(meteorobs) Alternate forward scan meteor frequencies

Thomas Ashcraft ashcraft at heliotown.com
Thu Aug 30 10:55:48 EDT 2007


George,

Thanks for those alternate frequencies.

In the western US, there are SNOTEL transmitters at 40.530 MHz.  This is 
a great system for monitoring forward scatter.

There are also meteor burst communication facilities at Stoneville, 
MS,   Bozeman, MT,   and Tipton, MO and these three stations transmit at 
44.20 MHz. I haven't been able to pick up these transmitters as yet but 
they do operate 24 hours a day.

Thomas Ashcraft


drobnock wrote:
> Alternate forward scan meteor frequencies
>
> Whilst flipping through an issue of Popular Mechanics (May 1959) page
> 265 I found a site describing an early military satellite detection
> (early Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) ).
>
> Those interested in forward scam radio and not aware of this station may
> be interested in the system. It consist of three units a transmitter and
> two receivers operating at 216.** mhz. The intent was to detect "spy"
> satellites operation over United States air space. A similar system was
> described in the group earlier operating in Western Europe.
>
> Those frustrated by crowded FM/VHF frequencies may want to experiment
> with this system for forward scan radio meteor work.
>
> >From current website
> ""The U.S. Navy Spasur (Space Surveillance) System (*, **) is a CW fence
> radar consisting of a chain of stations located on an east-west
> great-circle path across the southern United States. Three transmitter
> stations (one high-powered in the center of the chain and two
> low-powered on the ends for gap filling) and six receiving stations are
> used in the network. The system originally operated at 108 MHz [the
> Minitrack frequency] but was converted to 216 MHz in 1965, along with
> upgrading and expansion of the original experimental network.
>
> The high-power transmitter consists of two 500-kW transmitters operating
> in parallel and feeding a north-south linear array 10,560 feet long.
>
> The receiving stations are equipped with a number of linear antenna
> arrays for phase sensing and alerting. The north-south length of the
> phase-sensing antennas at two of the sites is 2,400 ft, and the
> east-west baseline (which sets the angular-accuracy limit) is 1,200ft or
> approximately 260 wavelengths. Angular measurements from the various
> receiving sites are transmitted to a central computer facility located
> at Dahlgren, Va. """
>
>
> http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/track/spasur_at.htm
> www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/labsats/EA467-NAVSPASURa.doc
>
> George John Drobnock
>
>
>   



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