How do I know that my meteor counts are correct?

[Conrad Cardano]

Hi,

This question has been bugging me for some time.  

I have been doing this for almost a month, but I have no way to verify the accuracy of my counts.  They seem very high.  I would like to submit them, but not if the counts are inaccurate.

Location:  Rhode Island, USA
Antenna:   Discone
Pre Amp:   None
Frequency: 54,309,300 Hz
Software:  AIRSPY SDR# Studio
Carrier Wave
Bandwidth  13,360
Sample Rate 2.4 MPS
RF Gain:   7.7 db
recording software:  RadioMeteorSniffer (RMS) ©2026  V1.00

Night of       count

4/18/2026 788
4/19/2026 711
4/20/2026 696
4/21/2026 661
4/22/2026 691
4/23/2026 818
4/24/2026 704
4/25/2026 707
4/26/2026 689
4/27/2026 NA
4/28/2026 694
4/29/2026 696

Thank you for reading this!

Conrad Cardano

[Mike Otte]

Conrad,

The numbers you showed are not very useful in that form. Meteors traditionally have been counted by the hour. First there is no standard to check the count against. Meteors are random but sometimes more and sometimes less.  That is the first standard,  diurnal.  Are you showing good diurnal in your counts?  Look on the website rmob.org

Here you see the meteor counts represented as colors.  At 12 UT (Morning) I have maximum counts for the day and at  0000UT (evening)I have minimum counts. This is the diurnal ( this for my longitude, 90W).   Counts depend on many things that are hard to measure: antenna orientation, antenna gain, strength of the transmitter, strength of the reflection of the ionized trail, is there a shower going on, where is the radiant, time of the year, etc..

Just when you think you know something then an old book comes along.  Meteor Astronomy by Lovell  1954.  I was aghast how much I didn't know!  It is  a free download but I can't find it right now.  Lovell and Hey were the first guys looking at radio meteors.

I am glad you got a station going. I remember when you was first asking.

GL

BR

Mike

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Mike Otte W9YS

[Conrad Cardano]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.   Here is my meteor count for April from RMS.  I shut the software off in the morning.

As you can see, the overall average is about 69 per hour (±9)

I checked the RMOB website and found five other reporters with high counts.

[Andrew Thornett]

https://www.survivorlibrary.com/library/meteor_astronomy_1954.pdf

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[Conrad Cardano]

Thank you!

Conrad

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[Mike Otte]

Conrad,

Looking at your RMS display, I have a few questions / comments.

1) why are you not gathering data during the day?   Meteors are 24 hr a day.

2) what frequency are you using?

3) You do have increased counts on the 24th which is the peak of the lyrids meteor shower.

4) You are not showing much of the diurnal i told you about in a previous post. Your peak for the day is about when you shut off for the day

5) I am not familiar with RMS.   On the rmob.org site people are testing RMD software.

6) it is nice that you are getting 60- 100 counts.  This way you can see trends and peaks.

7) on the RMS software can you see the waterfall with the detections?  Do they look like radio meteors?

BR

Mike

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Mike Otte W9YS

[Andrew Thornett]

On Colorgramme software, users use a slider to determine cut off points for colour transitions on the charts based on numerical numbers of meteors detected per hour = demonstrating clearly that the software displays relative charts rather than absolute = lowering the slider displays less meteors but makes the exact hour of meteor shower maximums clearer.

I am thinking of trialing a BAA meteor detection online meeting. If anyone is interested in taking part in such a meeting, please drop me an email at Andrew (at) thornett (dot) net

Andy

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