(meteorobs) Weekend Sporadics Meteors Radio Detection

[Raydel Abreu (CM2ESP)]

Hello everyone!!!

First, I want to say thank you to all the members of the list by their
support and help. Due to connectivity problems i lost access to my primary
e-mail account at home so i couldn't answer the e-mails sooner. In the
meantime at work I'm using my GMail account until the problems are solved.

After considering several possible transmitters for Meteor Scatter and
taking into account Jean-Louis results with VOR navigation stations i
decided to give it a try to the VOR at the MUVR (Juan Gualberto Gomez
International Airport) near Varadero, Matanzas, Cuba. This station transmit
in 114.800 MHz and it is at 100km (62 miles) from my home. This VOR station
is described as: High Power Enroute Navigation for high level airways so
it's radiation pattern and power is higher than the average.

Wanting to start the experiment as soon as possible, i decided to use the
simplest antenna, a dipole, if result could be obtained with such low gain
antenna, then a proper yagi will be even better. In order to save materials
i use a discarded folded dipole from an old homebrew 145 MHz 3el yagi. I
modeled it using MMANA-GAL Basic what could happen if keeping the folded
configuration i cut the loop to form a dipole, it works!!! in barely 15
minutes using materials that may be confused with garbage the antenna was
ready.

I hang it on a nylon rope just for trying... Several pings where detect,
few very are obvious one, others are weak and are suspicious. I'm not aware
about what is consider the normal sporadic meteors rate but i register
around 1 by hour just with a dipole which doesn't have neither the proper
gain or the proper lobes pattern. The only problem is the VOR station is
quite close, with the dipole i have a decent copy of the direct signal
which can be a very bad thing with higher antenna gain, but perhaps a yagi
pointing to zenith with low angle lobes could even decrees the problem, any
idea???

For easing the reduction i write a script for SpectrumLab which automatic
locates the pings, takes a picture and saves a TXT with information like
ping frequency, doppler shift, intensity (amplitude), etc. It needs some
refinements due to VOR's 30 Hz sidebands and after two more days of testing
and adjusting it should be ready.

ALL the information, pictures, antenna modeling, etc can be found here:

(
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0By9-_4UmgdTja3Ffc0lVbTA5cEE&usp=sharing
)

I know the antenna is VERY ugly and it's poorly built, but its purpose is
only "technology demonstration", now i have the challenge to build a proper
yagi!!!

So there you have, please, visit the link, check the pictures, opinions,
comments, suggestions, whatever is WELCOME because feedback is highly
appreciated!!!

Thanks again,

Raydel, CM2ESP
Havana Cuba, EL83sc
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