2001: A Moonbounce Odyssey

摘要

On numerous occasions during the past four decades, several of the world's largest radio telescopes havebeen used to reflect interesting microwave signals off the Lunar surface, introducing hundreds of the world'samateur radio operators to the exotic world of EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) communications, or moonbounce.Operating under club callsign W2ETI, radio amateurs at the nonprofit, grassroots SETI League recently had anopportunity to return the favor, by providing astronomers at the Arecibo Observatory with a highly stable,precisely calibrated moonbounce signal with which to test their equipment. In the design, construction, andoperation of their Lunar Reflective Calibration Beacon for Radio Astronomy and SET! (funded in part by aNASA small equipment grant administered by the American Astronomical Society), these radio hams havedemonstrated that the difference between amateur and professional involves neither scientific rigor nortechnological prowess, but rather the size of the paycheck.