Fixed Receiver Installations
The radio station includes the following receivers:
- (1) Icom R-8500 wideband receiver (100 kHz to 1.999 GHz)
- (2) Icom R-75 high-frequency receiver (30 kHz to 60 MHz)
- (1) Icom PCR-2500 wideband diversity receiver (10 kHz to 3.299 GHz)
- (1) Yaesu VR-5000 wideband receiver (100 kHz to 2.6 GHz)
- (1) Radio JOVE receiver (20.1 MHz ± 150 kHz)
Photographs of receiver installations
The photograph below shows the two equipment cabinet
assemblies. Both cabinets consist of an upper and lower
portion. The upper portion of the left cabinet has an
R-8500 + speaker (upper)
and R-75 + speaker (lower).
The lower portion holds three
speakers and a small 2 w
stereo amplifier for connection
to the station PC. Behind
the speaker panel is a tray that
holds an Icom PCR-2500.
The upper portion of the right cabinet holds the VR-5000 (upper-left)
and
BCD996T
(upper-right) and the other R-75 + speaker (lower).
The lower portion holds two speakers for the VR-5000 and BCD996T.
Behind the speaker panel is an Astron SL-11A power supply
and West Mountain Radio 4012 fused dc power distribution panel.
All receivers and related equipment are powered by this dc power
distribution system in an attempt to control EMI by eliminating the
many wall transformers originally associated with the electronic
equipment.
The purpose-built Radio JOVE receiver is not shown in the above photograph.
The cabinets are finished with custom oak bases and tops
to match
the oak flooring. All panels are
painted with black wrinkle paint.
Radio JOVE Experiments
The receiver system for Radio JOVE experiments consists of two Icom R-75 high-frequency (HF) receivers. For most experiments, only one R-75 receiver is used. A block diagram of a typical receiver setup is located here.
The receiver Automatic Gain Control (AGC) is turned off. The receiver generally is fixed tuned to 20.1 MHz in lower sideband (LSB) or Amplitude Modulation (AM) mode but, depending on interference conditions, the receiver (or receivers) may be tuned somewhere between 20.1 and about 21.0 MHz.
Although the receiver system is tuned and setup before and not adjusted during each experiment, it is controlled for certain experiments using a customized version of Ham Radio Deluxe software. The receiver audio RECORD OUT jack is connected to the station PC soundcard LINE IN jack. The soundcard is set to 11.025 kHz bandwidth, 16 bit, Mono, 21 kb/sec sampling rate when using one receiver and Stereo with 43 kb/sec sampling rate when using two receivers.
Software for Jupiter Studies: During experiments, the PC runs SkyPipe software, which samples the receiver audio and provides a stripchart feature that displays and logs the audio output level at predetermined intervals. The software also has an audio recording feature to allow aural correlation with the visual stripchart. The stripchart is set to sample the receiver audio 10 times per second (100 msec sampling period). Radio-Jupiter Pro 3 is used to predict the best times for Radio JOVE experiments.