A UV Event

 Not entirely sure but I think the planet just got hit by something. I am pretty sure that I should never have to see a UV index of 15. I was under the impression that my equipment was malfunctioning until I looked at other local locations and then a location from a couple friends, one in Ohio and one in Florida. The trends all looks the same. According to spaceweather.com it looks like a coronal mass ejection should hit but it seems a little early I am not sure that it is the same type of radiation.

Looking at the data from my weather stations. I wonder what SPF I would need for this?

Here you can see the timing of the event along with solar radiation as well as UV.

These are two location close to my area so I know that my weather station was not malfunctioning. The event was truly happening.

Furthermore my Friend Ed in Florida and another location in Ohio showed the same spike. Something was clearly going on.

Not entirely sure how this event would have affected the UV hitting the ground.

Laser Controller

 Blasting through 5mm of wood!

Thermal Camera

 I love how after a big meal. The hotspot becomes my stomach.

Thermal Camera

 Mmmm cheapo thermal camera. Time to box it up and go Predator hunting.

WX Sat Photo

 Probably the best picture I am going to get of Dorian. I really need to refine my setup.

WX Sat Photo SCORE

 Score! I finally got a picture of Dorian.

WX Sat Photos

 Last daylight pass today. Hopefully I can get a pic with Dorian in it.

Blah, too far north

Not sure who he was but wow this guy in NC got a good picture

ISS Photos

 Pictures received from the ISS they are a little grainy because it was only about 5° over the eastern horizon.

Geiger Goodness and Dust?

 My continuing effort to plot out my environment using sensor data.

This is roughly a 24 hour plot of radiation levels in my work area. CPM stands for “click per minute” from the Geiger counter. I am not totally sure what happened around 8:30pm. Gamma ray burst?

This is a 24 hour plot of the dust concentrations (particles per 0.01 cubic feet) in my work space. I have to admit that I was skeptical that it was working but upon analysis, I see that the peaks coincide with the times I was in the work area stirring up dust. The large peak at the end of the plot is me clapping and rubbing my hands near the sensor.

Geiger Goodness

 After many tries I was able to get roughly a twenty one hour plot of the amount of radiation in my unfinished back room. Nothing of Chernobyl proportions going on in there but I have proved that I can now have an ongoing monitor running.

Geiger Goodness

 Finally got the Geiger counter interface spitting out numbers to an SD card. Time to let it run for 24 hours undisturbed in the back room.

Geiger Goodness

 Been watching that new HBO show Chernobyl and decided I needed a new toy.

ISS Photo

 Received image from ISS and was even able to watch it cross a clear sky outside.

Laser Controller

 A small laser controller I build using an Arduino Uno and a 5.5W 450nm laser.  

WX Sat Photo

 Still getting hit with Nor’Easter Toby. I like the night/day line in this pic. Also I’m a bit surprised that the signal made it through the cloud layer.

WX Sat Photo

 Getting better at decoding, here is the Nor’Easter hitting us at 23:36UTC

WX Sat Photo

 More crappy weather reported from NOAA-18

WX Sat Photo

 Starting to have much better success with receiving weather sat faxes now that I switched from using my expensive radio to the cheapo 25 dollar software defined radio. You can actually see the crappy weather we will have tomorrow creeping up from the south.

Number Stations

Cuban numbers station I received beaming spy data into our country.

Audio File

Let's build a field strength meter

A short while ago I watched a video that was floating around Facebook that detailed how to convert a cheap (freebee with coupon) Harbor Freight multi-meter into a field strength meter. Seeing as how I plan to get back into antenna building, and that I literally had ALL of the parts needed, I thought I would give it a go.

 My schematic is a bit different than the one outlined in the video. There is one capacitor that is supposed to be in series with the antenna. I simply forgot to install that, so I just removed it from the schematic altogether. Below is a picture of my crappie schematic.

I think the most complicated part of this was trying to get everything mounted and fitted into the box. The holes drilled for the antenna and switch seemed ugly to the eye but work. I had difficulty getting the switch to fit properly, so I made the hole larger with a pair of wire clippers.

 The whole circuit is wired into the meter inputs via a switch. The switch gives you the ability to turn the Signal Strength measurement ability on or off, so it can still act as a multi-meter.

  Here we can see the meter all put together and taking a reading of a small FRS radio transmission. I hope to use this in my efforts to map out antenna patterns in the future. This is a good one night project if you have all of the parts laying around.