Setup and Operation of New Radio Jove Telescope 20.1 MHz at Baghdad University Location

Abstract

A Radio Jove Telescope was recently constructed and setup at University of Baghdad \ College of Science \ Astronomy and Space Department in Baghdad, Iraq at latitude 33°16'29.1"N and longitude 44°22'49.2"E. The antenna consists of a dual dipole antenna in phase NS and operate at 20.1 MHz with special operating software. The antenna and its receiver follow the NASAʼs Radio Jove project design. Several solar radio bursts (more than 26 events) were detected and correlated with the events detected by Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC). All observation events are archived in NASA Radio Archive data during (16,

Full text

Mohammed et al . Iraqi Journal of Science, 2016, Special Issue, Part B, pp:
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-452
___________________________ Email-mohammed ast@yahoo.com*

Setup and Operation of New Radio Jove Telescope 20.1 MHz at Baghdad
University Location
Mohammed A. Mohammed*1, Kamal M. Abood1, Amjad A. Alsawad2
1 Department of Astronomy and Space, College of Science, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq.
2Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Baghdad, Iraq.
Abstract
A Radio Jove Telescope was recently constructed and setup at University of
Baghdad \ College of Science \ Astronomy and Space Department in Baghdad, Iraq
at latitude 33°16'29.1"N and longitude 44°22'49.2"E. The antenna consists of a dual
dipole antenna in phase NS and operate at 20.1 MHz with special operating
software. The antenna and its receiver follow the NASAʼs Radio Jove project
design. Several solar radio bursts (more than 26 events) were detected and correlated
with the events detected by Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC). All
observation events are archived in NASA Radio Archive data during (16, 19 March
2016; 10, 11, 16, 20 and 28 April 2016; 2, 4, 9, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28 and
29 May 2016).
Keywords: single and dual dipole antenna, Sun location
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ISSN: 0067-2904

Mohammed et al. Iraqi Journal of Science, 2016, Special Issue, Part B, pp: 441-452
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1. Introduction
The Radio JOVE project is a hands-on educational activity teaching inquiry-based science through
radio astronomy. The project began more than fifteen years ago (from 1999) as an educational activity
sponsored by NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center and is a program where students and amateur
scientists observe and analyze the natural radio emissions of the planet Jupiter and the Sun. (JOVE)
the program takes its name from the Roman word for Jupiter, Jove. The weak electromagnetic waves
from the Sun and Jupiter travelled several millions of kilometers until reaching Earth, therefore the
antenna designed in special case to receive these weak waves. Radio waves are optimal because they
are the form of electromagnetic radiation absorbed least by our atmosphere. Thus, more of it reaches
the ground level and it can be detected fairly easily. The most favorable frequency is 20.1 MHz since
radio, TV and other artificial sources do not broadcast in this range, and the Sun and Jupiter emit
photons at this frequency regularly.
There are two types of radio Jove antenna, single dipole antenna and dual dipole antenna (which is the
type of installation telescope).
The Jove antenna operates at a center frequency of 20.1 megahertz (MHz), the free-space wave length
is therefore (λ 
 = 14.925 m), in general the formula relating free-space wave length in
meters to frequency (in MHz), and the speed of light is:
λ = 
 = 
 = 
  1
Therefore the length of wire in single dipole is 
 = (7.4625m), but in practical measurements
because the resistance in the wire and end effects of the dipole, this length reduced to be
approximately 5% shorter to be resonant [1, 2 and 3], therefore we can be rewrite eqn. (1) to be:

 = 
 shorten the length to 5% (150*5/100=7.5), therefore the real length will be

 = 
  2
1.1 Single and dual dipole antenna
The single dipole antenna installation contains two masts, copper wire, coaxial cables, three
insulators and ferrite toroid as following in Table-1. The shape of this type antenna is illustrated in the
Figure-1 a.
Table 1- The main components of single and dual dipole antennas [1-2].
Dual dipole antenna
Single dipole
antenna
length
Parts of components
4
2
3 m
Masts (metal or plastic)
4
2
0.5 m
metal pipe 2.5 Inch
15.24 m
7.62 m
15.24 m
#14 Gauge Bare Copper
Wire (7-stranded)
 T
wo coaxial cables from copper wire
to combiner (9.848) m.
 C
oax cable from south antenna to
combiner (phasing cable) (3.96) m.
 C
oax cable from combiner to receiver
(4.93) m
9.848 m
29 m
RG59U Coaxial Cable
(Belden 8241)
6
3
-
Insulators
6
1
-
Twist-on F-connectors
1
/
-
Coaxial cable coupler
1
/
-
Power combiner
6
3
-
Ferrite toroid cores

Mohammed et al. Iraqi Journal of Science, 2016, Special Issue, Part B, pp: 441-452

(a) (b)
Figure 1 (a) - single dipole antenna [1] and (b)-dual dipole antenna (north and south antenna)
The double dipole antenna design has the same design calculations as in single dipole, but the setup of
this dual dipole antenna needs some an addition hardware parts as mention in Table-1 and shown in
Figure-1 (b).
1.2 Types of storms
 Solar radio emission are generally classified into one basic of six different types and sub two types
associated with type III and V. Below a classification according to Reeve Observatory Anchorage,
Alaska USA [http://www.reeve.com/Solar/Solar.htm - 2]
Type I: solar noise storm - narrow band spikes (many vertical lines, each of which is limited in
vertical (frequency) height, frequency range (80-200 MHZ), although wider than man-made
transmissions, and narrow in time (a few seconds).
Type II: A slow drift burst which slopes from top left to bottom right, normally visible with both a
fundamental and second harmonic band, it is duration (3-30 minutes) and frequency range (20 - 150
MHz).
Type III: A 'fast drift' burst, one or more vertical patches of emission over a wide frequency range
(0.01 - 1000 MHz) and a few seconds duration. Many individual burst normally occur together to
produce a much wider structure in time.
Type IV: Continuum emission with a wide frequency bandwidth (20 – 2000 MHz), and lasting for
many minutes to hours. Normally only occurs in conjunction with a large solar eruptive event.
Type V: Only associated with and following type III emission, short duration continuum (1 - 3
minutes) at the lower frequencies (10 – 200 MHz) attached to the type III emission.
Type VI: Series of Type III bursts over a period of 10 minutes or more, with no period longer than
30 minutes without activity.
Type VII: Series of Type III and Type V bursts over a period of 10 minutes or more, with no
period longer than 30 minutes without activity.
By many emails and exchanging advises between members of web group of Jove reaching to ability of
distinguished between the many noise types and different solar events.
2 - Telescope antenna procedure implementation steps
Before starting the steps of installation one must select the type of transmission line, which is the
coax cable. The selection coaxial cables have some criteria as are explained by:

Mohammed et al. Iraqi Journal of Science, 2016, Special Issue, Part B, pp: 441-452

Impedance – The coax used in the Jove antenna has an impedance of 75 ohms.
Attenuation – The maximum acceptable loss is 6 dB. The coax cable provided with the Jove kit is
designated as RG-59/U. At 20.1 MHz it has a loss of 1.5 dB per 30m, which means that when using
this cable the recommended separation between the antenna and the receiver is less than 60m (i.e., less
than a 3dB loss) [4].
Velocity Factor (Vf) – The RG-59/U has a velocity factor of 0.66, meaning that signal velocity is
66% of the speed of light. The wave length of a 20.1 MHz wave in free-space is 14.925m. The wave
length in RG- 59/U is [5].
λcable (real world) = Vf *λ (free space) .3
Therefore λcable = 0.66*14.925= 9.848 m.
We need an addition parts, in addition to single dipole components, are a power combiner to combine
the two single dipoles together, 3.69 m coax cable called phasing cable and 4.93m coax cable from
power combiner to the receiver. Antenna setup need an area about 50 m2 within the directions (E-W;
N-S) at university of Baghdad \ college of science \ astronomy and space department in Baghdad city
(33°16'29.1"N and longitude 44°22'49.2"E, Baghdad time zone +3). The building steps of antenna
summary as following.
1. Four holes are digging and installed a 2.5 Inch iron tube in every hole by the distance (7.6 m) per
couple and the distance (6.1 m) per (north and south antenna dipole).
2. The copper wire Cutting into four pieces each one 3.76 m (this length included 12.7cm extra on
each end for attaching to the insulators.
3. Four coaxial cables are used; two of them are 9.848 m in length while the lengths of the other two
cables are 3.96 m (phasing cable) and 4.93 m to the receiver.
4. Attached an end the insulator to each wire and the other side of insulator with the rope as in figure
(7).
Figure 2 - The end insulator and its rope (left), the center insulator with the copper wire in two sides
(right) [1].
5. The addition length of copper wire (12.7cm) is thread through the hole in the end insulator and
wrap it back on itself and soldering the two sides of coax cable on copper wire (also this called
feed point) as demonstrated in Figure-3.

Mohammed et al. Iraqi Journal of Science, 2016, Special Issue, Part B, pp: 441-452

Figure 3 - Strip back (remove) the outer covering of coaxial about (10–12 cm) from one end only of
each of the 1λ cables (left), wrap, install ferrite and soldering the coaxial.
6. Installed the F-connector on the coax feed line to each dipole. To installed, removed about 1 inch
(2.5 cm) of the outer coax casing as shown in Figure-4.
Figure4-Installed the F-connector (left), the two F-male connectors and F-female connector to connect
the phasing cable with the south dipole (right).
7. Repeat this connector installation procedure for each end of the phasing cable and for the 0.5 λ
cable, which will run to the receiver.
8. Attached the copper wire on the masts from end insulators then standup the masts as shown in
Figure-5.
Figure 5 - The center insulator after installed masts.

Mohammed et al. Iraqi Journal of Science, 2016, Special Issue, Part B, pp: 441-452

9. Connected the phasing cable to south dipole and combined the end to power combiner which is has
another F-male for the north cable side then connected power combiner to receiver as shown in
Figure-6.
Figure 6- The power combiner with three coax cables (north, south and receiver cables).
10. Connected the coax cable from power combiner to the receiver, put the audio cable in one of audio
two ports and connected the power 12 volts from battery or a converted 12-volt electric to the
power input Figure-7.
Figure 7 - The backside of Jove receiver (left) see the antenna two audio and power ports, the in front
side (right) see the power\gain and tuning knobs.
11. Connected audio cable into the laptop audio input and installed Radio Skypipe software for free
[http://www.radiosky.com/downloads.html] on the laptop (the laptop setting time must be fit with
Grinch time UT) and filled the location data with some modifications in the form of the charts as
desired Figure-8. The radio Skypipe software emulates a chart recorder and plots the signal
strength of the antenna vs. time [5]. Finally the telescope station will be as in Figure-9.
Figure 8 - The main screen of Skypipe software

Mohammed et al. Iraqi Journal of Science, 2016, Special Issue, Part B, pp: 441-452

Figure 9 - Telescope station receiver setup.
3. Sun elevation angle at Baghdad city and pattern of antenna
Baghdad city is in northern hemisphere where is the elevation angle of Sun in sky sweeps southern
at different angles in different time of year (seasons) according to elevation angle equation [6].
1. In 21 September \ Autumn and 21 March \ Spring:
Elevation angle = (900-ϕ) ..4
Where ϕ is the observer latitude (Baghdad latitude 33.270).
2. In 21 June \ Summer:
Elevation angle = (900-ϕ) + 23.50  .5
Where (23.50) is the angle between the equatorial and orbital planes.
3. In 21 December \ Winter:
Elevation angle = (900-ϕ) - 23.50  ..6
According to equations above the minimum elevation of Sun over head observer in Baghdad city is
33.230 (in Winter) while in Summer the maximum angle become at the 80.330 height as shown in
Figure-10.
The beam pattern of antenna must be steering southern in all days of year (except at the summer).
The wave front strikes the south dipole then reaches the north one (in dual antenna), so to ensure
reaching the signals at same time in the power combiner as shown in Figure-6, must be used the cable
delay signal at the south antenna. The reaching of signal in same time at the combiner makes the
antenna in phase and this delaying cable called phasing cable. The length of phasing cable (3.96 m)
determined the pattern of beam antenna, we used length make phasing 1350 [7] which is gives the
elevation pattern angle of antenna equal to 500 which follow the Sun around this elevation as shown
Figure-11 a, but in summer this cable must be remove to make pattern antenna around to 900 as shown
in Figure -11 b.

Mohammed et al. Iraqi Journal of Science, 2016, Special Issue, Part B, pp: 441-452

Figure 10 -The position of Sun in different time of the year.
(a) (b)
Figure 11 - Elevation beaming patterns of Jove dual dipole array at (3) m above ground with phasing
cable 1350 (a) and without phasing (b). [7]
4 . Observations results
The radio Jove operated in astronomy and space department at 29 December 2015. In 16 MAY
2016 was a first solar radio emission burst recorded. The setup of receiver is the tuning knob at 12
o’clock position and gain knob at 5 [8-9] as demonstrated in Figure-7. Until now there are more than
26 events observed of different types of solar radio bursts, which classification above in section1.2.
Several solar radio bursts are detected and correlated them with the events detected by Space Weather
Prediction Center (SWPC). All observed events (more than 26 events) archived in NASA Radio Jove
Archive at data archive website [http://radiojove.org/cgi-bin/calendar/calendar.cgi.]. Figure-12 shows
an example calendar view for MAY 2016 and the list of data records for Sun on 2-MAY 2016. Data
records may include reception logs, text files, audio samples, Radio-SkyPipe images and files, and
spectrograph images and files [8-10].

Mohammed et al. Iraqi Journal of Science, 2016, Special Issue, Part B, pp: 441-452

Figure 12 - An example of Jove data archive at 2 MAY 2016.
To make sure there is an event in our daily chart and investigate its type we are coincided our events
with space weather data center (swpc) archive web at [ftp://ftp.swpc.noaa.gov/pub/indices/events/]
which is a group of radio observatories. Unfortunately, this observatories do not operated in below 25
MHz, therefore may be our charts are have events but cannot recorded them because there are no
observer coincide with him specially because not all observers of the Jove antenna around the world
registered their events. There are some events below for the radio emission type bursts II, III, V, VI
and VII which intersection them with (swpc) web. The data of every day in this web listed (there are
readme file in this web explain every abbreviation) as:
Table 2 - Example of data list at swpc, the example for 16 March 2016 [ftp://ftp.swpc.noaa.gov
/pub/indices/events/]
#Event Begin Max End Obs Q Type Loc/Frq Particulars Reg#
7620 + 0634 0646 0657 G15 5 XRA 1-8A C2.2 2.2E-03 2522
7620 + 0636 //// 0640 LEA C RSP 025-180 V/3
7620 + 0645 //// 0711 SVI C RSP 025-132 II/2 853

Mohammed et al. Iraqi Journal of Science, 2016, Special Issue, Part B, pp: 441-452
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4040 0841 //// 0853 SVI C RSP 025-135 II/2 1800
Figure 13 - Type II burst recorded at 2 MAY 2016 with duration time 08:56 to 09:07 UT with SVI
(San Vito observatory Italy).
3390 0600 //// 0604 SVI C RSP 025-171 III/2
Figure 14 - Type III burst recorded at 28 April 2016 with duration time 06:00 to 06:04 UT indicated
with time of SVI.
7620 + 0636 //// 0640 LEA C RSP 025-180 V/3
Figure 15 - Type V burst recorded at 16 March 2016 with duration time 06:36 to 06:40 UT indicated
with time of LEA (Learmonth observatory, Australia).

Mohammed et al. Iraqi Journal of Science, 2016, Special Issue, Part B, pp: 441-452

5860 1351 //// 1405 SAG C RSP 025-180 VI/2
Figure 16 - Type VI burst recorded at 16 MAY 2016 with duration time 13:55 to 13:55 UT indicated
with time of SAG (Sagamore Hill, MA, USA) also with LGM observatory Jove at USA.
5540 + 0633 //// 0643 LEA C RSP 025-180 VII/2 2544
Figure 17- Type VII burst recorded at 15 May 2016 with duration time 06:36 to 06:37 UT indicated
with time of LEA (Learmonth observatory, Australia).

Mohammed et al. Iraqi Journal of Science, 2016, Special Issue, Part B, pp: 441-452

5 . Conclusions
The Radio Jove project is an excellent educational tool. The telescope was placed in university of
Baghdad were noise from undetermined sources in this environment made detection and isolation of
solar emissions difficult. Therefore there are some emissions detected in charts but cannot know if it
Sun bursts or not because the (swpc) observatories do not recorded coincide with it.
The best time to observe Sun in Baghdad location at winter and spring seasons is between (06:00-
11:00) UT while at summer between (04:00-16:00) UT. There are no observing the type I and IV,
because type I out of Jove telescope range where type I range 80-200 MHz while the receiver Jove is
20.1 ±0.15 MHz, also there are no luck to observe type IV yet. Finally, the obvious type of burst in the
charts recorded (over the 26 events record) is type V there is may be because frequency range (10-
200) and its duration time (1-3 minutes).
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