This is an experiment to monitor the 40- and 20-meter ham bands over long periods (days, anyway).
Equipment: Icom IC-R8500 receiver, B&W 90-ft folded dipole (east-west, at ~30ft), custom Python-based control & logging software.
Settings: USB, bandwidth 2.2 KHz, "fast" AGC, dwell time ~0.5 seconds, frequency step 2 KHz
QTH: Branford, CT, USA = FN31ng; 0000 EST (local) = 0500 UTC
Data: We display a linear palette derived from the IC-R8500 S-meter value. Black is 0 (~S0), Full white is 255 (> S9+60dB). It is roughly a logarithmic scale. Note that the sampling is complete in frequency, but is limited in time. Each horizontal line takes about 225 seconds to scan. Short transmissions and modulated signals may well be missed.
View the live data (New series begins 11/17/2004)
View a sample animated GIF of the results from 11-04-2004. (1.7 MB)
Sample Monitor Result:
We use an efficient "PNG" format requiring only about 16 KB per plot.
For the Future
16 Nov 2004