Re: (meteorobs) Radio observing

To: meteorobs@latrade.com
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Radio observing
From: "Paul Haworth" <paulhaworth@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1998 09:39:42 PDT
Reply-To: meteorobs@latrade.com
Sender: owner-meteorobs

Dear Norman,

Sorry for the small delay in getting back to you; I was away for a 
couple of days.  

The system I am using is VERY primitive indeed.  It is similar to one 
detailed in Gerald North's book 'Advanced Amateur Astronomy' (which, 
incidently, I would recommend as a very good general astronomy book for 
intermediate level amateurs).

Essentially I have a 22 inch square reflector earthed via the outer 
shield of a co-ax cable.  12 inches above this reflector is a 66 inch 
circumference wire loop; at one end this is not electrically connected 
to anything and at the other it is connected to the aerial field on a 
short wave / marine band / air band radio set via the co-ax core cable.  
The reflector and loop can be moved to point at most areas of the sky.  
The receiver is nothing special at all; it is not of particularly good 
quality, and is even available in a number of high street department 
stores.  The recoding method I use is simply manually recording 
variations in the audio output.

Considering the system was made using mainly scrap materials (I only had 
to spend about #1.50 as I had the receiver lying around at home), it 
seems to perform quite well at detecting emission from the Sun.  Now I 
wish to adjust it for radiometeor work.

I am currently studying Jim Richardson's lengthy radiometeor paper, and 
any advice you could give, Norman, would be most welcome.

Clear skies,
Paul. 
>
> Paul 
>  Tell us more about your receiver and antenna. I use a IC7000 and a 3
>element beam aimed up 45 deg. Feed that to a computer sound card and 
fftdsp
>software. Take a look at http:\\www.directcondot net\normd\meteor.htm. 
Your
>will find some examples of the output. I use the picture carrier freqs 
of
>TV channels 2,4,5 as they are over 100 miles away. I'm sure you will 
hear
>from others hear that use other setups.
>
>
>Norman Davis WB6SHI
>Shingle Springs, Ca
>normd@directcondot net
>http://www.directcondot net/normd/index.htm
>
>


______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com