Grape Telecon Rebranded: HamSCI PSWS Operations Telecon

[Gary Mikitin, AF8A]

The HamSCI Grape Telecon, active for nearly five years, has a new, expanded scope: The Zoom session, still on Thursdays at 10AM (Eastern US), will now be covering the ever-expanding HamSCI Personal Space Weather Station (PSWS) network.  It has been renamed the HamSCI PSWS Operations Telecon.  Zoom details are on the HamSCI Get Involved web page.  (The time and Zoom link are unchanged from the Grape telecon.)

The ’new’ telecon will cover the operational aspects (scoping the network, project timelines, data collection topics, network monitoring, maintenance...) of HamSCI’s DASI funded projects (DASI = Distributed Array of Scientific Instruments).  It will be a joint effort of U of Scranton, CWRU, and U of Alabama, plus contributions from NJIT.

Why change now?  Because as of January 1, we began operating a new grant award, known as a DASI2 grant, from the NSF.  This grant will allow the HamSCI community to deploy between 20 and 30 HF+VLF+magnetometer stations, WSPR hardware and perhaps more.  It should be noted that alongside NSF,  both NASA and ARDC have supported our DASI efforts.

More details will be revealed at the 2025 HamSCI Workshop - attend in person or virtually to hear the plans!

73 de Gary, AF8A

P.S.  It is very much worth noting that the Grape Telecon (hosted by CWRU since, I believe, 2020) was wildly successful.  Consider these major accomplishments:

Grape 1 (fldigi)  Nearly 50 user-built stations are actively reporting data

Grape 1 DRF 15 deployed prior to October 2023 annular eclipse - most still reporting

Grape 2 30 deployed prior to April 2024 total eclipse - most still reporting