Amateur Radio Open House Events Set for April 24
The University of Scranton’s W3USR ham radio station features floor-to-ceiling glass walls and advanced equipment. Area residents are invited to visit the state-of-the-art station on April 24 from 4 to 9 p.m. to discover more about the exciting and fun career or hobby in this area of science and technology.A pair of clubs at The University of Scranton are teaming up on Thursday, April 24, to celebrate two national initiatives: Citizen Science Month and World Amateur Radio Day.
The events begin with a look at the citizen science collaboration of a network of ham radio enthusiasts established by Nathaniel Frissell, Ph.D., associate professor physics and engineering at The University of Scranton.
A visionary collaborator in the HamSCI network, Rob Robinett, AI6VN, will present, “Next-Generation HamSCI Receive System – Advancing Space Weather Monitoring,” from 12 to 1 p.m. in the Moskovitz Theater of the DeNaples Center. Robinett is the founder of wsprdaemon.org, a powerful software application for ham radio enthusiasts.
Flying in from San Francisco for the occasion, Robinett’s lecture offers a rare chance to hear from a ham radio pioneer in revealing how radio enthusiasts are using advanced technology to track the atmosphere and space weather. Robinett was profiled with a Q&A in the first edition of the HamSCI newsletter, published in the fall of 2024. A graduate of Stanford University, Robinett detailed how he began using his software skills to develop the open-source Weak Signal Propagation Reporter system, which, he said, is “now used by most of the leading reporting WSPR stations in the world.”
Robinett’s lecture, offered free of charge, is jointly sponsored by the Amateur Radio Club W3USR and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) club.
From 4 to 9 p.m., the public is invited to a closer look at the University’s state-of-the-art Amateur Radio Club W3USR station on the fifth floor of the Loyola Science Center.
Clubs, including W3USR, will also be participating in the Evening of Environmental Science and Essay Awards, being held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Loyola Science Center Bell Lobby. The Evening of Environmental Science event is free to attend and for students in grades K-12. It will include hands-on educational environment displays and activities. The event will also include tours of the Loyola Science Center and the W3USR amateur radio station.
Last year, Dr. Frissell worked with Scranton students and an international network of ham radio operators to collect data and monitor changes in the ionosphere during the total solar eclipse on April 8. This project was one of just five Citizen Science Investigations selected by NASA for the study of the total solar eclipse.
Dr. Frissell recently appeared on the ARRL’s On the Air podcast to promote the push – by HamSCI, the National Association for Amateur Radio and SciStarter – to have amateur radio clubs nationwide hold amateur radio open houses.
