Posted by
michael
on from the snap-crackle-pop dept.
Earendi1 writes "Space.com has an article indicating that it's possible to "listen" to the Leonid meteor shower on radio and television.
Basically, it explains that meteors can cause reception of weak, distant radio stations in the FM band and TV stations between channels 2 & 6."
Re:meteors can cause
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
During one of the meteor things around 1993, I managed to pick up a Des Moines radio station - from Houston, TX. It actually overpowered a local AM station. Bizarre. We also picked up a German broadcast - we suspect, due to the faintness and other stuff, that we were actually picking it up from Germany.
But why didn't this story show up on my home page? Wish I'd known to try this.
SETI
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 0
I bet aliens from outer space will try to send a signal to SETI and the signal will be bounced back into the abyss, and they won't try again because they think we are dumb.
Re:SETI
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I'm pretty sure they already know how dumb we are.
It doesn't take an advanced civilization to figure that one out.
Seriously... I have been getting a local college radio station on my TV when I try to watch simpsons reruns at 5:00 - 6:00 pm (CST). Fox is channel 6, here. I wonder if it is (was) related?
--
I know more than you drink.
Re:Interesting...
by
adolf
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Naah.
According to this chart, channel 6's FM audio resides at 87.75MHz.
College/non-profit radio station FM frequency allocations start at 88.1MHz.
Meteor scatter manifests as the ability to recieve distant, over-the-horizon broadcasts which are normally inaccessible, not as the ability to recieve local stations at a different frequency than perhaps you should.
What you are experiencing is just one FM broadcaster stomping on another's frequency, and the tuner being unable to sort them out. You've heard this before: When driving in the car trying listen to 103.7, but getting bleed from the adjacent stations at 103.5 and 103.9.
A Rotel tuner that I have will tune down to 87.5MHz. I used to get a kick out of listening to channel 6's audio with the stereo.
Listening in
by
MacAndrew
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· Score: 4, Interesting
When I was an active pilot flying in or near thunderstorms, I used to tune the ADB receiver (a low radio frequency directional device, bracketing the AM radio band) to an unoccupied channel and listen to the discharges. The rhythm (random?) of the static was hypnotic -- sometimes long silences, sometimes clusters, nearer discharges being much louder. I imagine one could pick up signals 100+ miles away. The ADB arrow would franticly try to track the most recent or powerful discharge. (It was said that when the arrow was pointing in all directions, you were in trouble -- sane pilots are very wary of thunderstorms).
I imagine meteors would sound similar? Will recordings be posted?
When I was an active pilot flying...The rhythm (random?) of the static was hypnotic
Is this a good idea?
Meteor Acoustics
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Any many say you can hear them too! See, for example Leonid Meteor Sounds. Could be the power of suggestion, but one theory says that EMF from the ionization induces sounds in metallic nearby objects.
Yep, there are authenticated reports of people who pick up AM radio stations on their fillings (UL?). With my luck it would be disco.
statically charged hair responds as well
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
You can listen to the Leonids without a radio or TV. Observers have commented on numerous separate occasions that they have "heard" the meteors pop and fizz right as they explode, even though the meteors are so far away no sound could reach the observers that quickly.
What's actually happening is that the RF that the meteors generate interact with small amounts of static in your hair, and cause you to hear the RF as vibrations in the hair right next to your ear!
How to automate the process easily
by
Simon+Field
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· Score: 2, Informative
With a cheap male-male earphone cord from Radio Shack, you can connect the earphone jack of a
cheap transistor radio to the input jack of your
sound card.
Now you can tune the radio to a weak station a
few hundred miles away (getting just static),
and let the computer do the listening all night
long.
In the morning, you can drop the data into Excel
and graph it.
The sound card will record quiet, interrupted by
loud signals that show up as peaks in the graph.
In my area (Silicon Valley) there are lots of
stations to the south-southwest (Los Angeles)
in the low part of the FM band.
You can use this site to find them:
Kodis
It lists the power as well as the frequency for
each station.
A radio with a digital tuner makes it easy to set
the frequency even when the station cannot be heard. A rotatable TV antenna is not required,
but it would help by listening only in one
direction, and by picking up weaker signals.
If your TV has an earphone output (or you have
a adapter plug for your VCR's output jack) you
can use the TV in the same way.
Re:How to automate the process easily
by
mlyle
·
· Score: 2, Informative
The problem with this is limiter noise-- FM radios tend to output higher signal levels when they -aren't- tuned to a station than when they are.
Unfortunately meteor scatter doesn't work for MF where AM stations are, but AM radios would be a much better bet (though auto gain control would hide the effect some here, even).
Re:How to automate the process easily
by
Simon+Field
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
While that hasn't been my experience, all you
really need is a way to tell the difference.
If the static goes away and the radio gets
quieter for a moment, that is still a fine indication of the meteor.
And of course you can simply invert thr graph
to make these look like peaks instead of notches.
damn, oh well, i think my original intent was to keep adding friends until something broke, but i guess they figured that one out. oh well, maybe next time.
This is common practice among radio amateurs (hams), although less passive - Meteor showers are when you break out the bigass VHF/UHF/even microwave transmitters.
I'm not sure if it was a success, but during last year's Leonids an attempt was made to set the distance record for terrestrial (i.e. not moonbounce) communications on 10 GHz. Something like MA to FL...
Slashdot Mirror
Quite true. Radio amateurs experiment with sending messages by this method; it's called "meteor scatter". See:
http://www.qsl.net/dk3xt/hsms.htm
and
http://www.nitehawk.com/rasmit/ws1_15.html
73 de Maggie K3XS
-=Maggie Leber=-
meteors can cause reception of weak, distant radio stations
The leonids are going to help me pick up CBC!?!?! :)
Oh god, that woman is John Romero!
I bet aliens from outer space will try to send a signal to SETI and the signal will be bounced back into the abyss, and they won't try again because they think we are dumb.
Seriously... I have been getting a local college radio station on my TV when I try to watch simpsons reruns at 5:00 - 6:00 pm (CST). Fox is channel 6, here. I wonder if it is (was) related?
I know more than you drink.
When I was an active pilot flying in or near thunderstorms, I used to tune the ADB receiver (a low radio frequency directional device, bracketing the AM radio band) to an unoccupied channel and listen to the discharges. The rhythm (random?) of the static was hypnotic -- sometimes long silences, sometimes clusters, nearer discharges being much louder. I imagine one could pick up signals 100+ miles away. The ADB arrow would franticly try to track the most recent or powerful discharge. (It was said that when the arrow was pointing in all directions, you were in trouble -- sane pilots are very wary of thunderstorms).
I imagine meteors would sound similar? Will recordings be posted?
Any many say you can hear them too! See, for example Leonid Meteor Sounds. Could be the power of suggestion, but one theory says that EMF from the ionization induces sounds in metallic nearby objects.
Check out Slash for Astronomy at
M57: The Ring
What's actually happening is that the RF that the meteors generate interact with small amounts of static in your hair, and cause you to hear the RF as vibrations in the hair right next to your ear!
With a cheap male-male earphone cord from Radio Shack, you can connect the earphone jack of a cheap transistor radio to the input jack of your sound card.
Now you can tune the radio to a weak station a few hundred miles away (getting just static), and let the computer do the listening all night long.
In the morning, you can drop the data into Excel and graph it.
The sound card will record quiet, interrupted by loud signals that show up as peaks in the graph.
In my area (Silicon Valley) there are lots of stations to the south-southwest (Los Angeles) in the low part of the FM band.
You can use this site to find them: Kodis
It lists the power as well as the frequency for each station.
A radio with a digital tuner makes it easy to set the frequency even when the station cannot be heard. A rotatable TV antenna is not required, but it would help by listening only in one direction, and by picking up weaker signals.
If your TV has an earphone output (or you have a adapter plug for your VCR's output jack) you can use the TV in the same way.
Free book: Science Toys You Can Make
heh-heh
They decided to setup some limit to 200 friends+foes. Doh.
damn, oh well, i think my original intent was to keep adding friends until something broke, but i guess they figured that one out. oh well, maybe next time.
I used to bulls-eye womp-rats in my pants
This is common practice among radio amateurs (hams), although less passive - Meteor showers are when you break out the bigass VHF/UHF/even microwave transmitters.
I'm not sure if it was a success, but during last year's Leonids an attempt was made to set the distance record for terrestrial (i.e. not moonbounce) communications on 10 GHz. Something like MA to FL...
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?