Citizen Science for Hams

Amateur radio has always had a scientific streak. In the early 1920s, hams helped prove that short waves could cross the Atlantic. That tradition is alive today, and you can be part of it with the station you already have.

The big change is scale. Stations all over the world now report what they hear to public databases around the clock, and scientists use that flood of reports as a record of how the ionosphere behaves.

What HamSCI Is

HamSCI stands for the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation. It was started by ham scientists who study the upper atmosphere and space physics, and it serves as a meeting place for projects that use amateur radio to advance research. Its stated aims are to advance scientific understanding through amateur radio activities, encourage new technology to support that research, and offer education to hams and the public.

NASA lists HamSCI among its citizen science projects, under its Heliophysics division. The University of Scranton has led several of the group’s projects, and HamSCI holds a workshop each year where hams and scientists meet and share results. You can learn more on the HamSCI website.

Your Signals Are Already Data

When you call CQ on FT8 or send a WSPR beacon, volunteer receiving stations around the world may decode you and report it automatically. PSK Reporter collects reports for digital modes, WSPRnet collects WSPR spots, and the Reverse Beacon Network collects spots of CW and FT8 signals. Each report records who heard whom, on what frequency, when, and often how strong.

One report on its own tells you little. Huge numbers of them, collected over years, form a picture of the ionosphere that no single instrument could produce. HamSCI’s early research focused on exactly this kind of data, and PSK Reporter describes its archive as a resource for ionospheric research.

This means the simplest way to help is to be on the air. HamSCI notes that operating, especially on HF CW and digital modes, helps because the networks log your signals automatically.

Eclipse Experiments

A solar eclipse is a natural experiment. As the Moon’s shadow sweeps across the Earth, sunlight is cut off from part of the ionosphere for a short time, almost like a brief patch of night in the middle of the day. Radio signals crossing that patch change in ways scientists want to measure.

HamSCI turned eclipses into on-air events. For the 2017 total solar eclipse across the United States, it ran the Solar Eclipse QSO Party, with the University of Scranton as the lead institution. The results were archived and published in a peer-reviewed science journal.

For the North American eclipses of October 14, 2023 and April 8, 2024, HamSCI held its Festivals of Eclipse Ionospheric Science. These included a new Solar Eclipse QSO Party, with contacts on CW, phone and digital modes on the non-WARC bands from 160 to 6 meters, and the Gladstone Signal Spotting Challenge for WSPR, FST4W and CW. Entries were scored using submitted logs along with data from WSPRnet and PSK Reporter, and the results are posted on the HamSCI site.

Grape Receivers and Personal Space Weather Stations

Some volunteers go further and host a scientific receiver. The best known is the Grape, a small software-defined receiver that listens around the clock to the time and frequency stations WWV, WWVH and CHU. It measures their carrier frequencies with very high precision.

The point is not the exact frequency but how it wanders. As the bottom of the ionosphere rises and falls, the received signal shifts slightly through the Doppler effect. Those shifts reveal solar flares, eclipse effects and waves in the ionosphere called traveling ionospheric disturbances, and the data helps improve models that predict HF propagation.

The Grape is part of a larger HamSCI effort called the Personal Space Weather Station. It brings together an HF receiver, a ground magnetometer, a very low frequency receiver and a multi-band WSPR transmitter, each of which can run alone or as part of a network. Designs change as parts come and go, so check the HamSCI site for what is currently available to build or host.

How Your Station Can Help

You can pitch in at almost any level of skill or budget:

• Get on the Air: Operate FT8, WSPR or CW with your reporting options turned on, and set your grid square correctly in your software.
• Run a Receiver: Leave a receiver decoding WSPR or FT8 and uploading spots. The networks need dense coverage, and a receive-only station adds real value.
• Join an Event: Watch for HamSCI campaigns and on-air events, and send in your log when asked.
• Host an Instrument: If you have a quiet location, steady power, internet and room for an antenna, ask about hosting a receiver or magnetometer.
• Bring Other Skills: HamSCI lists science, engineering and hobby projects for a range of skill levels, and NASA notes that no prior experience is required.

A few good habits make your data more useful. Keep your computer clock accurate, since the timing of every spot matters. Report your true location, use a stable antenna, and avoid changing settings in the middle of an event if you can.

Getting Started

Start small. Turn on spot reporting in WSJT-X or your other digital mode program, and try leaving a receiver decoding WSPR overnight. The next morning, the WSPRnet map shows what you heard and, if you also transmitted, who heard you. That is a fine propagation lesson in itself.

When you are ready for more, visit the HamSCI site to look through its current projects and join its email groups or open video calls. If antennas are on your mind, keep receiving gear well away from power lines and follow our guide to grounding and lightning protection for any outdoor wire.

To understand the conditions you are helping to measure, read our articles on space weather and the solar cycle and reading propagation forecasts.