(meteorobs) Question - radio meteor

[Paul Goelz]

At 09:19 AM 5/6/2014, you wrote:
>I don't believe that AM would be the optimum mode.  If you were to 
>use AM, you would need to be able to sense signal strength, and set 
>a threshold for tripping a counter.

Yes, I'm aware that AM is not optimum.  I was trying it because 
others have reported hearing pings on AM and I was curious.  The only 
mechanism I can see to get a tone from a meteor on AM is if the 
Doppler shifted meteor reflection mixed with residual carrier and 
produced a beat.  But based on my results using USB, the predominant 
Doppler shift for the strongest part of the echo is only 10-20 Hz max.

I do all my monitoring on 55.249 MHz USB.  Weak residual carrier, 
lots of airplanes and very good meteor detection.  I get airplanes 
and some meteors on 55.239 MHz USB with a fairly strong residual 
carrier.  I get a carrier on 55.249 USB but no airplanes or meteors 
and I believe that signal is CATV leakage.

Antenna is a 6M halo at 25 feet.  Receiver is a Kenwood TS480.  I get 
very similar results with a TV tuner dongle and HDSDR software.

Paul


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