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HamSCI

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HamSCI
Full nameHam Radio Science Citizen Investigation
Started2015
Lead organizerNathaniel Frissell, W2NAF
Based atUniversity of Scranton, Pennsylvania
Work
Science focusThe ionosphere, space weather and HF propagation
Major projectsEclipse QSO parties; Personal Space Weather Station; Grape Doppler receivers
Data sourcesReverse Beacon Network, WSPRnet, PSK Reporter and others
Annual meetingHamSCI Workshop, held each spring

HamSCI, the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation, is a collective of amateur radio operators and professional scientists who use ham radio to study the upper atmosphere and near-Earth space. It treats the signals that hams send and log every day as scientific data, and it builds low-cost instruments that amateurs can run at home. Its stated aims are to advance research through amateur radio, encourage new technology that supports that research, and offer learning opportunities to hams and the public.[1]

Origins

HamSCI was started in 2015 by Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, a space physicist who began it at Virginia Tech, carried it to the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and now leads it from the University of Scranton, where he teaches physics and engineering.[2] He is listed as the group's lead organizer and chairs its advisory board, which brings together university researchers and hams from the wider HamSCI community.[3]

The idea behind HamSCI is that the amateur community already runs a huge, worldwide sensor network without meaning to. Automated spotting systems such as the Reverse Beacon Network, WSPRnet and PSK Reporter record millions of reports of who heard whom, when and how strongly. Read in bulk, those reports show how the ionosphere changes from minute to minute. HamSCI's research questions include how the ionosphere responds to space weather and to the weather in the lower atmosphere, what causes traveling ionospheric disturbances, and what drives sporadic E.[1]

Eclipse experiments

A solar eclipse is a natural experiment: the moon's shadow switches off the sun's ionizing light over a narrow path, and the ionosphere reacts as if night had briefly fallen. HamSCI and the ARRL sponsored the first Solar Eclipse QSO Party on August 21, 2017, when a total eclipse crossed the United States from Oregon to South Carolina.[4] Operators made as many HF contacts as they could while the shadow passed, and their logs, together with Reverse Beacon Network and PSK Reporter data, were archived for study.

HamSCI repeated the event for the annular eclipse of October 14, 2023, and the total eclipse of April 8, 2024, as part of its Festivals of Eclipse Ionospheric Science.[5] The QSO parties were scored partly on how many receiving stations heard each signal, rewarding stations that left a rich record behind.[5] A companion event, the Gladstone Signal Spotting Challenge, invited WSPR and FST4W operators to keep beacons and receivers running through the eclipses.[5] Results were later presented at scientific meetings.[2]

Instruments

The Personal Space Weather Station (PSWS) project, led by the University of Scranton with partner universities and the TAPR digital radio group, develops small, modular instruments that volunteers can host.[6] In 2019 the National Science Foundation awarded Frissell a $1.3 million grant to develop the stations as part of a network of small instruments.[7] Current PSWS components include an HF receiver, a ground magnetometer built with TAPR, a VLF receiver for natural "whistler" signals, and a multiband WSPR beacon, the WSPRsonde, from Turn Island Systems.[6]

The PSWS idea grew out of the Grape receiver, a small low-cost radio designed by John Gibbons, N8OBJ, at Case Western Reserve University.[8] A Grape listens to a steady carrier from a time-standard station such as WWV and records tiny shifts in its frequency, the Doppler shift, as the ionosphere rises and falls.[9] Many were deployed for the 2023 and 2024 eclipses.[6] HamSCI says the Grape models it lists can no longer be built because of component obsolescence, although many are still in service and send data every day.[6]

Taking part

Most hams can contribute without special equipment:

  • Operate in HamSCI events. The eclipse QSO parties used ordinary contest-style logging, with the logs submitted as data. The Meteor Scatter QSO Party, set for December 13 to 15, 2026, during the Geminid shower, asks MSK144 operators on 6 and 10 meters to upload recordings of their decodes.[10]
  • Feed the spotting networks. Running WSPR, FT8 or a CW skimmer that reports to PSK Reporter or the Reverse Beacon Network adds to the archive HamSCI researchers use.
  • Host an instrument. Volunteers can apply to host PSWS components; in 2026 HamSCI said it had grant money to provide some at little or no cost to hosts.[6]
  • Join a working group or attend the annual HamSCI Workshop. The ninth workshop, on March 14 and 15, 2026, was hosted by the ARRL and Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Connecticut, with tours of ARRL headquarters in nearby Newington.[11] The 2025 workshop was held at NJIT.[2]
A WSPR beacon of a watt or less, left running on one band for days at a time, builds up the kind of steady, long-term record that propagation researchers value most.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 About HamSCI, HamSCI.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 HamSCI Newsletter, Vol. 1, No. 1, HamSCI, Fall 2024.
  3. ↑ People, HamSCI.
  4. ↑ 2017 Solar Eclipse QSO Party, HamSCI.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Solar Eclipse QSO Party, HamSCI.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Personal Space Weather Station, HamSCI.
  7. ↑ HamSCI Founder Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, Wins $1.3 Million Ionosphere Study Grant, ARRL, November 2019.
  8. ↑ Grape 1, HamSCI.
  9. ↑ Sabastian Fernandes et al., Exploring Ionospheric Variability Through Doppler Residuals: A Study Utilizing the HamSCI Grape V1 Receiver, HamSCI Workshop, March 2024.
  10. ↑ Meteor Scatter QSO Party, HamSCI.
  11. ↑ HamSCI Workshop 2026, HamSCI.
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