Easy and cheap antenna for meteor scatter detection

[Neo_uk]

Hi,
I see theres a lot of talk about antennas in the other radio astronomy posts so heres a cheap and easy antenna to make that works really well.
The antenna is a standard dipole antenna that can be made from materials you probably have lying around in your shed mainly flat twin and earth wire.
All you do is calculate the frequency you would like to observe and enter it in to a dipole calculator found here ... http://www.csgnetwork.com/antennaedcalc.html then cut the wire to the lengths given.Then attach one length of your wire to the outer braid of your rg58 coax using common run of the mill electrical connecting blocks and attach the other length of wire to the centre core of your coax in the same way then insulate with electrical tape.
then the last thing is to attach some strong nylon cord or even washing line to the open ends of the wire legs to both support the antenna between two supports and secondly it insulate the antenna from the supports.
The dipole is a directional antenna and for most purposes a north south orientation will be ideal.
Dont be put off by the crudeness of this type of antenna as they are really efective and cost mear pennies to construct.

Hope this is of some help
regards chris ( M6NEO )

[Nomis Elfactem]

Chris - any chance you could draw a rough picture to illustrate (for me a picture speaks a 1000 words) and I'd quite like to give this a go as it's something else that I can play with when the clouds are out to play (I'm assuming that's the case ?!)

Also, any suggestions on suitable observational frequencies ?

S.

[Neo_uk]

Chris - any chance you could draw a rough picture to illustrate (for me a picture speaks a 1000 words) and I'd quite like to give this a go as it's something else that I can play with when the clouds are out to play (I'm assuming that's the case ?!)

Also, any suggestions on suitable observational frequencies ?

S.

yes no problem simon here are two images on showing the construction and the other shows how you would erect the antenna .
the antenna for meteor scatter needs each leg of the antenna to be 1.426 mtrs long wich sets the antenna in the 50mhz or 6mtr band.Here are a few frequiencies i use 48.25 MHz usb this is a tv station in spain or 55.25 MHz usb .Oh and here is a link to some free software to record your data http://radio.meteor.free.fr/ Hope this helps simon.

regards chris