Observer: Ton Schoenmaker
Location: Roden, Netherlands (06 26' E, 53 08' N)
Frequency: 55.275 MHz
Transmitter: Spanish TV channel E3 (video);
transmitters in La Muela (30 kW),
Gamoniteiro (50 kW) and Aitana (60 kW);
all stations within 100 Hz of nominal frequency;
distance about 1650 km
Antenna: 3-elements horizontal Cushcraft Yagi,
geographical azimuth 210 degrees (SW)
Receiver: Yupiteru MVT-9000 in USB mode;
sensitivity 0.5 µV at 12 dB S/N
Observing: audio signal from earphone socket was rectified,
digitised and fed into a PC via the parallel computer
port. HP VEE was used to process the digitised signal
and to store 15-minutes counts of reflections
stronger than 0.22 µV (-120 dBm).
Of each meteor stronger than the threshold also time,
maximum strength and signal duration at the
threshold level were registered.
Hoping to detect another outburst of the Draconids, my automatic meteor observation station was used for continuous observations from 4 to 10 October 2000. During this period there was hardly any interference by enhanced propagation by Sporadic-E or Tropo. Only during the morning of October 5th there was some Sp-E or possibly aurora.
The figure shows all reflections with duration of at least 0.1 seconds and signal strength stronger than -120 dBm. Each plotted square represents the number of counts per 15 minutes multiplied by 4 to convert to hourly rates. For the midpoint between The Netherlands and Spain the theoretically most favourable observability for the Draconids is around 20h UT and worst observability at 7h and 16h UT. The results show no obvious activity of the Draconids. The cause for the almost daily occurring secondary dips between 4h and 10h UT are not yet understood.
Ton Schoenmaker, Dutch Meteor Society
Meester Homanstraat 8, NL-9301 HP Roden, Netherlands
E-mail: schoenmaker@NFRA.nl
Call: PA0EFA
