May 2026
Admin
Maybe this is a stupid suggestion, but does all this mean that if users want the most accurate results they should keep their PicoMuon detectors in a fridge? And, if so, what would be the optimal temperature for the fridge to be set to?
Not a stupid suggestion at all. Temperature really does matter for detectors like the PicoMuon detector, especially because the silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) inside produce thermal noise (“dark counts”) that rises…
Temperature response of UKRAA PicoMuon Muon Detector
Response originally posted by Andrew Tgomas on muondetector groups.io mailing list 26/5/2026: The picoMuon will behave oddly and even stop working if it gets too hot. This usually manifests as…
Radio observation in hydrogen line (1420MHz)
SETI Horn of Plenty (Hydrogen Line Pyramidal Horn Design Antenna)
The gain of a hydrogen horn or dish depends on its aperture which makes sense as bigger aperture means more light collected. But how does this work with a Yagi antenna tuned to hydrogen?
A Yagi works by a different mechanism from a dish or horn, but the same underlying principle still applies: For any antenna, gain and effective aperture are linked by: where:…
Radio observation in hydrogen line (1420MHz)
SETI Horn of Plenty (Hydrogen Line Pyramidal Horn Design Antenna)
It is commonly stated that acceptable error in flare angle on a SETI Horn of Plenty is lambda/4. Why is this amount chosen?
The commonly quoted lambda/4 criterion is not really a limit on the flare angle itself; it is a limit on the resulting path-length or surface-position error caused by a construction…
Radio observation in hydrogen line (1420MHz)
SETI Horn of Plenty (Hydrogen Line Pyramidal Horn Design Antenna)
Can an existing SETI Horn of Plenty (Hydrogen Line Horn) be extended by adding an extension on the front? Practical answer and more detailed explanation of physics involved.
On Monday, May 25, 2026 at 1:09:30 AM UTC-7 Andrew Thornett wrote: Can a horn be made larger simply by adding an extension to end of same flare angle, or does…
Radio observation in hydrogen line (1420MHz)
SETI Horn of Plenty (Hydrogen Line Pyramidal Horn Design Antenna)
Am I getting reasonable performance from my SETI Horn of Plenty at LRO (Hydrogen Line)?
Answer by Jason Burnfield: On Tue, May 26, 2026 at 1:33 AM Andrew Thornett wrote: Can I ask you for your back of envelope dB calculation on the trace from my…
How would I convert the plots on ezCon from ezRA (Easy Radio Astronomy Software written by Ted Cline) into dB?
In ezRA’s ezCon, the plotted values are usually displayed in the raw linear units from the processed data files. If you want to express them in decibels (dB), the conversion…
Friend said he used vacuum cleaner to blow string through plastic conduit 50m so he could then pull CAT5 cable though. Does that work?
Yes, that can work, and it’s a fairly common trick for long conduit runs. The usual method is: For a 50 m conduit, suction is often more effective than trying…
What balanced amplifiers could be used on a VLF loop antenna?
For a VLF loop antenna (typically covering a few kHz up to perhaps 30–300 kHz), a balanced amplifier should ideally have: Several approaches work well: Instrumentation Amplifiers These are often…