(meteorobs) Monitoring solution for radio meteor observers in North America

[Paul Goelz]

At 11:23 AM 12/19/2012, you wrote:
>Status of US radio meteor monitoring:
>
>For anyone in North America there is a good probability of doing
>research-grade radio meteor observations using the SCAN and SNOTEL
>meteor burst communication network.
>
>Transmit frequency is : 40.67 MHz CW     This is an excellent reflective
>frequency for meteors. The transmitters are on full time and are
>powerful at 1200 kW.

For anyone that might be unsure of how to receive frequencies in this 
range.... especially on a budget.... there is an interesting and VERY 
low cost solution called Software Defined Radio.  Basically, the 
receiver hardware consists of a tuner and digitizer, and all the 
"heavy lifting" (filtering, tuning, processing, detection, etc) is 
done on your PC.  This used to be a rather expensive solution.... at 
least on a par with a decent scanner like the Icom R-20.  But 
recently, it has been discovered that some types of inexpensive USB 
TV receiver dongles can be used as the hardware for a SDR.  Coupled 
with one of several free SDR software packages, you can end up with a 
receiver that covers 25MHz through 1700MHz and receives all modes.

I have been experimenting with a combination of this $16.95 (free 
shipping) dongle from NooElec

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Newsky-TV28T-v2-USB-DVB-T-RTL-SDR-Receiver-RTL2832U-R820T-Tuner-MCX-Input-/160896092118?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25762787d6

and HDSDR software (free)

http://www.hdsdr.de/index.html

This <$20 combination, when connected to a suitable antenna, produces 
results that are comparable to a much more expensive receiver.  Until 
now, I have been using my Kenwood TS-480 ham transciever, which has 
an excellent receiver.  The dongle + HDSDR solution produces results 
that are nearly identical.  I can either route the audio from HDSDR 
to Spectrum Lab via Virtual Audio Cable, or analyze it directly in 
HDSDR, which includes both RF and Audio waterfalls.  Around here 
(Detroit area) I can still see meteors on analog TV Channel 2a (tune 
to 55.239MHz USB) and 2c (tune to 55.259MHz USB) from transmitters in 
(assumed) Canada.  In the final analysis, this SDR setup is not 
cutting edge performance, but it is quite decent.  And due to the 
extremely wide range of receive frequencies and processing functions, 
it has other possible uses (like Jupiter emissions).  Best of all, it 
is almost free!

Beware of some TV dongles.  Some of them do not include ESD 
protection and you can EASILY destroy the front end by touching the 
antenna.  I have discovered that all dongles sold by NooElec either 
contain ESD protection from the factory or have it added by NooElec.

Paul


Paul Goelz
pgoelz at comcast.net
Rochester Hills, MI
www.pgoelz.com