Hi Tracey,
I know what you mean, I’ve not had my system on for months, gave up with auto updates shutting down my machine…
It’s intriguing listening to the pings, that was the only reason I put it on! The longest ping I recorded this time was about 1 minute. I too was surprised by the fall off in activity as it does normally climb as the geometry improves in combination with the radiant rising. … but predictions are just that…
You tend to get longer echoes with higher velocity meteors (Perseids and Leonids) since they dump at lot more energy into the atmosphere per unit mass.
I don’t know if it’s still available but the IMO Radio workshop/handbook proceedings is a good review of radio observations.
The SDR dongles have certainly made the hardware less expensive. I’ve used a couple in various set ups over the past few years but my old ham radio set still seems to be the best performer!
I’ll probably shut it down after the Quadrantids…
Mike, what antennae were you experimenting with? I’ve been using a 4 element for over a decade at my current location. Longer antenna haven’t really improved the situation much (Beamwidth/gain compromises) but have toyed with the idea of constructing an old fashioned full wavelength co-linear array. I found the change from horizontal to vertical polarisation significant. Yagis may be better for comms but I think when it comes to meteor observing there are different issues…
Cheers,
Bill.