Monitoring Radio Frequency Interference in Southwest
Virginia: The Quiet Skies Project
Dr. Steve Rapp (A. Linwood Holton Governor’s School, Abingdon, VA)
RFI Contaminates Radio Telescope Data
• Measure interference levels at their schools
and in their communities;
• Reduce and transmit their data to an NRAO
data base;
• Use online spectrum allocation data, and local
information to determine possible causes of
interference in their area;
• Analyze the complex trade-offs between radio
astronomy's need for quiet skies, and other
commercial, and non-commercial uses of the
spectrum and share their insights with others.
• Interact with other students in verifying their
data.
Goals of the Quiet Skies Project
Student taking RFI data at Abingdon High
Students at Powell Valley High Collected Data
for the Quiet Skies Project
This work was funded by the NSF-RET program and a grant from the NASA-IDEAS program
The NRAO is operated for the National Science Foundation (NSF) by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), under a cooperative agreement
RFI
Radio Frequency Interference at the GBT
The Quiet Skies Project is a result of the
Research Experience for Teacher (RET)
program during the summer of 2004. I was
involved in discovering the relationship
between radio frequency interference (RFI) and
radio astronomy observations. I participated in
astronomy observations with the Green Bank
Telescope in order to characterize RFI issues
at radio observatories and worked closely with
the National Radio Astronomy Observatory
(NRAO) Green Bank Interference Protection
Group. A prototype of the Quiet Skies Radio
Frequency Interference Detector (QSD) was
tested as shown below. The next photo below
shows the latest version of the QSD.
Original 2004 Prototype Quiet Skies Detector
Latest Version of the Quiet Skies Detector
The GBT is the world’s largest fully steerable
radio telescope
Over 50 students from 17 Southwest Virginia
high schools were involved in collecting radio
frequency interference (RFI) data for the Quiet
Skies Project. Data was collected at the
following frequencies: 800 MHz, 900 MHz,
1420 MHz, and 1665 MHz. Students also
determined the latitude, longitude, and
elevation with a Global Positioning System
unit. This bit of information provided a spring
board from which they generated a
hypothesis: Is there a relationship in the
average power of the RFI signal and the
topographical elevation at which it was
received? Other trends were also observed.
Students taking RFI data at NRAO: Spring 2007
• The frequencies of 1420 MHz and 1665 MHz
seemed to have the lowest radio frequency
interference.
• The frequencies of 800 MHz to 900 MHz had
the most RFI.
• Area of lowest RFI was at NRAO in Green
Bank, West Virginia.
• There seems to be no relationship between
elevation and RFI.
• RFI of high magnitude was found when
tuning from 800 MHz to 1665 MHz.
• There seems to be no relationship between
time of day or cardinal direction and RFI.
2008-2009 Data Trends