Introduction and Seeking Guidance on Personal Space Weather Stations
Jayadevan Gurubalan
Dear PSWS Community,
My name is Jay Gurubalan (Call Sign: VU24JD), and I am an amateur radio operator from India. Professionally, I am an Emergency Physician with a background in Bioinformatics and data analysis.
I recently discovered the Personal Space Weather Station (PSWS) initiative and HamSCI, and I am very excited about the opportunities to participate in citizen science related to radio propagation and space weather research. I am particularly interested in ionospheric propagation studies, HF communication, and understanding how space weather phenomena influence radio communications.
As someone who is new to the PSWS project, I would greatly appreciate any guidance, advice, or recommendations on how to get started effectively. I am especially interested in learning:
- How to build and deploy a PSWS station.
- The most useful observations and data products for scientific research.
- Current research projects where volunteers can contribute.
- Opportunities to collaborate with other amateur radio operators and researchers.
Given my background in medicine, bioinformatics, data analysis, and amateur radio, I would also be interested in understanding how I might contribute meaningfully to the scientific community. Whether through data collection, analysis, software development, visualization, documentation, or propagation research, I would be happy to volunteer my time and skills where they may be useful.
I look forward to learning from the community and contributing to ongoing space weather and ionospheric research efforts.
Thank you for your time, and I am excited to be part of this group.
73,
Jay Gurubalan, VU24JD
India
David Doler Jr
I'm relatively new to the PSWS project, but I was able to successfully build a RX888 SDR WSPRDaemon PSWS between January and May of this year, and it is functioning as expected. Let me make a suggestion - have a look at my Github repository page that documents my build. You'll get a chance to see what the effort consists of and if it is something you wish to go forward with. It is well worth the effort, but it is technically involved and not quite inexpensive. My hardware build is probably a little more complex than necessary, but I wanted to be sure it was constructed with the quality I expect.
Peruse all of the links you'll find from the HamSCI website and ask questions here in the group.
Dave K3DFD
Jayadevan Gurubalan
Hi Dave,
Thank you for the advice and for sharing your experience.
It's encouraging to hear that you were able to successfully build and deploy an RX888-based WSPRDaemon PSWS station. I have already started procuring hardware and am currently learning about the various components of the system, so your repository will be extremely helpful. I'll take a close look at your build documentation and use it as a guide while planning my own station.
One of the major challenges here in India is procuring some of the required components. Many of the specialized parts need to be imported, and customs procedures can sometimes be unpredictable and time-consuming. In addition, customs duties and charges are often difficult to predict in advance, which can make budgeting for imported equipment somewhat challenging. As a result, obtaining certain hardware can take considerably longer and cost more than initially expected. Nevertheless, I have begun sourcing the necessary equipment and am making steady progress.
I'll continue working through the HamSCI and PSWS resources and will certainly reach out to the group as questions arise.
Thank you again.
73 - Jay VU24JD