(meteorobs) Possible alternate meteor monitoring frequencies

[Andy Craig]

Thanks for the recent info on budget radio meteor detection, Paul. It's
very interesting to me for those times when bad weather prevents visual
detection or during the daytime. As soon as I finish some other projects I
think I'll give it a try.

Clear skys and best 73
Andy Craig
KJ4SJJ (amateur radio callsign of course)
On Jan 15, 2013 9:58 AM, "Paul Goelz" <pgoelz at comcast.net> wrote:

> Not sure how much this applies to any particular area, but the last
> couple days I am getting weak but very detectable carriers on
> 55.255.9 and 55.271.6.  These are the actual carrier frequencies, so
> for a 1KHz beat note, tune to 1KHz lower (for USB reception).  These
> are in between the "standard" channel 2 analog video carrier
> frequencies, so I am not sure what they are.  On both frequencies, I
> detect obvious propagation flutter as well as airplane tracks.  I
> have seen a couple possible meteor returns, but the last day or two
> has been very quiet on the standard frequencies as well.
>
> I found these frequencies using a software defined radio ($16 TV
> tuner dongle and HDSDR software receiver) so I was initially
> suspicious that these were images or other spurious signals.  But
> they are present using my TS480 on a different antenna so they would
> appear to be genuine.  Using an SDR makes finding weak signals
> child's play.  Simply look at the waterfall in the area of
> interest.  Spurious or local signals will show as continuous lines
> with no width or variation.  Signals arriving via ionospheric skip
> will show as lines of variable intensity.  Tune to one and if you
> observe airplane tracks, you have a potential meteor-useful
> signal.  Signals that would be difficult to detect simply by tuning
> around with a conventional receiver are easily found this way.
>
> My best guess is that these signals are either very low power analog
> TV repeaters, or possibly European TV.  The 10M ham band has been
> very active recently, and I am unsure how high the MUF has been.
>
> A possible explanation for the lack of meteor returns (aside from low
> meteor activity in general) might be that these signals arrive via
> more than one hop, making meteor enhancement less obvious.  ??
>
> Paul
>
> Paul Goelz
> pgoelz at comcast.net
> Rochester Hills, MI
> www.pgoelz.com
>
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