(meteorobs) "Julian Portik" VLF

[Julian Portik]

Hello,

thanks for your helping!

> My comments:
>
> 1. For a field set up -  the loop antenna needs to be at right angles to
> the ground with the broad side of the antenna (flat end of square)
> toward the direction of the rising radiant of the shower. You may want
> to "tune" your receiving circuit to narrow the frequency range, and not
> be open to multiple signal sources.

So do you think it's a good idea to tune the antenna to approx 10 KHz or 
what
frequency would you suggest?

> 2. Antenna height a minimum of metre or more above ground. Remember the
> receiving pattern of the loop antenna is similar to a diapole.

Ok, I'll consider that this evening.

> 3. The summer is not the best time to listen for weak meteors. As you
> experience there is much sefreics.

yes... maybe the Orionids, Leonids or Geminids are better to observe.

> 4. Whilst you were observing and listening through the head phone, did
> you see a meteor and "hear" a seferic (this comment is open to much
> discussion). If so there is a good possibility that there was a
> correlation.
>
> 5. Generally, if the back ground noise is low and there is an active
> meteor event -- the seferics received are meteor related to you
> observation location.

Interesting, I'll look at our recorded files again...
(Background noise is low -- we're far away from villages or cities)

> 6. I am not a proponent of the waterfall diagram (Spectrum Lab) display.
> Suggest that you record the out put on to a digital or tape recording
> device and play back at the point you observed and heard a seferic,
> using one of many audio editing programs.

We've already decided to buy a digital recording device (maybe next year or 
so...),
but in the meantime we could record the signal with a simple auido recording 
program.

> 7. For now,  until shown other wise, the signature of a meteor and
> lightning are similar.

The receiving circuit is able to receive lightening as I saw last last week 
(it was clearly in the spectrogram and in the sound file)
Is there anything to compare with the signal strength of meteors to test the 
circuit when there's no meteor shower?

> Good luck and keep an open mind to the project.

I really like this project because it's so interesting and exciting!

Many greetings

Julian Portik