Hi All,

I had a brief conversation with John Cook at the BAA Winchester Weekend about the feasibility of using a Raspberry Pi, SDR dongle and appropriate software to detect meteors, he suggested I post here.

?

The last time I did meteor detection I was using a custom script I’d created in SpectrumLab (see here ) with an X86 laptop and handheld scanner. At the time, I had investigated using a Raspberry Pi but they were pretty new, x86 software wasn’t compatible and the project didn’t go anywhere.

?

Since then, USB SDR Dongles have been invented, Raspberry Pis are now on version 5 and the Pi 5 is significantly more powerful than the Win 98 Laptop I was using, has more memory, faster disk and network access etc. Windows has also come to ARM, I believe there is a Just in Time (JIT) re-complier that recompiles x86 software on the fly (JIT compilers are very fast), but I have no experience of this, also Linux SW has developed a huge amount so there might even be a mature Linux software solution (my main Laptop is Linux).

?

Anyway - I’m now thinking of trying again, creating a meteor detector to compliment the visual meteor detector my Astro Society (Crayford) already runs. The concept is a Raspberry Pi, USB SDR, and appropriate software. I’d save the files to a NAS with remote cloud access so members can share any post processing/collation for reporting purposes.

?

Do you know if anyone is already doing radio meteor detection on a Raspberry Pi? If so can you point me to the details? I’m also interested in compatible USB SDR’s and Compatible Analysis Software (like Spectrum Lab) I’d like to know this is possible because I don’t want to reinvent the wheel and I don’t want to spend my societies cash finding out it can’t be done! :-)

?

Thanks,

Simon.

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Hello Simon

Yes take a look at ukmeteorbeacon.org.? The live stream is supplied by receivers based on the SDR play RSPdx and a Raspberry Pi.? You'll find a block diagram On the Observing GB3MBA pages. The hardware and software is based on the BATC Portsdown see . All software is intended to be open source so you should not have to re-invent the wheel. Currently we are streaming 4 or 5 receivers to but a local display on a touch screen is also available. I'm not the best person to provide more detail but if you contact me direct I'll put you in touch with more help. The receivers in our network are based on the RSPdx as this has better performance than the cheap dongles and has the facility to lock it to a precision frequency reference which means we can make precision Doppler measurements .

All the best

Brian

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Hello Tracy

Thanks for your notes and links on Radio meteor detection. I note that the various references relate to using the Graves radar system which is located near Dijon. Many of us will have started our meteor observations using Graves.
Graves has a switched beam that scans from from East, through South to West so is designed to cover those directions from Dijon. Graves runs very high power so it does provide some coverage to the north by one mechanism or another including radiation from the back of the beam ( although that description is not strictly accurate) or, possibly by tropospheric back scatter. This means its coverage to the North is variable and not clearly defined.

The UK meteor beacon, located at the Sherwood Observatory of the Mansfield and Sutton Astronomical Society, provides coverage for the known region above the UK and I would encourage all with a serious interest in radio detection of meteors over the UK and perhaps coordination with the UKMON optical system to make use of it. More details can be found at .

All the best Brian

Hello?

I believe that people are already successfully detecting meteors via radio backscatter using raspberry pi. I’ve attached some links to projects that I have followed.?

I’ve not tried a pi based solution yet as my pc does the trick just fine but it certainly looks achievable.?

If you were also considering using pi for meteor. Video detection then UKMON and the global meteor network are already very successfully running a pi based solution.?

Kind Regards

Miss Tracey Snelus?

On Wed, 15 May 2024 at 12:21, SIMON via <simon.dawes=[email protected]> wrote:

Hi All,

I had a brief conversation with John Cook at the BAA Winchester Weekend about the feasibility of using a Raspberry Pi, SDR dongle and appropriate software to detect meteors, he suggested I post here.

?

The last time I did meteor detection I was using a custom script I’d created in SpectrumLab (see here ) with an X86 laptop and handheld scanner. At the time, I had investigated using a Raspberry Pi but they were pretty new, x86 software wasn’t compatible and the project didn’t go anywhere.

?

Since then, USB SDR Dongles have been invented, Raspberry Pis are now on version 5 and the Pi 5 is significantly more powerful than the Win 98 Laptop I was using, has more memory, faster disk and network access etc. Windows has also come to ARM, I believe there is a Just in Time (JIT) re-complier that recompiles x86 software on the fly (JIT compilers are very fast), but I have no experience of this, also Linux SW has developed a huge amount so there might even be a mature Linux software solution (my main Laptop is Linux).

?

Anyway - I’m now thinking of trying again, creating a meteor detector to compliment the visual meteor detector my Astro Society (Crayford) already runs. The concept is a Raspberry Pi, USB SDR, and appropriate software. I’d save the files to a NAS with remote cloud access so members can share any post processing/collation for reporting purposes.

?

Do you know if anyone is already doing radio meteor detection on a Raspberry Pi? If so can you point me to the details? I’m also interested in compatible USB SDR’s and Compatible Analysis Software (like Spectrum Lab) I’d like to know this is possible because I don’t want to reinvent the wheel and I don’t want to spend my societies cash finding out it can’t be done! :-)

?

Thanks,

Simon.