Registration now is open for a 2-day HamSCI — the Amateur Radio citizen science initiative — workshop February 23-24 at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) in Newark. The 2018 HamSCI Workshop will be held in the NJIT Campus Center Ballroom. Complimentary parking is available at the NJIT Parking Deck, 154 Summit Street, Newark.

“The 2018 HamSCI workshop will focus on results of the 2017 Great American Eclipse and the development of a Personal Space Weather station,” said Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, Assistant Research Professor at NJIT’s Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research. “We are especially looking for speakers with presentations showing analysis of 2017 Great American Eclipse ionospheric observations, ideas and proposals for the design and implementation of a personal space weather station. We will also accept other presentations related to Amateur Radio and science.”

Frissell expects that presentations will run between 20 and 30 minutes. Contact Frissell if you would like to present and provide an abstract by February 15. Presentations should be on any topic about how the ionosphere and/or radio propagation was affected by the eclipse.

Frissell said all hams and scientists interested in ham radio science are welcome. “This aim of this workshop is to foster collaborations between the ham radio and the space science and space weather research communities through presentations, discussions, and demonstrations. This year’s meeting will focus on solar eclipse analysis, ham radio data sources and databases, and the development of a ‘personal space weather station.’”

The schedule calls for oral presentations on “Ham Radio Data Sources, Databases Analysis” and “Solar Eclipse Effects on the Ionosphere, including results from the Solar Eclipse QSO Party.” Phil Erickson, W1PJE, of MIT’s Haystack Observatory is scheduled to be the Friday evening banquet speaker. Tutorials on Saturday will include “Ham Radio for Space Scientists,” “Space Science for Ham Radio Operators,” with Frank Donovan, W3LPL, and “Space Science for Ham Radio Operators.”

Friday registration is $100, which includes breakfast, lunch, and banquet ticket. Saturday registration is $25, which includes breakfast and lunch. Friday banquet tickets are $50.

“The ham radio data sources and databases session addresses an ongoing HamSCI topic,” Frissell told ARRL. “We will have presentations and discussions about the current methods that we use to collect data in ham radio, how it is stored, and how we can make it more scientifically useful, and current analysis making use of these datasets.” Frissell said a huge amount of data already is available from such sources at the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN), PSKReporter, and WSPRNet. “However, this data is really designed for Amateur Radio use, and new techniques need to be developed to make it useful scientifically,” he added.

Frissell said HamSCI would like to encourage development of the personal space weather station concept. “This is analogous to a personal weather station that people install at their homes to measure temperature, wind speed, rain fall, humidity, etc, reporting this data to groups like the NWS, NOAA, and Weather Underground,” Frissell said. “We want to create a similar package for space weather and have that data go to a single repository.”

Frissell said he hopes hams attending will come away more knowledgeable about ionospheric and space science, and scientists will gain a better understanding of Amateur Radio.