational on 432 and 1296 MHz EME while his Project Argus station in Bremerton WA slowly takes shape.
N7AM photo
SETI League regional coordinator Michael Fletcher and several of his colleagues in Finland have acquired this 13.7 meter dish and radome from the Metsähovi Radio Observatory, and plan to put it into use for amateur Radio Astronomy, EME, SETI, Hydrogen Line analysis, and other amateur projects. When aligned correctly, the surface accuracy is sufficient for use up to 95 GHz. It will take the group several years to get the dish moved and in service.
Metsähovi Radio Observatory photo
SETI League member Georgadas Vagelis, SV1CEV (left) has had this three meter dish on line from Athens since 12 April 1998. He uses a cylindrical waveguide feedhorn, a 0.3 dB NF preamp, the SSB Electronic hydrogen line downconverter, and FFTDSP software to achieve impressive SETI performance.
Noel C. Welstead, volunteer SETI League Regional Coordinator for Eastern Australia, shows off his receiving equipment. His system includes an Icom IC-R8500 receiver, 2 Computers, a 21" monitor,Yeasu FT 767gx Transceiver (used for WWV Time calibration), and a
Wavetek Sweep/Signal generator. Nice t-shirt, Noel!
VK4AYW photo
Outside, Noel Welstead's station features this satellite TV dish with hydrogen line feedhorn and LNA, conveniently aimed straight up ("bird bath" style), in keeping with the line of reasoning that any direction on the sky is as good as any other for SETI. Noel's station is in beautiful, semi-tropical Brisbane.
VK4AYW photo
Scholarship member Thomas W. Stone, a student at Weber State College in Utah, has this ten foot dish up, awaiting time and funds to complete his SETI station. Project details may be found on Stone's personal Web page.
Thomas W. Stone photos
SETI League member Will Higgs (r) of Gilsland, Northumberland UK scrounged this 3 meter dish and hauled home in the back of a friend's lorry. He hopes to have the rest of the station acquired and on the air in short order.
WIll Higgs photo
Sometimes the real challenge is not in finding the antenna, but in recruiting the strong volunteer labor needed to haul it into place. Will Higgs seems to have a knack for recruiting willing able-bodied youth. The antenna was in place in Will's garden by mid-November 1997, awaiting a feedhorn, LNA and receiver.
Will Higgs photo
Claudio Brasil Leitao Junior, volunteer SETI League Regional Coordinator for Brazil, installed this 3 meter dish on 18 October 1997. Claudio still has more equipment to complete before his Project Argus station is ready to go on the air. For more photos of his SETI station and details of his related astronomy activities, see Claudio's personal web site.
Claudio Brasil photo
Australian member Leon Darcy uses these two 20-foot dishes on a 100-meter baseline as an interferometer. Located near Sydney, the antennas were part of a 62 dish array called Fleurs. Other Australian SETI enthusiasts are acquiring additional dishes from the array, courtesy of the University of Western Sydney and CSIRO. Darcy and Eastern Australia coordinator Noel Welstead are working to incorporate two of these antennas into a Very Long Baseline Interferometer (VLBI) with a 1200 km baseline, at 1445 MHz.
ETRC photo
After two years of effort, SETI League charter member John Richardson, WA7CRE, went on the air on 5 September 1997, with this 2.9 meter dish. To our knowledge, John's is the first SETI station in Idaho.
WA7CRE photo
This closeup shows how John Richardson mounted a hydrogen-line cylindrical waveguide feedhorn to the focal point of a TVRO dish. Note that this mounting method would also accomodate a choke ring, such as is used in the SETI League feedhorn.
WA7CRE photo
Charter member John Richardson writes, "I got this like new dish for $100 by driving around in the country and looking for a house where the
owner had a 3 meter dish, and also had a small 18 inch dish. Sure enough, the three places I
stopped at all tried to sell me their systems. The last guy, after some grumbling about losing
money, agreed to sell me his dish only. The thing was only 3 months old."
WA7CRE photo
The SETI League is pleased to welcome Gerard Cavan, VE3EYR, as a new member. Gerry, who resides in Wilsonville ONT Canada, is seen here at the console of his most impressive amateur television (ATV) station.
VE3EYR photo
Project Argus pioneer Denis Jakac shows off his modified 10 foot mesh TVRO dish with 1 - 2 GHz helix feed. The first amateur SETI station on the air in Canada, Denis' Toronto station is unique in that he employs a Peltier-cooled low-noise amplifier.
VE3ZXN photo
The warm side of member Denis Jakac's amateur SETI station utilizes the popular Icom 7000 receiver, along with a Timewave DSP-599 ZX digital signal processor and a Pentium Pro 150 MHz computer with SoundBlaster 16 sound card.
VE3ZXN photo
Project Argus pioneer Daniel Boyd Fox, who won the SETI League's 1997 Bruno Award, uses this re-purposed satellite TV dish for amateur SETI. His station was well documented in our Technical Manual, and served as a prototype for several other members' stations. Dan is the author of the popular SetiFox Digital Signal Processing and Control program.
KF9ET photo
Angelika Gerke, wife of Peter Wright, DJ0BI, the SETI League's coordinator for Germany, paints the European Radio Astronomy Club's 3 metre dish. Plans are to allocate this radiotelescope for SETI about 25% of the time. The Faraday cage below the antenna is an equipment housing, containing a computer-controlled IF receiver tuning 25 - 1000 MHz. Downconverters will be mounted at the antenna feed.
DJ0BI photo
This 7 metre diameter parabolic antenna is the handiwork of SETI League member and Project Argus participant Magin Casanitjana, EA3UM. Located in Spain, it went on the air on April 21, 1996, among the first operational Project Argus stations in Europe.
EA3UM photo
SETI League member and Project Argus participant Magin Casanitjana, EA3UM also uses this 5 metre dish, with L-band and S-band feedhorns installed.
EA3UM photo
Close-up view of the dual feedhorns installed on the above dish. These cylindrical waveguide feedhorns utilize choke rings per the VE4MA design, to improve illumination efficiency. Note that the hydrogen-line feed is slightly offset from center. This technique allows Project Argus participants to do parasitic SETI with a dish normally utilized for some other purpose.
EA3UM photo
This 3.5 metre diameter SETI dish was built by UK co-coordinator Trevor Unsworth, G0ECP. Trevor's was one of the first Project Argus stations to go on the air on April 21, 1996.
G0ECP photo
SETI League member Mike Gingell, KN4BS, at his North Carolina QTH, shows off his two dishes, 12 and 10 feet in diameter, used for radio astronomy, satellite TV, and of course SETI.
