Overview of the MITROS System

MITROS was developed as a generic technology platform for meteor research using radio methods. The system comprises both hardware and software and is readily adapted to a variety of investigative approaches. The software and hardware components are generally able to run in standalone mode or together on behalf of some experiment configured by the investigator. 

Although designed with meteor research in mind, MITROS is suitable for investigating any phenomena generating signals with a bandwidth of 500 Hz or less. The companion WinstreamSP component is useful for work with any time series, regardless of bandwidth.

Hardware is modular, comprising 7 or 8 distinct "boxes". Exchange of signals and control information amongst these units is by 50 Ohm cable and BNC connectors. All units run off a common power supply but have local regulators, simplifying supply selection. Front-panel controls facilitate user fine-tuning of operating parameters. Any box could conceivably be replaced by something else to support a new investigative approach.

All modules, the receiver and computers are powered through an APC Uninterruptible Power Source, preventing loss of an observing session owing to power outages, brownouts or even accidentally pulling the plug from the wall for a few minutes. This precaution is essential for the serious researcher.

MITROS accepts raw RF output (down-converted to 10.7 MHz by the receiver mixer) from an FM receiver tuned to a suitable forward-scatter channel. The antenna is a 6 element quad scaled from the ARRL Handbook and cut for 100 MHz. It performs satisfactorily several MHz to either side of the design frequency.  The signal is processed to produce files on a computer. Three types of file are simultaneously available although, at operator discretion, one, two or any combination may be collected.

• Signal amplitude versus time. This is essentially the raw input subject to any filtering, integration or other conditioning applied to suppress noise.
  
  
• The Auto-Tracking Reference Generator control output (more on this later). The ATRG computes a signal for dynamically modifying event threshold criteria in response to the noise floor.
  
  
• Integrated event count. A summed event count over some time-period (currently 5 minutes). Post-processing software may modify this to match any desired counting interval.
  

Of these files, the first is the most important because the other two are derived from it. While data are being collected, the computer provides sampling control and file writing only. The three types of data are produced entirely by the hardware which permits collection even on modestly powered machines. A maximum near 800 samples/second can be collected at 12 bits/sample. In practice. 500 samples/second yields more manageable data files while still enabling detection of events as brief as 4 milliseconds.

The user has full control over sampling rates and file size. An observing session may be divided into any number of file segments of arbitrarily short or long intervals and the software automatically names and saves to a folder each segment as it is produced. The file format is unique to MITROS but the data samples are in standard  binary (not character) format, non-multiplexed. 

A multi-threaded file and data acquisition regime provides seamless, uninterrupted collection for days, months or years (if that's what you want). At any time another computer can retrieve all or any subset of observing segments over the Local Area Network without interrupting data collection. In this way the researcher may begin examining and analyzing meteor data as soon as the first segment is written.

The real-time display is provided by Softek Research's vGraph2000 (this is our own product). This provides a fascinating real-time image of events in either serial or stacked trace format. Post-acquisition processing of data files is available using another Softek product, WinStreamSP.

The computing platform is Windows XP (preferred) or Windows 98SE.  All software is written in Borland Delphi/Object Pascal.

For details, call up the Block Diagram from the Index. Clicking on any element displays a description of that module.