@proceedings {862, title = {Incorporating HamSCI Project into a College Physics Course}, year = {2024}, month = {03/2024}, publisher = {HamSCI}, address = {Cleveland, OH}, abstract = {

We report citizen science activity in a physics course to engage undergraduate students in a HamSCI Personal Space Weather Station (PSWS) project. The New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) Physics Department has been offering a senior-level lab course, "Advanced Physics Lab" in which the students are expected to gain experience with experimental techniques, instrumentation, theoretical and applied electronics, solid state electronic devices, experiments in modern physics by performing quantitative measurements of fundamental physical parameters. Students perform lab experiments in a mostly unstructured setting, in which students are given the equipment and related manuals and perform experiments with very minimal instructor{\textquoteright}s supervision. Historically, the students have been given a pre-set lab equipment by following the manuals accompanied by the equipment. While this may be suitable for providing an opportunity for the students to relate the results in the lab with the known physics theories/principles, the impact to the students is limited as there is still insufficient "hands-on" components and demonstration of real-world applications. The HamSCI PSWS project is a good example in which students build and test science instruments and use them for scientific investigations to address this issue. We present undergraduate class activity and evaluate their impact on future workforce training utilizing the HamSCI resources.\ 

}, author = {Hyomin Kim and Lindsay Goodwin and Gareth Perry and Nathaniel A. Frissell and Gary Mikitin} } @proceedings {839, title = {Results from the 2023 SEQP and GSSC}, year = {2024}, month = {03/2024}, publisher = {HamSCI}, address = {Cleveland, OH}, abstract = {

Presenting operating results from the Solar Eclipse QSO Party and the Gladstone Signal Spotting Challenge, two of the HamSCI Festival of Eclipse Ionospheric Science events held concurrently with the October 14, 2023 annular solar eclipse over North and South America.\  Details on how to participate in the next running of both events, to be held during the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse over North America, will be given.

}, author = {Gary Mikitin} } @proceedings {695, title = {Engaging the Amateur Radio Community with the Festivals of Eclipse Ionospheric Science}, year = {2023}, month = {03/2023}, publisher = {HamSCI}, address = {Scranton, PA}, abstract = {

HamSCI{\textquoteright}s launching of the Solar Eclipse QSO Party in 2017 was, by any measure, a resounding success.\  Millions of data points were generated by amateur (ham) radio operators and they contributed greatly to research on ionospheric variability.\  \ The challenge before the HamSCI organization prior to the 2023 and 2024 solar eclipses appearing in North America:\  How to build on that success, engaging more participants, further assisting the geophysics community to answer the science questions to be raised by The Festivals of Eclipse Ionospheric Science (FoEIS)?\  The first step was reviewing what worked well in 2017, then building upon that success.\  Much like 2017, a QSO party, aptly named the Solar Eclipse QSO Party 2.0, was defined.\  For that event, amateurs will use their existing stations to contact one another in a friendly, competitive manner, using a mix of voice, Morse code and digital methods.\  Step two was the creation of a new event, the Gladstone Signal Spotting Challenge, which primarily makes use of digital communication techniques.\  It should attract those amateurs (and non-licensed short wave hobbyists) with a demonstrated interest in radio wave propagation.\  Having created an umbrella event, the FoEIS, plus two distinct competitions will allow HamSCI to promote the Festival to the general amateur radio community as before but also to more targeted audiences.\  Additional events will likely be added to the Festival, and they can be promoted to the ham community in a similar fashion.\  It is hoped the collective effort will lead to increased participation during the FoEIS as well as growth in the number of citizen scientists participating in HamSCI for the long term.

}, author = {Gary Mikitin} }