Radio Meteor Observation Bulletin No. 18 February 1995 1. FORWARD SCATTER METEOR OBSERVATIONS Observer: Thomas Ashcraft Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA (35 42' N, 105 57' W) Frequency: 87.65 MHz Transmitter Locations: (still working to identify them: possibly two different transmitters) Antenna: Six element directional FM yagi (Radio Shack part # 15-1636A) Azimuth: 80 degrees east of magnetic north Elevation: 0 degrees Receiver: Sangean ATS-803A Observing Method: Recorded audio signal to stereo cassette tape with 87.65 MHz signal on right channel and WWV time stamp on left channel. Count made while relistening to tapes and tallying meteor hits by the second. January 1995 Quadrantids Jan 3 | 18h 19 20 21 22 23 ----------------------------------------- Counts | a. 425 342 256 155 177 Jan 4 | 00h 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | 79 39 b. c. 36 37 103 91 93 122 112 d. Jan 4 | 12h 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | 129 126 88/e. f. 114 110 81 99 125 119 54 34 Notes: This was my second experience with recording forward meteor scatter. It is interesting for me to see that the meteors drop off as the Quadrantid radiant goes below the horizon and then pick up as the radiant rises above the horizon again. Unfortunately, this below the horizon period was also during the predicted peak of this year's shower. a. I didn't get tuned in well till this hour. b. I didn't realize that the Quadrantid radiant was below my local horizon this hour and had wondered why I had lost the large quantity of meteors of the preceding hours. I spent this hour trying to retune the radio. c. Not good data this hour. See b. d. 62 meteors from 1129-1200UT. Did not tape from 1103-1129UT. e. Wondering if there were many more faint mateors during this hour. f. 36 meteors from 1545-1600UT. Did not tape from 1500-1545UT. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Observer: E.P. Bus Location: Groningen, The Netherlands (6 33' E, 53 13' N) Frequency: 72.11 MHz Transmitter location: Breslau, Poland, 120 kW, distance 740 km Antenna: Yagi, 3 elements, astronomical azimuth 106 degrees (ESE), elevation 12 degrees Receiver: Bearcat UBC 177XLT Scanning Radio, sensitivity 0.3 microvolt Observing method: listening Quadrantids 1995 Raw counts of reflections during one hour starting at UT: 1994 | Dec | 20h 23 0 1 2 3 ---------------------------------------------- 30-31 | 76 120 131 187 184 214 1995 | Jan | 20h 23 0 1 2 3 ---------------------------------------------- 3- 4 | 213 401 433 438 377 274 6- 7 | 69 117 127 184 149 155 The most favourable antenna geometry for detecting Quadrantids is around 2h30m UT. After correction for the Observability Function (after Hines) the maximum was around Jan 4 at 0h UT, solar longitude 283.22 (equinox 2000.0). For comparison, in 1994 on Jan 3 the observed radio maximum occurred around 19h UT, solar longitude 283.27 (equinox 2000.0) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Observer: Maurice De Meyere Location: Deurle, Belgium (3 37' E, 51 00' N) Frequency: 66.17 MHz Transmitter Locations: Katowice, PR3, Poland, 65.99 MHz, 14 kW, Distance 1100 km P. Neant, PR3, Romania, 66.17 MHz, 40 kW, Distance 1400 km Czestochowa, PR3, Poland, 66.23 MHz, 20 kW, Distance 1080 km Gdansk, PR3, Poland, 66.29 MHz, 40 kW, Distance 1100 km Antenna: crossed Yagi, 4 elements, astronomical azimuth 270 o (=East), elevation 30 o Antenna amplifier: 25 dB max level 90 dBmuV Receiver: commercial, Progresson 447A, TESLA, Bratislava Sensitivity: 8 muV for S/N = 26 dB (300 Ohm) Observing method: automated setup, 150 samples/second, 8 bit resolution. [Time and details of all individual meteor reflections are stored on file in the University of Ghent format (Prometeos), and are available for further analysis. Reduction software for DOS and Windows available]. Raw counts of reflections with a duration of at least 0.027 s during one hour interval starting at UT: January 1995 Quadrantids Jan | 1995 | 20h 21 22 23 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 1- 2 | 41 66 70 79 79 57 33 104 85 56 64 43 2- 3 | 50 50 92 84 60 62 48 35% 7% 13% 21% 20% 3- 4 | 129 165 229 234 269 242 289 362 312 184 148 188 4- 5 | 42 46 90 46 1% 1% 1% - - - 0% - 5- 6 | 29% 7% 14% 1% 4% 3% 1% 3% 2% 1% 6% 5% 6- 7 | 44 49 39 29 49 29 28 34 39 37 34 28 7- 8 | 48 37 32 22 25 26 25 42 36 43 30 26 8- 9 | 55 45 52 42 29 31 32 43 39 31 51 59 9-10 | 46 37 45 21 24 27 21 54 54 45 37 50 10-11 | 62 43 24 40 39 39 53 73 86 66 55 51 11-12 | 54 59 58 48 58 60 62 67 62 71 67 48 12-13 | 51 44 51 45 39 36 37 47 47 31 37 33 13-14 | 56 41 41 30 33 37 22% 38 33 46 41 32 14-15 | 54 54 29 39 36 31 20% 28 29 46 40 45 15-16 | 49 52 44 32 19% 23% 20% 45 41 46 45 59 16-17 | 65 53 42 42 25 42 31 38 42 31 42 48 17-18 | 38 36 39 29 22 41 23 37 35 29 15 27 18-19 | 52 48 34 25 34 18% 26 26 32 30 29 53 19-20 | 36 40 19 17 24 28 22 37 30 29 37 - 20-21 | 28 43 35 20 26 9% 13% 22 24 23 41 24 21-22 | 61 39 54 38 27 14 % 24 18 26 18 11 33 22-23 | - - - - - - - - - - - - 23-24 | 36 35 27 26 23 20 21 29 31 34 18 18 24-25 | 43 33 18 23 19 15% 21 20 37 44 15 28 25-26 | 35 33 37 35 16 16 17 32 28 31 32 22 26-27 | 56 70 58 46 44 28 19 37 27 31 29 26 27-28 | 37 44 34 26 23 18 32 42 28 24 27 28 28-29 | 37 35 32 22 19 14% 14% 22 18 27 26 23 29-30 | 34 44 39 27 30 24 17 37 37 37 39 31 30-31 | 45 46 36 25 27 20 25 35 36 37 22 25 31-01 | 51 28 32 25 38 15% 23 35 23 16 55 18 ------|------------------------------------------------------------- 1995 | 20h 21 22 23 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 Jan | Notes: . % : transmitter outage during the whole hour or a part of it. Low counts indicate that no other interference, which could be confused with meteors, is picked up. Few transmitters are broadcasting between 2h-4h local time (Sat-Sun 3h-5h local time) or sometimes longer. (When winter hour is in use: local time = UT + 1h). There seems to be change in transmitter situation after the shutdown period of Jan 5-6. . * : Quadrantids maximum on January 4, 1995 Jan 4 at 2-3h UT. Maurice De Meyere / Chris Steyaert ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observer: Ton Schoenmaker Location: Roden, The Netherlands (53.129 N, 6.444 E) Transmitter: GB3LER, Lerwick, Shetland Islands; 144.965 MHz; 500 W ERP beacon transmitter without modulation, except transmitter identification in Morse. Distance: Roden - Lerwick 904 km Receiver: 144-146 MHz convertor to 28-30 MHz with Sommerkamp FT250 as post receiver; bandwidth 3kHz in SSB mode. Antenne: 10 elements Yagi for 144 MHz; elevation 10 degrees; Geographical azimuth 330 graden (NW) Observing method: registring the receiver signal by means of a Brown recorder. Simultaneously I listen, and check to see if no interference is recorder on the paper strip. If this happens anyhow, it is marked, and taken into account when processing the recording. The amplification is such that the noise band has a width of 3 millimeter on the recorder. The paper strip has normally a speed of 9 inch per hour, but can be increased in steps up to 36 inch per hour when there is high activity. Observed (uncorrected) counts per hour starting at UT: 3/4 Jan 1995 17h 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 01 02 03 04 05 06 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 60 72 89 107 119 145 179 184 183 182 185 190 159 144 6/7 Jan 1995 17h 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 01 02 03 04 05 06 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 38 38 34 - - 48 - 63 52 56 62 62 65 64 Ton Schoenmaker / Chris Steyaert ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Observer: George J. Zay Location: Descanso, California, USA (116 38' W, 32 50' N) Height above sealevel: 1003 m Frequency: 92.90 MHz Transmitter Location: Flagstaff, Arizona Distance: 538 Km Transmitter Power: 100 kW ; 24h/day and 7 days a week Antenna Type: 6 element Yagi, Geographical azimuth: 60 o, elevation: 45 o Receiver: JVC RX-302BK Digital Receiver Method of Observing: Listening Raw counts of reflections during one hour interval starting at UT: 1994 | 03h 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 ----------------------------------------------------------- 07 Dec| 05* 11 09 10 16 13 26 32 25 17& 29 Dec| - - - 05* 15 25 42 34 13& - ----------------------------------------------------------- 1994 | 03h 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 & : first 30 minutes of the interval * : last 30 minutes of the interval George J. Zay / Jeroen Van Wassenhove 2. ABOUT THE RMOB The RMOB is an independent initiative of some workers in the field of radio meteor scatter observations and data reduction. It started in August 1993 in order to spread rapidly the Perseid results via E-mail. Since then, it has appeared monthly, and has gradually been expanded. Typically it contains: summaries of recent observations, first results of stream activity by radio methods, relations between radio and optical meteors, references to other publications in the field of meteor astronomy and radio scatter techniques, announcements of meetings, short questions and answers, non-commercial (second hand) sale of radio equipment, available software. Contributors are mentioned, and interested persons are asked to contact them directly. RMOB can be copied freely in unabridged and unmodified form. Extracts should indicate the source (Radio Meteor Obs Bulletin, month and year). If you want to subscribe (or unsubscribe) to the E-mail distribution list, please send a message to C. Steyaert. Those not having access to E-mail can obtain a printed copy free of charge from J. Van Wassenhove (current or back-issues). 3. CONTRIBUTORS / USEFUL ADDRESSES Thomas Ashcraft Santa Fe, New Mexico E-mail: 72632.1427@compuserve.com E.P. Bus Groningen, The Netherlands Maurice De Meyere Hullekensstraat 24, B 9831 Deurle, Belgium tel: +32 (9) 282 35 26 Call: ON4NU, packet: ON4NU@ON4AWP E-mail: via Chris Steyaert Ton Schoenmaker Roden, The Netherlands E-mail: tonsch@ksw.rug.nl Chris Steyaert, VVS Kruisven 66, B 2400 Mol, Belgium tel: +32 (14) 31 51 04 fax: +32 (14) 22 13 73 E-mail: steyaert@vvs.innet.be Jeroen Van Wassenhove, VVS 's Gravenstraat 66, B 9810 Nazareth, Belgium tel: +32 (9) 385 61 09 E-mail: 100101.734@compuserve.com Paul Vauterin, University of Ghent, Astronomical Observatory E-mail: paul@izar.rug.ac.be George J. Zay 3946 Paula Street La Mesa, CA 91941, U.S.A. -- Christian Steyaert (RMOB9501) 8 February 1995 --