However under rare circumstances, some people have “heard” meteors. I was outside one night with a friend of mine and we both saw a bright meteor. He said, “Wow! Did you hear that?” I said “No, and neither did you.” He was confused and I explained that while meteors could sometimes produce sound (from their sonic boom, or possibly from exploding), there would of course be a delay before it would be heard, just like lightning and thunder.

However he had distinctly heard a sound immediately when the meteor flashed. The best we can figure is that his metal glasses frame had picked up radio waves and produced a sound that he could hear, but I couldn’t.

Anyhow, I’ve never heard meteor scatter, but I have heard SSB signals propagated by aurora. It was seriously spooky.

Do you know where can I see this Ren and Stimpy clip?

With a quality SSB radio, you can measure the Doppler velocity of the object.

Total cost for this type of equipment would be around $400, depending upon which SSB radio you purchase.

Lessons learned: Beg your neighbor for his obsolete TV antenna and point it straight up! That will narrow the field of view and reduce the aircraft signals.

My major problem was with airplanes anywhere within a 100 mile radius. The spectral (and sound) signatures are different, but trying to teach a computer the difference was frustrating. Every airplane was detected and it drove me nuts.

Side note: This is how the Serbs were able to detect and shoot down an American stealth fighter. If you understand how radio waves reflect from an object, then you will realize how simple this is.

Pretty cool stuff! I figured the pitch after the WHOOSH was a lingering ion trail.

Apparently, our whole planet sounds pretty spooky as heard from space via satellite radio too. (Click on my name here for that via Youtube – posted by jpagel as “How Earth Sounds from Space” if that helps.)