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

[Jodie Reynolds]

Hello Paul,

Hate to drag the conversation away from the extraordinarily engaging
"brevity vs precision" topic - but out of curiosity - what are you
using for an antenna for SNOTEL?

I have a six element beam up for Broadcast FM, but have just been
playing with a tuned wire for SNOTEL - results pretty mixed.  Do you
have a gain antenna up and if so, which?

TIA!

--- Jodie


Thursday, December 20, 2012, 6:48:50 PM, you wrote:

> 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 

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-- 
Best regards,
 Jodie                            mailto:spacerocks at spaceballoon.org