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(meteorobs) ARCHIVE RESEND: radio meteor paths




-------------------- Begin Original Message --------------------
Bruce wrote:   


This email is about trying to get more out of forward scatter
radio meteor systems. 

.......Given either an interferometer or some other novel system
of antennae, can the (radio) path of meteor be plotted or even
imaged using the forward scatter technique?

-------------------- End Original Message --------------------

Bruce,

Where are you located by the way?

I did FM forward scatter in New Mexico in the American Southwest for a few
years. I worked up to four separate radio/antenna systems simultaneously
and had my antennas spanning to the southeast over Texas, northwards over
the Ozarks, the Great Plains States, and up to the Dakotas. The antennas
fanned out and overlapped each other slightly.  Over a good deal of time I
identified the FM station transmitters I was making contact with in the
various towns and cities of this vast observation area and could usually
discern the scatter received from the reflection by listening to station
format. 

When a fireball would pass over my observing area I could often hear it
pass directionally through my antennas.  Whereas one could not plot
precisely the meteor path you could tell meteor direction, very general
distance from my observing site, association with other fireballs if it was
part of a cluster for example, and other important information.

I tape recorded the audio output onto tape recorders and also chart
recorded so when the chart recorder showed fireball activity I could go
back into the audio tapes to analyze the scatter.

At one time in New Mexico I had hoped to build a 36 radio array spanning
omnidirectionally and would be able to cover all the American west from the
Mississippi River westwards to the west coast. 

With this system you could capture all sorts of meteor activity and
patterns. It would be much more sensitive than the US government satellite
systems which can only detect minus17 threshold bolides and bigger.

It is incredible how much meteor/fireball activity goes undetected over the
American west.

To me the key to operation was intimate knowledge of the FM transmitters
received. (This puts you also in another radio field of activity called
DXing. Another topic.) 

Well, it is a complex subject and feel free to email me privately for
anything I might know.

Regards,
Tom Ashcraft
(Now living in Brooklyn, New York)
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