Tried to read the how to's but cannot find a single "ping" ....  can you 
please suggest a frequency (s?)  I could try ?
Am in Nottingham UK.

Thanks

"Quagmire"  wrote in message 
news:oDslk.55565$Lw1.1477@newsfe29.ams2...
> Tried to read the how to's but cannot find a single "ping" ....  can you 
> please suggest a frequency (s?)  I could try ?
> Am in Nottingham UK.
>
> Thanks
>

The trails (of ionized gas) briefly allow FM radio frequencies to reflect 
from distant stations that you cannot normally receive by line of sight 
transmission.  You have to use a radio that locks in on a specific frequency 
rather than use one that hunts for the strongest local signal of , e.g., 
Radio 3 ( some car radios do this unless you change the setting).  An 
omnidirectional aerial is best.  When you get a brief enhancement of 
intelligibility it is likely due to a meteor.

You will need to look up radio station frequencies around the UK and get 
actual transmitter settings.  E.g., London local radio station LBC is at 
97.3 MHz.  Meteor trails between London and Nottingham will provice 
enhancements.

You could also try stations in Ireland or The Netherlands.  The further the 
better, but cross-talk between adjacent channels is a problem.

It's a bit early to get many Perseids, they will peak around the 12th.

-- 
Mike Dworetsky

(Remove pants sp*mbl*ck to reply)

On Mon, 4 Aug 2008 02:07:49 +0100, Quagmire wrote:
> Tried to read the how to's but cannot find a single "ping" ....  can you 
> please suggest a frequency (s?)  I could try ?
> Am in Nottingham UK.
>
The radio amateurs use the term "meteorscatter" You could try googling
for that. I don't know what equiment you're using, but the impression I
have is that you'll need quite a sensitive receiver and a decent aerial.


-- 
. Pete Lynch          I have learned from my mistakes and
. Marlow          ... I am sure I can repeat them exactly
. www.pete-lynch.com               --- Peter Cooke.

Quagmire wrote

>Tried to read the how to's but cannot find a single "ping" ....  can you
>please suggest a frequency (s?)  I could try ?
>Am in Nottingham UK.

Most independent researchers seem to favour frequencies around 50MHz. 
There's an amateur radio allocation at 50MHz, and a number of European 
broadcast stations on nearby frequencies which can be monitored for 
propagation via meteor trails etc.

Some radio amateurs have developed a digital mode tailored for 
communication via meteor trails: search for WJST for more details. (The 
software is free, open source and cross-platform.) If you want to 
transmit on the amateur band(s) you'll need a licence.

Andy Smith has a particularly sophisticated automated radio reflection 
detection system described (including spot frequencies and links to 
related sites) at

http://www.tvcomm.co.uk/radio/how-to.html

(Some of the real-time data pages are enormous.)

-- 
Hil

>Quagmire wrote
>
>>Tried to read the how to's but cannot find a single "ping" ....  can you
>>please suggest a frequency (s?)  I could try ?

If you mean "hear" radio reflections from meteor trails, read my 
previous post. If you mean "hear" the trails themselves, you could try 
taking a portable VLF receiver to an electrically quiet location (where 
the receiver won't be swamped by mains hum). You could even try going 
without a receiver to a sonically quiet location: it's now recognised 
that under the right conditions you can hear meteor trails with the 
naked ear.

There are a number of VLF receiver designs on the internet; you can also 
get ready-built receivers from http://www.auroralchorus.com, and kits 
from http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/inspire/.

-- 
Hil

In message , Hils 
 writes
>Quagmire wrote
>
>>Tried to read the how to's but cannot find a single "ping" ....  can you
>>please suggest a frequency (s?)  I could try ?
>>Am in Nottingham UK.
>
>Most independent researchers seem to favour frequencies around 50MHz. 
>There's an amateur radio allocation at 50MHz, and a number of European 
>broadcast stations on nearby frequencies which can be monitored for 
>propagation via meteor trails etc.
>Andy Smith has a particularly sophisticated automated radio reflection 
>detection system described (including spot frequencies and links to 
>related sites) at
>
>http://www.tvcomm.co.uk/radio/how-to.html
>
>(Some of the real-time data pages are enormous.)
>

Good pointer Hils - Andy has an excellent site.

Hi Quagmire,

For the moment, I'd suggest trying one of the following:

The vision carrier from one of the remaining West European analogue TV 
transmissions on the "E" channels...

48.25 MHz, 49.75 MHz, 55.25 MHz, 62.25 MHz.

Or the vision carrier from one of the East European analogue TV 
transmission on the "R" channels...

49.75 MHz 59.25 MHz.

The main broadcast TV sites all radiate at pretty high-power. The vision 
carrier is amplitude modulated by the video content, but has a 
constant-power component close to the frequencies quoted above. Use USB 
demodulation and tune your receiver to about 1000 Hz below the carrier 
frequency given above. All vision transmissions are offset slightly, in 
frequency, to reduce the visual impact of co-channel interference, so 
you may need to tune around slightly to get pings at the desired 
heterodyne frequency.

There are a couple of other alternatives, which you could look at, if 
these cause a problem, or if you get serious. Unfortunately the analogue 
TV transmissions are gradually being phased out, so some may have 
already gone and the rest will not be available for much longer.

If you need any further advice, you can contact me via the SPA web site 
- just look at the bottom of the page.

<http://www.popastro.com/sections/meteor.htm>

Good luck.

-- 
David Entwistle

In message <oDslk.55565$Lw1.1477@newsfe29.ams2>, Quagmire 
 writes
>Tried to read the how to's but cannot find a single "ping" ....  can you
>please suggest a frequency (s?)  I could try ?
>Am in Nottingham UK.
>
If a local library stocks "Practical Wireless" magazine, or if you know 
someone who has back copies, you may get some tips from the VHF pages. 
Many radio amateurs watch for Sporadic_E reception and also use their 
gear to pick up stations by means of meteor 'backscatter'.
(I gather that this is a very tricky subject, to say the least!)
-- 
Good luck,
John.

Thanks for the info David, what should I be hearing ? On the odd frequency 
there's a sound like "data" I presume that's the modulated carrier ?  And 
should I be hearing that at all without scatter ?
Ive gleaned that I should be on USB, maybe tuned a little "low" ?

At the moment I'm recieving on my wire HF antenna... would a beam prove more 
fruitfull ?  (pointed at sky ?)
So far Ive heard nothing like a "ping"  despite listening for hours :-()

Thanks for the advice guys, keep it coming.

In message <GDLmk.230058$oo.138804@newsfe09.ams2>, Quagmire 
 writes
>Thanks for the info David, what should I be hearing ? On the odd frequency
>there's a sound like "data" I presume that's the modulated carrier ?  And
>should I be hearing that at all without scatter ?
>Ive gleaned that I should be on USB, maybe tuned a little "low" ?
>

To hear meteors you need to be listening on a channel where the 
transmitter is too distant to 'hear' by non-meteoric propagation modes - 
ground wave, tropo etc. At this time of year and at certain times of day 
that can be difficult to achieve as sporadic E propagation occurs 
frequently and you hear even quite distant transmitters by ionospheric 
propagation. If that's the case you may need to try at another time. 
Typically Es propagation isn't a problem in the morning, but builds to a 
peak in late afternoon.

The first thing to check is that you are typically hearing just noise 
(hiss) and not any form of modulation, or carrier directly from the 
transmitter. If that is the case, then when as a meteor, with the right 
alignment, occurs you'll get to hear a burst of steady tone as the 
carrier reaches you and beats with the local oscillator of your 
receiver. Dependant on the circumstances you may also note some 
frequency shift in the tone resulting from the movement of the meteor 
head, or more generally from the movement of the trail in the upper 
atmosphere winds.

THE American Meteor Society have some samples of typical radio meteor 
sounds here:

<http://www.amsmeteors.org/audio/index.html>

There's a recording of a unusually strong head-echo here:

<http://www.radiometeor.plus.com/meteors/headecho/headecho.htm>

Small meteoroids produce underdense trails and larger meteoroids produce 
overdense trails. 'Pings' from underdense trails will be brief. Those 
from overdense trails will last for several seconds, or in some cases 
tens of seconds.

>At the moment I'm recieving on my wire HF antenna... would a beam prove more
>fruitfull ?  (pointed at sky ?)

Yes, it depends on the distance to the transmitter, but a moderately 
direction antenna, specific to the band of interest, and pointed in the 
general direction of the mid point between the transmitter site and 
receiver site would be ideal.


>So far Ive heard nothing like a "ping"  despite listening for hours :-()
>

Away from the showers, the background meteor rate has a 'diurnal 
variation' with a peak of sporadic meteor activity at about 06:00 local; 
time and a minimum at 18:00 local time - it's due to the Earth's motion 
through space.

If you listen in the early morning, or when a shower is active, your 
chances will be better. Fortunately, the Perseids will be becoming 
increasingly active over the next few days and are expected to peak some 
time on the 12th August.

Activity predictions are on the following sites

UK specific:
<http://www.popastro.com/sections/meteor/meteor-aug2008.htm>

More general:
<http://www.imo.net/>

>Thanks for the advice guys, keep it coming.
>

Good luck. I hope you get to hear the Perseids and you can always try 
and see a few too.
-- 
David Entwistle

In message , David Entwistle 
 writes
>
>THE American Meteor Society have some samples of typical radio meteor 
>sounds here:
>
><http://www.amsmeteors.org/audio/index.html>
>

Having listened to the AMS recordings myself, these recordings perhaps 
aren't so typical - I don't think the receiver was set up in USB mode.

You could have a look at the Sky at Night 'Meteor Mania' programme which 
included coverage of the 2007 Perseids.

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/spaceguide/skyatnight/proginfo.shtml>
-- 
David Entwistle

On Fri, 8 Aug 2008 00:34:20 +0100, "Quagmire" 
wrote:

>Thanks for the info David, what should I be hearing ? On the odd frequency 
>there's a sound like "data" I presume that's the modulated carrier ?  And 
>should I be hearing that at all without scatter ?
>Ive gleaned that I should be on USB, maybe tuned a little "low" ?
>
>At the moment I'm recieving on my wire HF antenna... would a beam prove more 
>fruitfull ?  (pointed at sky ?)
>So far Ive heard nothing like a "ping"  despite listening for hours :-()
>
>Thanks for the advice guys, keep it coming. 
>

You want an omni-directional antenna, something like a discus is good.
It can be tricky selecting a frequency which offers good echoes, you
don't know if it's useful or not (or better than an alternative
frequency) until you actually receive a response. Apart from listening
to the audio you can feed the signal into your PC and use an FFT
transform program to 'visualise' and make a permanent recording of the
meteor trail. Those frequencies I use include 59.257,030; 62.192,700;
and 48.249,200.  There are some E. European transmitters with enormous
outputs, and some Spanish TV transmitters which also give good
results. Neither can be guaranteed to work throughout the night, and
sadly a lot of these analog signal TV transmitters (which are the most
useful) are going offline, replaced by digital transmissions.

Chris

On 4 Aug, 02:07, "Quagmire"  wrote:
> Tried to read the how to's but cannot find a single "ping" ....  can you
> please suggest a frequency (s?)  I could try ?
> Am in Nottingham UK.
>
> Thanks

Hi,
I listen alot to Meteor Scatter using a standard FM Radio. Just tune
to any clear frequency from 87.50MHz to 108.00MHz. I use 87.70MHz alot
as this is usually clear in the U.K. apart from the odd pirate station
or RSL Station.

As I type this I have just heard Spain from Valdemoro on 87.50MHz with
a "PING" lasting about half a second, (distance 1,392 km).
France is another common one I hear alot from Strasbourg, a distance
of 827 km.

I also monitor clear frequencies on the Car Radio whilst driving to
work and hear quite a few.

The Perseids should be good as we have a day time  peak around 1230
locat time. No good for visual but great for radio.

Good Viewing & Listening.

William Kitching
Telford, Shropshire.
U.K.

"Quagmire"  wrote in message 
news:oDslk.55565$Lw1.1477@newsfe29.ams2...
> Tried to read the how to's but cannot find a single "ping" ....  can you 
> please suggest a frequency (s?)  I could try ?
> Am in Nottingham UK.
>
> Thanks
>


Am having good "pings" at the moments on 48.249.21 MHz !!!!   Yippee !

Thanks for all the help and advice guys ;-)

Anyone else fancy a dabble - the G7IZU site is awesome.... a lot of good 
resources - and a friendly guy to !

In message <X_Ynk.101820$dz3.99832@newsfe20.ams2>, Quagmire 
 writes
>
>
>
>Am having good "pings" at the moments on 48.249.21 MHz !!!!   Yippee !
>
>Thanks for all the help and advice guys ;-)
>
>Anyone else fancy a dabble - the G7IZU site is awesome.... a lot of good
>resources - and a friendly guy to !
>

Well done.

Fellow radio-meteor observer, Thomas Ashcraft has his observations 
featured on Spaceweather.com.

<http://www.spaceweather.com/>

EARLY PERSEIDS: On August 11th in New Mexico, amateur astronomer Thomas 
Ashcraft caught an early Perseid streaking over his radio observatory. 
"One of them had a dynamic and rippingly intricate sonic radio 
signature."
-- 
David Entwistle