(meteorobs) SNOTEL/SCAN - further info for radio meteor observers

[Jay Salsburg]

Hello Thomas

I listened to 40.69 CW for a week; heard and saw nothing. I am now using a
Tuner Dongle I recently purchased applied as a Spectrum Analyzer (SDR), and
monitor several different bands with a 2 MHz display bandwidth to see if
there are any reflections from distant transmitters. This TV Tuner Dongle is
a new design using the FC0013 Tuner chip, it receives down to 22 MHz (using
SDR Sharp for the App). I am tempted to build a better Antenna to give it
more sensitivity, all I have is a loop hanging from a pole in the yard.

-----Original Message-----
From: meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org
[mailto:meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Ashcraft
Sent: Monday, September 02, 2013 12:39 PM
To: Meteor science and meteor observing
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) SNOTEL/SCAN - further info for radio meteor
observers

Hi Jay,

Well, you should be able to receive sporadic meteors every morning around
dawn at 40.670 CW as a test no matter if there is an active shower or not.

Before putting a lot of work into it you might merely try a simple half wave
dipole cut for 40 MHz.

You might also give 54.310 MHz CW a try.  This might require turning up your
radio's gain.

All I use for receiving these frequencies is an old beat up yagi tv antenna
which seems to work okay enough.

Whereas getting SNOTEL here in the west is pretty easy, I have not heard
many reports of SCAN reception in the eastern US so I wish you well and look
forward to any news.

Thomas

On 9/2/13 10:58 45000, Jay Salsburg wrote:
> Hello Thomas
>
> Now that NAVSPASUR is turned off, I will start experimenting with your 
> suggestion to receive the 40.67 MHz SNOTEL carrier. I replaced my 
> Space RADAR Antenna with a long vertical Whip and tuned my receiver to 
> 40.669 MHz CW. At first glance, receive a sporadic monotonic low 
> intensity line at 1200 Hz. A few days of observation should tell me if 
> I should invest time into creating a better Antennae. Thinking back, I 
> should have done this during the Perseids. In my long backyard, 
> oriented in East/West, I should be able to devise a vertically 
> polarized Yagi about 50 feet long. The SNOTEL site is
> 180 miles away on a heading of 65 degrees.
>
>
> Jay Salsburg
>
>   -----Original Message-----
> From: meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org
> [mailto:meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Ashcraft
> Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2013 4:23 PM
> To: Meteor science and meteor observing
> Subject: (meteorobs) SNOTEL/SCAN - further info for radio meteor 
> observers
>
> Further information on the SNOTEL/SCAN meteor burst communications
network:
>
> There are 100 kW master stations in five locations.  40.670 MHz CW
>
> 1 Boise Idaho
> 2 Dugway Proving Grounds Utah
> 3 Stoneville, Mississippi
> 4 Tipton, Missouri
> 5 Mt. Gilead, OH
>
> The much less powerful remote data stations (41.61 MHz CW) transmit 
> hourly (top of the hour) as long as there is data to send.
>
> Here is a short sound specimen and spectrogram of the signal of the 
> return
> transmitter:
> http://www.heliotown.com/SNOTEL_SCAN_return_signal.html
>
> Thomas Ashcraft  -  Heliotown  - New Mexico
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>

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