Best SDR for Meteor detection

[andrew s]

Hi, does anyone have a view on the best SRD for meteor detection, using the Djion 143.050 Mhz radar, based on sensitivity and rejection of close stations?

I am aware of the Airspy R2 and FUNcube Dongle Pro +. Any other ideas?

Thanks Andrew

[jarraman]

hi andrew.

just started this myself,i use the fun cube dongle pro.i think any other dvb dongle will do.there is plenty of information in the ,,,,New to Meteor Detection,in the radio astronomy section on stargazers.

ken.

[Al.Grant]

Hi Andrew,

I've never used or seen the Airspy but I've had good meteor detections using the FCD Pro+.

I would have no probs recommending the FCD for meteor detecting.

I also tried one of the cheap RTL DVB-T (less than £10) dongles and wideband sdr dongle from ebay (less than £40) and they both worked but were noticeably noisier than the FCD and the DVB-T dongle was a bit more fiddly to configure the extra drivers needed, whereas the FCD was a simply plug & play.  However they are certainly an option for a quick/cheap start.

Don't forget that sensitivity will also depend on the antenna used and it's location.  You can easily make your own antenna but I bought one for about £40.

I have mine mounted outside a few meters above the ground on our extension and it's fine, others have them on the roof and some have them in the loft.

I also got better reception/less noise when I changed the cable from a very cheap budget one to one that cost a few quid more (but still not expensive) and when I was connecting the cables up there was a significant difference in the internal shielding around the core.

I've heard some people noticed a difference between mounting the antenna horizontally and vertically, but I didn't notice any.

Once you have it all up and running it can sit there for months unattended detecting meteors.

My detector should be back on line later today as I've just got back from travelling and needed to take the laptop with me .... still need a dedicated laptop for my meteor detector and an all sky cam, until then it will need to go down sometimes.

Good luck with getting the detector up and running.

[andrew s]

Thanks Ken and AI.Grant  for the info. Ken I have looked at the "New to...."  I agree it has lots of good info but suffers from being so long. This make it hard to follow and seek specific info. 

It looks like there has been no comparative work on SDR for Meteor detection but that is not such a surprise really.

Regards Andrew

[andrew s]

I finally came across this list http://www.rtl-sdr.com/roundup-software-defined-radios/ It would seem (to me at least) the FCD is the best bet given that it has good filters and the limited bandwidth is not an issue in meteor detection. 

Regards Andrew