UKRAA is pleased to announce that we have a stock of 6m band Moxon antennas suitable for meteor detection. It can be used with the new 50MHz beacon being developed for deployment in the UK midlands which should be receivable over most of the UK. It is also suitable for use with the BRAMS meteor beacon in Belgium.

A presentation was given on the planned UK meteor transmitter at the BAA Radio Astronomy Section online conference held on 16th October 2021. Details are on the BAA website.

The design with Moxon elements gives a very short boom length, an excellent front/back ratio of more than 30 dB and a large bandwidth. Another benefit is the 50Ω design, which avoids the use of a lossy balun as transforming element, the feed line being connected direct to the antenna.

The small weight of only 3 kg makes this antenna also suitable for other activities such as DX-peditions.

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UKRAA is pleased to announce that the first batch of our new cosmic ray muon detectors will soon be available for sale on our website. We launched the detector at the Practical Astronomy Show in Kettering on Saturday where it generated a lot of interest.

We will be introducing three versions of the detector plus an enclosure:

• A kit for self-assembly. This involves the soldering of small surface mounted devices (SMD). £129
• A part assembled kit. All the SMD components are assembled leaving the larger components to be soldered and assembled. £139
• A finished device. This will be tested and working with the operating software loaded. £164
• An extruded aluminium enclosure suitable for a single device. £23

The kits include all the components including a polished drilled and tapped 5cm x 5cm x 1cm scintillator block. This block is BC-412 grade scintillator material which is optically matched to a large 6mm X 6mm silicon photo multiplier (SiPM) chip. This gives a 25cm³ collecting volume. Using a solid-state detector eliminates the high voltage needed for vacuum tube GM detectors and also gives six times the detection volume.

As supplied the detector will detect β, ϒ, and cosmic muons. To eliminate the random β and ϒ two detectors are required working in coincidence mode. Muon events are output as a CSV file on a micro-SD card or can be connected to a PC via USB.

A discount of 7.5% will be applied to purchases of two or more detectors.

For ongoing support there is a forum - https://groups.io/g/muondetector/messages where discussion, questions and ideas can be shared.

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The UK Radio Astronomy Association was established in 2008 as a registered charity (registration no 1123866).

UKRAA’s objectives are to promote the science of radio astronomy and all branches of radio astronomical research.

UKRAA is a not for profit business. Any surplus income funds the development of new products and our outreach activities. To keep our prices low UKRAA relies on the contributions of volunteers. We need more volunteers who can contribute in these areas of expertise:

• Precision wood working to make up antenna kits and assembled antennas.
• Machining and mechanical assembly to make up the enclosures.
• Electronic assembly both through-hole and surface mount components.
• Software development.
• Digital and analogue circuit design and PCB layout experience.
• IT and Website support.
• Writers for articles and manuals Stock control, book keeping and customer service.

Please contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.