Radio signals exchanged between the ground-based devices and satellites travel through a region of the Earth’s atmosphere called the ionosphere. Disturbances and turbulence in the ionosphere can affect radio communications and the quality of GPS radio signals. The time it takes radio signals to travel to and from satellites is used to determine ion density in the region above a sensor’s location. The data showed a brief degradation of radio signals, but the cause was not a disturbance in the ionosphere. “Our sensors are designed to study the ionosphere, not solar events; nevertheless, we detected a solar radio burst, which shows that low-cost sensors like ours could be used for studies beyond just the ionosphere.