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(meteorobs) Re: Project Inspire
ATT: Dave English
I was involved as a science teacher several years ago.
We built a couple of the VLF radio kits. They were fairly simple devices.
They were powered by a 9 vt battery and used a "long wire" antenna.
There was a jack to plug in a tape recorder, and if the recorder had a
"monitor" jack, you could listen in too.
Basically, you would take the device out in the early morning. stretch the
wire out a foot or so off the ground and begin taping. The resulting audio
tape was sent to Project HQ where it was subjected to computer analysis.
This analysis was then returned to you along with your tape.
You had to be as far from sources of 60 cycle electrical hum as you could be
for all this to work.
At any rate, the radio kits cost very little (~$20), and seemed to work
quite well.
I tried searching for the NASA sponsored Project Inspire on the web. Despite
finding several references, I was unable to locate a valid link to the
project itself. It may have folded in the intervening years.
I thought maybe the receivers might pick up Iridium re-entry VLF
propogation, and thus be a possible tool for collecting data on
electrophonic sounds. I know plans for the kits are on the web, but I don't
know if the kits themselves are still available.
terry
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