Collaborate Disseminate
Over the past century or so we’ve come up with some clever ways of manipulating photons to do all kinds of interesting things. From lighting to televisions and computer screens …read more Continue reading Downloading Satellite Imagery With a Wi-Fi Antenna
Digital modes are all the rage these days in amateur radio — hams are using protocols like WSPR to check propagation patterns, FT8 to get quick contacts on many bands …read more Continue reading Break Free from Proprietary Digital Radio
It looks like the Martian winter may have claimed another victim, with reports that Chinese ground controllers have lost contact with the Zhurong rover. The solar-powered rover was put into …read more Continue reading Hackaday Links: January 15, 2023
The tech news channels were recently abuzz with stories about strange signals coming back from Voyager 1. While the usual suspects jumped to the usual conclusions — aliens!! — in …read more Continue reading How is Voyager Still Talking After All These Years?
If this is the easy part of making a complete reflector telescope from a single piece of glass, we can’t wait to get a load of the hard part! A …read more Continue reading Watch a Complete Reflector Telescope Machined from a Single Block of Glass
Join us on Wednesday, December 2nd at noon Pacific for the Precision Optics Hack Chat with Jeroen Vleggaar!
We sometimes take for granted one of the foundational elements of our technological world: optics. There are high-quality lenses, mirrors, filters, and other precision optical components in just about everything these days, …read more
Continue reading Precision Optics Hack Chat with Jeroen Vleggaar of Huygens Optics
On a balmy August evening in 1977, an enormous radio telescope in a field in the middle of Ohio sat silently listening to the radio universe. Shortly after 10:00 PM, the Earth’s rotation slewed the telescope through a powerful radio signal whose passage was noted only by the slight change …read more
Continue reading The Wow! Signal and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Today we’re sad to report that one of the primary support cables at the Arecibo Observatory has snapped, nudging the troubled radio telescope closer to a potential disaster. The Observatory’s 300 meter reflector dish was already badly in need of repairs after spending 60 years exposed to the elements in …read more
Continue reading Tensions High After Second Failed Cable At Arecibo
When it comes to antenna projects, we usually cover little ones here. From copper traces on a circuit board to hand-made units for ham radio. But every once in a while it’s fun to look at the opposite end of the spectrum, and anyone who craves such change of pace …read more
Continue reading NASA Making Big Upgrades To Their Big Dish DSS43
Visitors to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios are able to cast “spells” by waving special interactive wands in the air. Hackers like us understand that there must be some unknown machinations happening behind the scenes to detect how the wands are moving, but for the kids …read more
Continue reading Making A Birthday Party Magical With Smart Wands