When I first heard of this place, I thought Mike (N4OFA) had been in a closed room with his paint fumes for too long… An old spy-satellite station up in the mountains ? Huge radio telescope dishes ? And they let him pull cables and work on stuff ? Had to be the paint fumes. Over the years tho, I have come to learn more of the history of the old Rosman Tracking Station.
And more importantly, some of what is going on up there these days.
Visit PARI.EDU on-line to find more detail….
So – I introduced myself to PARI and some of the folks there, and have been to visit a few times. On this most recent trip I became an official volunteer, and will be helping to establish more functionality into their Information System Infrastructure management activites, and to further document the networks and the systems that support the PARI mission & operations.
Recently PARI has installed the upgraded feedboxes for both of the 26m dish antennas, and expect to be testing, calibrating, and all that other magic stuff to integrate this into a world-class interferometer. These are certainly exciting times up on the hilltop in Western North Carolina. Hidden Treasure indeed.
I'll be back to this blog from time to time, with more pictures and stories to tell.
Mike has a new blog. OK, so I've helped him get it started – I'm sure he will be adding more stuff as it becomes more familiar to him. I kicked it off with a post detailing a soundcard interface that I built into an Altoids tin box. This is a simple to make, easy to use gadget to connect your radios with your computers for digital messaging… You have heard of APRS ? Winlink ? PSK-31 ? There is a lot more – and this little thingy can get you going quickly.
Mike will surely have some good stuff here.