[mk_stjames]

The next step for a project like this would be to incorporate a better, perhaps bepsoke SDR device more focused on the astronomy to be performed as most small off the shelf RTLSDR dongles have pretty horrible frequency drift. The addition of a more stable local clock source, coupled with a GPSDO - GPS disciplined oscillator - would allow signals to be correlated in time across many stations and allow for some actual, albeit basic, interferometry / aperture synthesis.

I think that is what is needed for some actual science to be done with this kind of hardware and community support - similar to the work done by amateurs hosting hardware to record sferics in the VLF bands that sync up over the internet to do lightning strike tracking.

[mschuster91]

The original v4 RTL-SDR has a 1PPM TCXO. The problem is, the tons of shady clones don't.

As for the GPSDO, that should be easy to solve at least if the host platform is a Raspberry Pi - the SparkFun NEO-M9N board can be connected to the PPS input of the Pi. The problem is, that thing is expensive.

[1] https://www.berrybase.de/sparkfun-qwiic-gps-breakout-neo-m9n...

[BenjiWiebe]

I'm not an interferometry expert, so I don't know what level of precision is required, but usually a GPSDO takes a lot more than a PPS output.

A PPS output makes for very accurate timekeeping over long time scales. A GPSDO is a very stable oscillator that gives you precise frequency.

Disciplining your oscillator with a PPS signal would be much harder than with the typically used 10 MHz signal. And I don't think an RPi would do very good at putting out a highly stable MHz signal disciplined to a PPS input.

[multjoy]

https://www.crowdsupply.com/krakenrf/discovery-dish