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(meteorobs) FM radio went crazy - Leonids from Oregon. 11/18-19/2002
I spent the whole night before 10:45UT (2:45am local) driving around
central Oregon USA under almost total cloud cover listening to FM car
radio meteor echos while looking for cloud clearings. I had headed to
Burns (due to misleading Internet weather info) but hit rain at 11:30pm
local time (7:30UT) Radio signals varied from 2 to 12 meteors per 15
minute intervals. Turned back and went to Pine Mountain Observatory,
met three meteor enthusiasts (IE: die-hards) there and more clouds at
~12:30pm local time. (8:30 UT)
Radio signals between 9:05UT and 9:11 UT were counted at 8. 9:41 to
9:45UT gave 6 FM meteor counts.
Then the radio went crazy from 9:46 till 10:00UT I counted 97 meteor
signals with many over lapping and multiple stations coming in on the
same frequency. Sometimes one station would come in so clear for a few
seconds that it sounded like it was local, only to be replaced by a
different station. While this was exciting to hear it also made the
solid clouds even more frustrating. So I started driving towards Bend
where the clouds looked less dark.
Saw one opening in the clouds to the SW so I drove until I had placed
it to the east of me. I was so surprised to catch such a large hole
(F=1.25 to 2) that I just watched in wonder the first 5- 10 minutes.
This is at ~10:45UT till ~10:55UT I was seeing many dim meteors with
magnitudes of 3 and 4 mostly. It was averaging about 1 per second !
then I realized the peak wasn't over, and perhaps I could record some
data. !!
Got the recorder from the car and the visual rate had already slowed to
approximately 1 to 2 per minute.
From 10:58 to 11:30 UT I counted 48 meteors.
I will send the formal data later as I want to get some sleep. Also
it is clear now 11/19-20 so might get up and get some more counts.
Happy and tired,
Dustin Brown
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