Daily Archives: February 15, 2023

The British Astronomical Association together with the RSGB legacy fund have funded a new beacon transmitter – GB3MBA –  which went live last year.  See https://ukmeteorbeacon.org/Tx

We recently heard from Brian Coleman, G4NNS who sent the following update:

“The team are currently working on the design of receivers to form a network which will monitor the beacon from geographically diverse locations to collect data on meteors.  We anticipate that once the design is proven,it will be production engineered so we can supply kits ( through the UK Radio Astronomy Association ) to those who wish to make their own receivers and contribute their data to the project. The design, based on the RSPdx with precision frequency control for accurate Doppler measurement of meteor echoes includes precision timing built into the I/Q data stream so that observations from different locations can be correlated. The ambition is to calculate the location, trajectory and radiant of individual meteors. Perhaps with the possibility of providing a near real time display map of meteor activity over the UK rather like the Blitzortung lighting system. If successful we will be cooperating with the optical meteor observers to try to calculate the landing point of meteorites, the ones that make it to the earth’s surface. There has been international interest in our project and I am aware of a government funded project to do this optically in Australia. “

Their website includes encouragement to anyone who wants to get involved.