DIY Friday: Satellite Monitoring for Next to Nothing
Any satellite geek with a lick of imagination has imagined what it might be like to work at one of the dozens of American intelligence organizations utilizing top-secret government satellites and communicating and transmitting information around the world. It sounds like a sweet deal: a nifty chair, your own spot in the control room, all space-news you can eat — how could it not be awesome?
Well, if you’re anything like me, you’re probably forgetting that making satellite monitoring your job would mean, well, making it your job. All of a sudden, the vision of a job among the stars crashes to reality and, before you know it, that position playing with satellites becomes just another 9-to-5 with the requisite paper pusing, confused middle mangers, and brown-bag lunches on synergy.
So what’s a geek to do?
Easy. Make satellite monitoring your hobby. Today’s DIY Friday link brings us to steettech.com and shows us how with a couple antennas, a radio scanner, and short-wave tuner anyone can make their own mission control.
Sure, it might not set you up with a sweet government 401K, but at least a DIY Sat Monitoring rig means you don’t have to seek congressional approval to amp up your transmitter, right?
