The SEARFE Project _ students exploring Australia's radio-frequency environment

The SEARFE Project is a high-school education and Square Kilometre Array outreach project being coordinated by CSIRO ATNF, the School of Physics in the University of Sydney and the Faculty of Engineering in the University of Technology Sydney. Students will have the chance to monitor and analyse the radio spectrum in their local areas and compare their results to other groups of students elsewhere in the country.

The aims of the Project include:

· Providing teachers with material relevant to radio-frequency wave propagation and astronomy units in the senior physics, senior science and engineering studies high-school syllabi;

· Helping students reach a better understanding of the use and value of the radio spectrum for telecommunications;

· Giving students hands-on experience in using radio-science equipment, making measurements and interpreting data;

· Enabling valuable interaction between city and country schools, and giving students experience in use of the Internet to collaborate on a project;

· Helping students gain an appreciation of radio-quietness as a significant natural resource;

· Giving students the satisfaction of contributing to the Square Kilometre Array telescope site search.

At least ten high-schools will be involved in the project in 2002 and 2003 and the experiment is also planned to be run in two University outreach activity centres. There is a waiting list of schools that would like to participate, once we have funds and equipment to enable them to do so.

Each school involved in SEARFE will be supplied with:

· An AOR AR3000A 0.1-2036 MHz radio-frequency scanning receiver;

· An IBM laptop computer for data acquisition and display;

· Java software for spectrum acquisition and display;

· 25 - 1300 MHz discone antenna and all necessary cabling;

· Student Resource and Instruction Kit including operating instructions, experimental notes and background information.

Members of the SEARFE team working on the software and documentation. From left to right: Oliver Mather, Michelle Storey, Betty Jacobs, George "Nyima" Warr and Julienne Harnett.

Students will be able to:

· Discover radio-frequencies used in their area and identify the source of some of the signals;

· Monitor variations in signals and learn about radio-frequency propagation;

· Learn about the equipment they are using; for example, through exploring differences with different antennas and different antenna positions;

· Use an Internet-based database and Internet conferencing system to communicate with students in other areas and learn about the differences in use of the radio-frequency spectrum between city and country areas;

· Make a valuable contribution to the knowledge base upon which Australia's bid to host the international SKA telescope will depend.

Catriona Rafael (left) and Eileen Lee (right) from Abbotsleigh School using the SEARFE equipment.

Over time the SEARFE project will build up a database of radio-frequency usage around Australia. This will be useful for radio astronomy in general, as well as being specifically useful for the SKA site studies.

The SEARFE Project will be launched on 21 June 2002 and we plan to have equipment into the schools involved in July. The Education Research and Development unit of Abbotsleigh School, Wahroonga, is formally assessing educational benefits of the project.

The SEARFE website is at http://www.searfe.atnf.csiro.au . Project documentation will be available on this site and students will be logging questions, comments and results. We welcome feedback on the Project, and if you would like your local area to become involved, please contact Michelle Storey at michelle.storey@csiro.au.

People who have contributed to the SEARFE Project so far include:

Duncan Campbell-Wilson (Uni Sydney), Anne Green (Uni Sydney), Peter Hall (ATNF), Julienne Harnett (Uni Technology Sydney), Betty Jacobs (Uni Technology Sydney), Paul Krautil (Pymble Ladies College), Oliver Mather (UNSW/Uni Newcastle), Vince McIntyre (ATNF), Janet Pemberton (Abbotsleigh School), Helen Sim (ATNF), Michelle Storey (CSIRO Publishing/ATNF), George "Nyima" Warr (ATNF), Andrew Wright (ATNF).

Supporters and sponsors of the SEARFE Project include:

CSIRO ATNF

School of Physics, University of Sydney

Science Foundation for Physics, University of Sydney

Faculty of Engineering, University of Technology Sydney

School of Physics, University of NSW

IBM Australia

BAE Systems Australia

Perth Observatory

Australian Geographic

Michelle Storey, George "Nyima" Warr
and Peter Hall
(Michelle.Storey@csiro.au)