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Re: (meteorobs) alpha-Triangulids Reception
Michael,
Michael Boschat wrote:
> I find it difficult to believe that you are hearing meteors on a car
>radio (?)when I am fighting tropospheric interference and have not heard a
>meteor ping for 3 weeks or so now. I'm in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I use the
>following;
Well, I just call 'em as I see (hear) 'em.
First of all, if you haven't heard any signals in the last three weeks
there's definitely something wrong--
especially since you're using an Icom receiver. Admittedly, your handheld
R-10 scanner can't compete with something like the R-7000. When I started
doing this more than a decade ago I could hear signals on a Realistic
DX-440 which is not much of a receiver. And 50 years ago when Villard,
Manning and Peterson were doing their meteor work, they had less sensitive
receivers than the DX-440! So, I assume you are hearing signals, just not
many of them.
Second, I'm not sure what your tropo problems have to do with me, I'm not
in Halifax. Just because you have
problems, it doesn't follow that I do too.
Third, why are you listening on 83.25 MHz? I can't be bothered looking up
this frequency, but since it's
within the channel 6 tv frequency allocation, I'll assume it's the video
carrier frequency. Why not switch your
scanner to FM mode and listen for FM stations in the broadcast band? The
band can't be that crowded in
Halifax/Dartmouth. Or, why not just move up and listen for channel 6 audio?
If it's transmitter power you're
concerned with, why not build a 2- or 3-element beam? The beamwith won't be
that restrictive, but you'll get
the gain required to listen to lower-power signals.
Fourth, it's not clear what you're referring to when you say the elevation
of your dipole is 0 deg. Are you
referring to HAAT? In which case, your dipole doesn't have east-west lobes.
At low elevations (less than a
quarter-wavelength), the pattern is vertically oriented and you are
receiving signals from directly overhead--
not that that is necessarily bad for meteor reception, but it will limit
the distance between you and stations
you hear. Not knowing tv allocations in the Atlantic region, I don't know
what listening opportunities you
have on 83.25 MHz. Above a quarter-wavelength elevation, the single lobe
will break into two or more lobes,
but at low elevations, these lobes will still be essentially oriented
vertically. If (by 0 deg.) you are referring
to the radiation angle, I can't imagine a dipole having a 0 deg. radiation
angle (although you may be using 0
deg. as a relative term to say the angle is low).
Fifth, have you tried using a car radio to listen for meteor bursts on the
FM band? It may not represent the ultimate in meteor detection technology,
but as I said last night, it's a good, quick way to test for propagation.
And last--the ultimate test--I called a few people in this area to ask what
reception was like last night. All
agreed there were plenty of meteors to be heard.
Phil
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