[HN Gopher] Radio Astronomy Software Defined Radio (Rasdr)
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       Radio Astronomy Software Defined Radio (Rasdr)
        
       Author : zeristor
       Score  : 129 points
       Date   : 2025-05-30 09:14 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (radio-astronomy.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (radio-astronomy.org)
        
       | Alpi wrote:
       | Anybody has experience using rasdr4? What is it capable of?
        
         | 0xEF wrote:
         | It's a bit niche in the radio hobby, but very cool. That said,
         | it is marketed to a very specific type of radio hobbyist which
         | is probably best explained by looking at the first few sections
         | of the manual, specifically around section 2a if you want to
         | get a better sense of who this is for
         | 
         | User Manual: https://rasdr.org/release/1.2.4/RASDR-Users-
         | manual-v1.7.5.pd...
        
           | SiempreViernes wrote:
           | I feel like 2a just says "It's for radio astronomy", is that
           | what you mean?
        
             | 0xEF wrote:
             | Sort of. We have to understand what a SARA project is, how
             | and where DSP would be employed, etc...hence why I
             | mentioned its pretty niche. Radio astronomy, from my
             | outsider understanding, is not something a newbie just
             | walks in the door and picks up on. You have to have some
             | experience with typical SDR use, data collection, etc.
        
               | pfdietz wrote:
               | > Radio astronomy, from my outsider understanding, is not
               | something a newbie just walks in the door and picks up
               | on.
               | 
               | Unless you're Grote Reber.
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grote_Reber
        
               | lotrjohn wrote:
               | Awesome read. Ty for sharing.
               | 
               | >For nearly a decade he was the world's only radio
               | astronomer.
        
       | teleforce wrote:
       | Great stuff, imagine doing radio astronomy with this more capable
       | RFSoC SDR platform with 50% discount for academics at around
       | USD2K [1]. It also has free textbook to go with it [2].
       | 
       | [1] RFSoC 4x2 Kit:
       | 
       | https://www.amd.com/en/corporate/university-program/aup-boar...
       | 
       | [2] RFSoC book:
       | 
       | https://www.rfsocbook.com/
        
       | westurner wrote:
       | Are there Rydberg antenna SDRs for radio astronomy?
       | 
       | What sensitivity (?) is necessary to navigate by the EMF of
       | stars?
       | 
       | FWIU this is called astrono _metry_? There 's probably a better
       | word than "astral"?:
       | 
       | From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44054783 :
       | 
       | > _How many astral signals does a receiver need to fix to
       | determine lat /long/altitude given the current time?_
       | 
       | > _How many astral signals does a receiver need to fix to
       | determine to infer the current time, given geometrically-
       | impossible triangulation and trilateration solutions given the
       | known geometry of the cosmos and the spherical shape of the
       | earth?_
        
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       (page generated 2025-05-31 23:02 UTC)