[Duffy]

(01-25-2015, 03:23 AM)Skywise Wrote:

(01-25-2015, 12:12 AM)Duffy Wrote: Hello all,
First of all I'm a newbe, a non-scientist nor an accademic of any kind so forgive me if my dialog is a little basic. I'm a semi-retired landscape contractor by trade but in my spare time I'm an amateur/backyard astronomer with visual and ccd observation as my main interest. A couple of years ago I decided to try radio astronomy and started by constructing a SID detector (Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance)for monitoring solar activity,this worked well for a while registering CME's,proton and electron storms and solar wind instabilities. Then two months into this project my monitor registered a large disturbance which I later linked serendipitously to a mag 8.1 Earthquake near the Solomon Islands (which occurred 17 hours after the SID recording). Since then I have registered 23 quakes in 2013 which at the time did'nt retain the data as I was'nt aware of any significance, and 15 quakes in 2014 with saved data. All but 3 Earthquakes occurred within 24 hours of received signal, had an average depth of 10km,and no aftershocks were picked up even if the magnitude was greater than the initial event.
I would appreciate any imput anyone may have as I've tried to research a VLF-Earthquake correlation online and not been able to establish weather this is a common occurrance or worthy of further investigation. I live in the North of England and would dearly love to know why China, Chile and Indonesia keep popping up on my screen.

Thanks, Duffy

Hello Duffy. Welcome to the group!!!

First off, please don't be put off by some of us if we get a little critical of ideas. We are generally very scientific in nature so tend to look at things with a skeptic's eye, but I think it's safe to say we ARE open minded in spite of the claims of any of our detractors.

Your findings are intriguing, and I might be of some assistance. I myself am an "armchair" astronomer. I have a scope for visual use, but it's been in storage for several years, so all I can do now is read and look at other's astrophotography. I'd be interested in seeing some of your work. But astronomy has been a hobby of mine for at least 30 years.

Also, I have a background in electronics, mainly digital, so know a little bit there. Went to school for it, worked as a repair tech for a few years. Now it's mainly a hobby. Lately I've been dabbling with a microcontroller and some LED applications. I've also had a vague interest in getting my ham license so know a tidbit about radio as well. But I've always been good at EM stuff, probably from my other interest involving lasers and optics.

Anyway, I can understand you not having had saved data at first, until you noticed a correlation. Now that you do save data, how continuous is it? Only when you happen to do observations or is it 24/7/365? Is it easily sharable for myself or others to examine?

And, can you describe your equipment, how you make your observations and record them?

This sounds interesting. I need to go look up SID, though. Haven't heard of that one before. But I'm a quick study.

Brian

Hi Brian,
Thanks for the welcome, your reply made me feel that at least I would'nt be treated like someone from the twilight zone, not yet anyway, I know I'm way out of my league on this forum but what I lack in brain power I make up for in practicality and initiative, as for criticism my mother-in-law lives with us so I think I can handle a little of that too.
Meaning no disrespect it would'nt be my first choice to share data at this stage as I've tried that once and was disillusioned by the outcome. In May 2013 I sent by recorded delivery data for 5 possible quake signals along with solar info for dates the signals were picked up to the BGS, I received no response or acknowledgment from them, nor were my emails returned, I concluded that my data was irrelevant so retained nothing further for that year.
I decided to join Earthwaves because you have on going prediction projects and thought an opportunity might be here to inform members of possible quake signals in real time and hopefully have them verified within 24-48 hours by checking the USGS website as I do.
I was going to shut this project down as solar activity has started decreasing and by now I should be listening to storms on Jupiter or bouncing signals off the Moon, but modifications to my antenna's has encouraged me to continue for another year at least. A few details are as follows: I run 2 independent monitors on 16v batteries for 11 hours a day,after this time the batteries are depleated, these are connected via feed lines to 2 loop antenna's 1.5m in diameter, VLF signals are received mostly from naval bases around the world and relayed to the monitors, these are reconfigured into a signal strength/decibel level graph displays using spectrum lab software, any unusual drops or peaks in the signals displayed means the upper atmosphere has been temporarily ionised due to solar activity, Hence you have recorded a SID event.
Do you think real time posting is feasible or perhaps needs further consideration, I believe past data would be better understood if future data was verified by more than just myself. Thanks Brian, and the mother-in-law is really a very nice lady.

Duffy