HamSCIence Zoom Session, Thu, 9 Apr, 2000 UTC: Muon Detection

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Gary Mikitin, AF8A

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Apr 8, 2026, 10:54:42 AM (10 days ago) Apr 8
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Greetings, HamSCI Community -

The next HamSCIence Zoom session will be on Thursday, 9 April, 4PM Eastern, 2000UTC.  Zoom details below.

Our presenter will be Tom Crowley, KT4XN, a retired engineer with a strong interest in radio astronomy and many other aspects of astrophysics.

Tom will be talking about the muon detector he built for a student in STEM high school.  Muons are particle that strike the Earth; they are the remnants of cosmic rays.

The talk will be on a new subject area for HamSCIence: Particle physics.  It involves citizen science and STEM education, two subjects near and dear to HamSCI.

A brief bio:

Tom first because a licensed ham, KN2TMT, in 1957.   He then earned a First Class radiotelephone license in 1962.  Tom let them both expire and got back into ham radio in 1993 as KF4BVD, upgrading to Advanced Class in 1994, obtaining his current callsign KT4XN.

He had a long career as an electrical engineer and retired early from IBM. At age 55, he became interested in radio astronomy, the study of celestial objects at radio frequencies.  He’s had a long association with the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Aloha Telescope outreach program. He has operated their robotic telescope on Maui through high-speed internet connections from his home in Park Springs, GA.

HamSCIence Zoom Link:  

https://scranton.zoom.us/j/286316405?pwd=QWdwMlFPbDlYeXg5ZDg1dmYzeFdCUT09
Meeting ID: 286 316 405

Passcode: hamsci

73 de Gary, AF8A
HamSCI Amateur Radio Community Coordinator

Dana Whitlow

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Apr 8, 2026, 9:18:07 PM (10 days ago) Apr 8
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Gary,

This sounds really interesting to me, but I have a prior commitment
that precludes my joining the zoom session in real time.

So, I ask: Will this be recorded?

Thanks,

Dana  (K8YUM)
Kerrville,  TX


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Gary Mikitin, AF8A

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Apr 9, 2026, 7:58:06 AM (9 days ago) Apr 9
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Yes, this afternoon’s session will be recorded. It may take up to a week before it appears on the HamSCI YouTube channel.

73 de AF8A

Dana Whitlow

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Apr 9, 2026, 10:31:32 AM (9 days ago) Apr 9
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Ken Hill

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Apr 9, 2026, 9:33:21 PM (9 days ago) Apr 9
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Hi Gary, Tom, Mary Lou and others.

Today's session was inspiring. The session sparked another project ( Don't need anymore).

In Banff, Canada, there is a Historical Cosmic Ray station on top of Sulphur Mountain that was operational in the 1950s. Someone hiked it each day and gathered data. My plan is to look into it further and find out about the data that was collected and any other pertinent information I can find. I would like to build a cosmic ray detector and compare the data.

Stay tuned

Ken Hill, VE6AGD

Gary Mikitin, AF8A

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Apr 10, 2026, 2:52:17 PM (8 days ago) Apr 10
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Thanks for all of the positive comments, everyone.  Tom Crowley did a nice job of presenting some interesting material.  The many questions were welcome as well.  The best kind of audience is, of course, an engaged audience.

We had a few screen sharing difficulties during his talk.  Here are his slides, in PDF format.  (The meeting was recorded - we should have the file processed and uploaded to YouTube soon.)

73 de Gary, AF8A
2025-04-09 Crowley Muon Presentation.pdf

Architect of the Risk Flux Framework

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Apr 10, 2026, 10:43:39 PM (7 days ago) Apr 10
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After muons travel 9000 meters to Earth’s surface at a relativistic speed of ( 0.977c ), what happens to them? Are they absorbed in stone/ground and then decay?  So, is it possible to scan for regions on the surface of the Earth with historical dense muon exposure?

Warm regards,
Lawrence Habahbeh
Chair, Black Swan Insurance Working Party | Member, IFoA Risk Management Board 
Architect of the Risk Flux Framework


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