This Cold War Satellite Station Is Getting A New Purpose

A former NATO satellite terminal near Ottawa is becoming a scientific instrument, thanks to the efforts of the Canadian Center for Experimental Radio Astronomy. This group is refurbishing and modernizing the 1970s-era satellite dish into a radio telescope. It's a big job with a lot of tasks to complete, but they've already started doing some science with the dish.

I visited the CCERA and its home at the CSS Building in 2023. I talked with group president Marcus Leech about the project, their goals, and radio astronomy at the amateur level.

Related to this video, I also picked up a (much smaller!) geodesic dome, which will become a future Sandland radio observatory. You can find that video here: https://youtu.be/abR1BJ4_ea8

You can find more about the CCERA at https://www.ccera.ca/, and the facility at https://www.cssbuilding.ca/

If you'd like to help CCERA with a donation, click here: https://gofund.me/29c87cc8

You can also learn more about amateur radio astronomy at https://radio-astronomy.org/

Thanks also to @SimpleElectronics for providing some footage for this video!

Parts of this video were filmed on location at the Diefenbunker, Canada's Cold War museum. I'll probably be doing another follow-up video on the bunker since it's so big and interesting! You can find more about it here: https://diefenbunker.ca/

Saveitforparts t-shirts and other merch at https://saveitforparts.myspreadshop.com/

Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNLRcEn78Vc62C3GkMvBgtA/join

Or support me via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/saveitforparts