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RE: (meteorobs) Meteors by Radio ?

Dear Tom,

  Thanks for replying.

> your antenna wires were not securely connected to your radio?

  No, actually I checked them so frequently, and every thing was ok.

>Lastly, your 173 meteors from 22:30 to 03:00 may not be abnormal. When
is dawn hour in your >country?

  Yes, between 5-6 AM, we detected 64 meteors.

   There are two differences between our first observation and the
others; the location and the antenna direction. In the best case, we
were observing about 30 Km away from the first location, and the antenna
was about +/- 10 degrees in azimuth than it was in the first time. Maybe
these two differences reduced the number of meteors from 40/hour to
20/hour ! I think we should observe again from the first location, and
then we can judge better.

  Once again, thanks for ur detailed reply.

Best Regards
Moh'd
--
**********************************************************************
Mohammad Shawkat Odeh.
Jordanian Astronomical Society (JAS).
Member of JAS Administrative Board.
Head of Radio-Astronomy Committee.
odehjas@geocities.com
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/1092/index.html  (Personal URL)
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/1092/jas.html    (JAS URL)
**********************************************************************

From: Thomas Ashcraft <72632.1427@compuserve.com>

Moh'd,

Here are some general statements on radio meteor observing.

It takes many observing hours to get a good knowledge of your individual

radio system, the local conditions, various interferences, household
interferences, daily sky and ionospheric conditions, etc. =


No two individual radio meteor systems are exactly the same and no two
radio observing sites are the same.

Household appliances like computers and modems can cause subtle
interference when they are on.  Appliances that your neighbors use can
effect your radio reception.  Some appliance interference may effect
only=

certain frequencies like 90 MHz and not effect 94 MHz.

Ionospheric conditions always have effect. There are conditions such as
tropo and sporadic-E that you may encounter in your region that effect
radio observing.

Connections within the radio system can change. This happens a lot.
Maybe=

your antenna wires were not securely connected to your radio? Also
antenn=
a
dynamics and orientation of the antenna towards the transmitters you are

using for forward scatter. Turning your antenna a few degrees can make a

huge difference in reception. Use a compass to note where best reception

is.

There are lots of small problems to solve when first setting up but when
=
a
radio meteor telescope is set up well and finds its stability then it
can=

run continuously without many problems.

Lastly, your 173 meteors from 22:30 to 03:00 may not be abnormal. When
is=

dawn hour in your country? More sporadics happen as dawn approaches.
This=

is a dependable daily cycle. Highest meteor counts occur at dawn and the

least counts at 6 o'clock pm when meteor showers aren't as active.

And maybe the first location you were observing from was better than the

next location you observed from?

Anyway, there are many variables and it takes some experimenting and
problem solving to be thoroughly successful. It's good to keep a
detailed=

notebook. And feel free to keep asking questions, the more specific the
better.

Good luck and continued progress,
Tom Ashcraft
Santa Fe, New Mexico


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