Had any luck with car radio meteor observing?

[Outbackmanyep]

As the title suggests, i might try this with the Leonids, has anyone attempted this before??

[Kevnool (Kev)]

No sorry wouldnt know the frequency to tune to.
Cheers Kev.

[gary]

Originally Posted by Outbackmanyep

As the title suggests, i might try this with the Leonids, has anyone attempted this before??

Hi Chris,

You would probably increase your luck with a directional antenna, like
a TV Yagi, rather than rely on the car's own antenna. I am guessing from
where you are you would probably be thinking of a strong FM station in Darwin?

[Ian Robinson]

Nope .... but I have in the past with a radio that had a aimable hoop antenna (like for inside TV / radio sets)...

Not very interesting though .... just crackles and pops is all I got.

[Outbackmanyep]

Originally Posted by gary

Hi Chris,

You would probably increase your luck with a directional antenna, like
a TV Yagi, rather than rely on the car's own antenna. I am guessing from
where you are you would probably be thinking of a strong FM station in Darwin?

Hi Gary,
I heard one, i tuned to 87.6 FM which was some christian radio station in Coober Pedy and also Bundaberg or somewhere in QLD.

I heard the radio station fade in and out for about 1.5 seconds on the morning of the 17th Nov at about 3:10am, this was not coincidental with anything i "saw", so im guessing it could have been a meteor over my local horizon which i couldn't see.

[gary]

Originally Posted by Outbackmanyep

Hi Gary,
I heard one, i tuned to 87.6 FM which was some christian radio station in Coober Pedy and also Bundaberg or somewhere in QLD.

I heard the radio station fade in and out for about 1.5 seconds on the morning of the 17th Nov at about 3:10am, this was not coincidental with anything i "saw", so im guessing it could have been a meteor over my local horizon which i couldn't see.

Hi Chris,

It could well have been bounce from an ionization trail.

As you are probably aware, normally VHF signals just go through the E and
F1 and F2 layers of the ionosphere.

Now and then, The E layer can get charged up and you can get propagation of VHF
off the E layer. But typically when that happens you would probably be receiving
an over-the-horizon signal for a duration of minutes or at times even hours,
even if sporadically in and out (i.e. fading).

I remember one afternoon in the late 70's turning the TV dial to a normally
empty channel here in Sydney and picking up both video and audio from
a New Zealand television station. It would have been propagating across
the Tasman off a sporadic E layer and the signal faded out after about an
hour around sunset. So in that instance, that slower, longer lasting phenomena
would be entirely accountable as having been caused by energy that originated
from the Sun.

Thus the very transient (1.5 second) nature of your reception certainly
would be more characteristic of meteor ionization.

You are probably luckier than those of us in the cities where there are no
clear FM channels any more.

Keep listening and good luck!

[Outbackmanyep]

I'll have to get a Yagi antenna but i think i should learn more about exactly how antenna's work first!

I have subscribed to meteorobs mailing list, and there has been some good banter going on re: radio meteors.

Also there has been a few big meteor sightings lately, another one in South Africa just recently!!!!!!
It's a great little mailing list!

[Karls48 (Karl)]

Have look on this website. http://www.tvcomm.co.uk/radio/
You can also download free Spectrum Lab software.
I had been trying this software over couple night some months ago. I was using Sound card and capture card’s FM radio and simple dipole antenna made from TV 300 Ohm ribbon cable. Although I did capture some reflections, I was not able to match them to the meteors images captured by GStar camera.

[IanL]

I used to do this with a handheld HF receiver when in the UK. If I remember I would tune the receiver to around 48 MHz area and then switch the receiver to CW and you would here the ping as the meteors went by.

Don’t see any reason why you could not do this with a normal FM radio.
I would tune to an FM station about 200 miles away that I know I could not hear and away from local stations and then listen to the static and you should hear the station rise out of the static and then fade back down again.

Cheers
Ian