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NASA Space

Juno Needs Radio Amateurs! 82

An anonymous reader writes "NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter will perform a close 'fly-by' of the Earth in a few hours. To assist with its radio and plasma wave experiment, the mission is asking amateur radio operators to send a 'Morse Code' message to the probe as it passes." The page has all the info you need: "The activity will begin at 18:00 UTC on October 9, 2013 and continue until 20:40 UTC. This page will clearly indicate when you should key up or key down to transmit 'HI' to Juno in Morse Code (see examples below). The Morse code pattern below can also act as a guide. The 'HI' message will be repeated every 10 minutes, beginning at 18:00, 18:10, 18:20, etc. "
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Juno Needs Radio Amateurs!

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  • Hi (Score:5, Informative)

    by Dan East ( 318230 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2013 @07:49AM (#45080663) Journal

    .... ..

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Since TFS couldn't be bothered to tell us, let me point out they're using the 10m band. Sure, we could RTFA, and will have to do so anyway to participate, but for those of us who don't have a 10m rig, it would've saved us some time...

      [insert obligatory slashdot-editors rant here]

      47 de ab9ul

    • by Anonymous Coward

      A more appropriate place to post this would have been on dashdot,

    • Where shall we send your NAL?

      97.119

      (a) Each amateur station, except a space station or telecommand station, must transmit its assigned call sign on its transmitting channel at the end of each communication, and at least every 10 minutes during a communication, for the purpose of clearly making the source of the transmissions from the station known to those receiving the transmissions. No station may transmit unidentified communications or signals, or transmit as the station call sign, any call sign not auth

      • Re:Hi (Score:4, Informative)

        by Fnord666 ( 889225 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2013 @10:08AM (#45081741) Journal

        Where shall we send your NAL?

        From the FAQ:
        How do you suggest we ID? US regulations (CFR Sec 97.119) require amateur radio stations to identify themselves at the beginning and end of a transmission and at least once every 10 minutes. If you ID at the beginning of the first "dit" of the HI and at the end of the final one before you go QRT, you will meet the US requirements. Others should verify that this will meet your national requirements.

  • With these 'fly-bys' and that 'morse code', how else would we know how to correctly parse things?
  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 09, 2013 @08:08AM (#45080809)

    Thank you for being a Ham
    Traveled down the road and back again
    Your heart is true you're a pal and a cosmonaut.

    And if you threw a party
    Invited everyone you ever knew
    You would see the biggest gift would be from me
    And the card attached would say thank you for being a Ham.

  • Reading the title, I really thought Juno [juno.com] was experimenting with other protocols...
    • Given their history, that wouldn't be surprising. I remember having to disconnect my dial-up Internet connection so I could dial in to Juno's servers to retrieve my email...

  • WOW (Score:5, Funny)

    by Isaac-1 ( 233099 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2013 @08:22AM (#45080927)

    Wow Slashdot posted an announcement about an upcoming event BEFORE it happened, this has to be a first

  • Juno Needs Radio Amateurs!

    Mars Needs Women!

  • The NSA has compromised the Juno probe and will collect all of your metadata.
  • I think they needed them on Sword and Omaha too.
    (Theres a scene in "the Longest Day" with a couple reporters sending news back by pigeon and it flies the wrong way.
       

  • by cgfsd ( 1238866 )
    E.T. Phone Home, but only use Morse code please.
  • dash dot dash dash, dash dot dash dash, dash dash dot dot
  • by ctrl-alt-canc ( 977108 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2013 @08:58AM (#45081193)
    ...NASA is now using morse code to contact space ships.
  • by hankwang ( 413283 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2013 @09:05AM (#45081241) Homepage
    Slashdot added "from the .... dept." to the article. The lameness filter prevents me from pasting the morse code here, but it seems to translate into: "R T L L S - S E N D - I N V E R T E D - T E S S A N E". But now I am none the wiser, what does that mean?
    • But now I am none the wiser, what does that mean?

      That either the editor is lousy at Morse code, or that discovering that the Slashdot editors are lazy doesn't make you any wiser.

      Possibly both.

    • by cruff ( 171569 )
      ??? - S E N D - I N V E R T E D - M E S S A G E perhaps?
      Work around the stupid don't yell filter.
    • Based on the following assumptions:

      1) The morse code message is relevant to Slashdot.
      2) The html rendering/interpreting/text storing/(other possibilities) cannot display sequencing dashes:

      POLLS SEND INVERTED MESSAGE

      Regards,

      gx
  • The Juno site doesn't mention who will have coverage at what time. Seems like the closest approach is over central africa and southern asia; not exactly hotbeds of amateur activity, and pointless for most hams to even bother trying at those times. Now as it passes over North America you might actually get something if they bothered to tell you when it would be over North America.
    • by jonwil ( 467024 )

      From what I can tell, the frequencies they are using bounce of the ionosphere so they get REALLY long propagation meaning if you broadcast at the times they tell you to, you will get picked up by the probe.

      • by n1ywb ( 555767 )
        Too bad this solar cycle is such a dud and 10m hasn't been opening for long haul comms. I remember back in 2000 talking to South Africa on my 25w mobile. Oh well.
        • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          Too bad this solar cycle is such a dud and 10m hasn't been opening for long haul comms. I remember back in 2000 talking to South Africa on my 25w mobile. Oh well.

          Ironically, this makes it the best at sending a message detectable by Juno's sensors. The band is "bad" because the solar cycle and ionosphere interact - during the peak, the signals hit the ionosphere and bounce back to earth, giving you long range communications with little power.

          During "bad" times, the ionosphere doesn't bend the signal back, so

        • It's in orbit, you don't need the signal to return to earth, Extreme bending is enough.

    • Perhaps not exactly true. I've not been listening to 10 Meters at that time of day, but I would assume that the band would be closed though much of the requested transmit window as the MUF drops below 28Mhz in the evening. So, a signal from North America may not be refracted back to the ground, but it will still be bent as it passes though the ionosphere. This may make it possible for signals to make it to the listening location.

      73's

    • This image [nasa.gov], from the JPL Juno site, gives 30min big ticks and 5min small ticks. Otherwise, the list of major cities, with times, azimuth and headings [nasa.gov], may help you interpolate.
      • can we see that in 3D for it otherwise looks like the strangest flight path I've seen. Is the sharp turn a boost moment?

  • rtlls-send-inverted-tessane dept.
    didn't want you to think that effort went to waste.
    • rtlls-send-inverted-tessane dept. didn't want you to think that effort went to waste.

      Who is Tessane; what is an RTLSS, and what does sending one inverted accomplish?

  • Looks like a typical straight key qso for me... I have a really bad fist FWIW
    • If you can't memorize "Hi" and your call sign, use a computer keyer. Bonus points if you have to build it in the three hours before the test.

      Get your inner McGuyver going.

  • by brindafella ( 702231 ) <brindafella AT gmail DOT com> on Wednesday October 09, 2013 @10:05AM (#45081703) Homepage
    Sorry, but this has got to me too late to make the necessary preparations (and be awake and/or available at a sensible time.)
    • Guess they should reroute it and make another pass at Earth then, Mr. Important!

      • by Anonymous Coward

        A few hours advance notice is probably sufficient for their purposes. They'll get some participation. But they could likely have had much more if this were brought to our attention a day or (gasp!) even a week in advance. It's not as if they were unsure of when the spacecraft would be flying by. They've had a couple years since the launch, after all.

        I can think of a few reasons we're only now hearing about it at the last minute though.

        - They don't want too many people transmitting. The few that happen to be

    • Maybe you shouldn't rely on Slashdot as your sole source of news? This has been on astronomy and ham sites for days.
  • Seriously, we're supposed to be drawn in by the coy tease?

  • by leighklotz ( 192300 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2013 @10:47AM (#45082035) Homepage

    This modulation scheme is called QRSS and can also be used to send very low power (milliwatt and microwatt) signals around the world ionospherically, and on bands such as VLF (very low frequency). Here the open source from a couple of projects by Hans Summers from a book I edited for the ARRL on the Arduino: http://hamradioprojects.com/authors/g0upl/+qrss-attiny/ [hamradioprojects.com] http://hamradioprojects.com/authors/g0upl/+mm-shield/ [hamradioprojects.com] and plenty of links about QRSS from there.

  • Juno's coming home, and if all the usual stories about her are true, she's not going to be particularly amused that Jupiter has been hanging around with his mistresses all this time.

    Quite possible the whole mess is due to the US govt's overreaching surveillance, from which not even ancient gods have been spared. I blame Snowden's leaks for Juno's desperate run to the outer reaches of the solar system.

  • My radio lets me see all of the HF spectrum at once. Zooming in to the 28 to 28.45mhz area, you can see everyone who is participating. Pretty awesome! http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3729/10175968294_a0143cb3ff_o.png [staticflickr.com]

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