Station A      Station B

Meteor scatter (MS) is the reflection of radio signals from the ionised trails from  Meteors (Rocks) burning up in the upper atmosphere. This effect can be used by radio amateurs to make contacts at distances of up to around 2,200km. Meteors burn up in the atmosphere at a height of between 90-105km. The ionised meteorite trail will reflect VHF radio signals, which would otherwise travel straight into Space. 

Meteor Scatter radio contacts rely on multiple meteors to reflect small parts of each message over a period of time, usually around 20 minutes, but sometimes up to 1 hour. The mostly metallic (iron) meteors burn up in the atmosphere and leave an ionised trail of particles, which VHF radio signals can bounce off, for any time period from 100 milliseconds to over 2 minutes. The frequent time for reflections  is often around 250 milliseconds or just a quarter of a second!

You haven't time to speak normally, so you can use a series of audio tones to represent each letter of the alphabet and play this through your radio using a computer soundcard. You speed up the tones so that your short message instead of lasting perhaps 20 seconds, is transmitted in under 0.5 seconds, repeatedly over and over again.

Imagine a spy radio 'burst transmitter' sending a secret Morse Code message at hundreds of letters per minute very, very quickly to avoid detection and direction finding by the enemy! The techniques used for Meteor Scatter communication speeds are quite similar.

The receiving station listens and when a meteor is in just the right place he/she will hear your signal and then they slow your message down again to read it, using their computer soundcard and
WSJT software. You take it in turns to transmit and receive in set periods of every 30 seconds. Over 20 minutes, on average, the entire message is transferred in both directions to complete the contact. In this time maybe 4-6 meteors will occur.



Meteors may come at any time, but sometimes they come in showers, which can be predicted. During showers there are more meteors than usual and QSOs (contacts) are easier to make. Most work on 144 MHz is done during
Meteor Showers. A MS trail reflects 50MHz for longer time than 144MHz, so it is easier to work MS on 50MHz. Actually you do not need to wait for a MS shower at all to make QSOs, you can arrange skeds via the ON4KST 50/70/144/432 MHz online Chat.

Meteor Scatter signals sound like brief enhancements of the signal you are listening for. Out of the noise pops your QSO partner at 59+ for mostly less than a second, but then he fades fast away again. Sometimes bursts are many seconds long and you may be lucky to make a QSO in one burst. But as ever on VHF you have to be fast..

You should prepare yourself to make the QSO in small bits of mostly a few seconds. There is a procedure for MS-QSOs agreed on in IARU Region 1. If we all follow it, the QSOs are much easier.

PLEASE NOTE: Meteor Scatter guidelines suggest that if possible, Northbound and Westbound transmissions should be made in the 1st period and Southbound and Eastbound transmissions should be made in the 2nd period.

This will avoid you causing QRM by transmitting when other local amateurs are listening! This guide is often ignored by stations who are unaware of it and results in havoc, with you trying to listen for weak signals at the same time that a nearby strong station is transmitting. (However for stations in central Europe it can be difficult to comply because different stations in the same Country may be working to the West and the East at the same time, so you should arrange a scheduled QSO on a frequency away from 50.230 MHz or 144.370 MHz in that case).

METEOR SCATTER REPORTING SYSTEM

The report consists of two numbers (often '26' as shown below)

First number (burst duration)  

Second number  (signal strength)

2 : up to 5 sec 

6 : up to S3

3 : 5-20 sec

7 : S4, S5

4 : 20-120 sec 

8 : S6, S7

5 : longer than 120 sec

9 : S8 and stronger

 

   Meteor Scatter 

Weekly Visual Meteor activity outlook

 MS Euro Live

 Meteorscatter.net

MS procedures

Radio Meteor observatories on-line

Meteor Scatter Flow Chart

 

Meteor Showers

Meteor Shower Calendar

 

WSJT software

 Meteorscatter

ON4KST 50/70/144/432 MHz Chat

WSJT E-Group

 Radio Meteor Gallery

WSJT / FSK441 guide

Radio Meteor Observation Bulletin

Leonids Meteor Storm calculator for your area

Live Aurora/Es/MS last 10 minutes

Meteor Scatter Sounds

Kenwood TS-2000 settings for WSJT

Radio reflection detection by G7IZU

 

 DXpeditions

OSWIN VHF 36kW 53.5 MHz Meteor Scatter radar site

SKYMET VHF Meteor Radar System

OH5IY MS activity

 Meteor activity from Britain 

Visual Meteor Shower list

Meteor Scatter Projections

Live UK Meteorscatter observation histogram

 

 

   Meteor Scatter daily activity analysis 

OSWIN VHF radar - 1hr AOA

OSWIN VHF radar - 24 hrs AOA

Meteor Scatter daily activity analysis 48.250 MHz (This month - shown below)

 

 Live meteor numbers by height and time (shown below)

 

G7IZU Live 3D Meteor Spectrogram (click below)

Virgo Meteor Sky view applet (click below)

 

   

Meteor Showers

Active Period

Approximate activity maximum

Visual ZHR

Peak Radio Hourly Rate (RHR) 55.250MHz

(2004)

(2005)

(2006)

(2007)

(2008)

Quadrantids

Jan 01-Jan 05

Jan 04

120

328

328

322

503

472

Delta Leonids

Feb 15-Mar 19

Feb 25

3

N/K 

N/K 

N/K 

216 157

Virginids

Jan 25-Apr 15

Mar 24

5

N/K 

N/K 

N/K 

217 158

Lyrids

Apr 16-Apr 25

Apr 22

18

N/K 

100

147

317 197

eta-Aquarids

Apr 19-May 28

May 05

60

250

488

206

330 323

Unknown??

May 24-May 31 May 24/31 N/K N/K N/K 338 540 309
Pegasids Jul 07-Jul 13 Jul 10 3 N/K  300 370 495 0

Southern delta-Aquarids

Jul 12-Aug 19

Jul 28

20

275

250

419

500 0

Perseids

Jul 17-Aug 24

Aug 12/13

110

448

330

346

369 0

a-Aurigids

Aug 25-Sep 08

Aug 26

N/K 

N/K 

N/K

N/K

492 0

Delta-Aurigids

Sep 05-Oct 10

Sep 9

5

N/K 

N/K

275

298 0

Piscids

Sep 01-Sep 30

Sep 20

3

N/K 

N/K

319 

301 0

Orionids

Oct 02-Nov 07

Oct 14

20

N/K 

303

428

350 0

Leonids

Nov 14-Nov 21

Nov 19

100+

700

in 2002

N/K

261

300 0

Puppid-Velids

Dec 01-Dec 15

Dec 07

10

150 

306

279

304 0

Geminids

Dec 07-Dec 17

Dec 14

120

325

521

434

486 0

Ursids

Dec 17-Dec 26

Dec 22

10

162 

234

237

243 0

 

 

UK Radio Meteor analysis shows that the best times for working random Meteor Scatter is between 0000-1300hrs with few meteors outside these times, obviously Meteor Shower peak times do differ from this general rule. I have found operating FSK441 for random Meteorscatter during the afternoon and early evening has not been as good, but DX can be worked with perseverance. Full Meteor Shower list can be found here. An excellent website dedicated to the study of live Meteor reflections is that of G7IZU.

Below - Dave Swan's (G1BLO) radio meteor reflections at 55.250 MHz and live observation histogram at 62.1927 MHz as received in the UK, a very good indicator of meteor activity. The Geminids meteor shower peak on 14th December 2003 can be clearly seen at 0400hrs UTC on the December 2003 chart shown.

 

METEOR SCATTER FREQUENCIES

I have found that the following WSJT modes and frequencies are in common use and would appear not to conflict with other band users 

 

Frequency

Digital MS mode

 Remarks

50.230 MHz

JT6M

 Europe calling frequency

50.270 MHz

FSK441

 MS calling frequency

50.260-50.280 MHz

FSK441

 

70.100 MHz

FSK441

 Proposed MS calling frequency

70.090-70.110 MHz

FSK441

 Proposed

144.370 MHz

FSK441

 MS calling frequency

144.340-144.400 MHz

FSK441

 

432.370 MHz

FSK441

 MS calling frequency

432.360-432.400 MHz

FSK441

 

When calling CQ with FSK441A (WSJT) on 144.370 MHz most amateurs have adopted the method of sending 'CQ385' which indicates they are calling split by transmitting on 144.370MHz BUT listening on 144.385MHz for replies, this avoids congestion. When the original station hears your reply on 144.385MHz they then QSY to 144.385MHz and both stations complete the QSO on .385. They do not work split after the CQ is answered.

    

Shown below is a still image of my FSK441 QSO (using WSJT software) with ES6RQ on 21.12.2003 on 144.360 MHz a distance of 1116 miles and my best DX via Meteor Scatter so far. The burst captured below shows the signal I received from my friend 'Ants' in Estonia. I was only using 50 watts with my FT-847 and a 9 element Tonna Yagi at 150m asl to reply and you can see my MS signal report received in Estonia of 27.

A map of Stations I have worked on 144MHz Meteor Scatter from IO84 is shown below. The maximum practical range for MS QSOs is considered to be around 2200km, with my best distance so far being 1796km. I have managed to work stations via MS in Iceland, France, Germany, Poland, Estonia, Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Slovenia, Norway, England, Holland, Denmark & Spain.

 WEAK SIGNAL COMMUNICATIONS MODES 

2M and higher Meteor Scatter

FSK441A  

 

6M short burst Meteor Scatter

FSK441A  

(JT6M may be too slow)

6M long burst Meteor Scatter

JT6M

Used extensively on 50.230MHz

Steady signal Tropo- any band

JT44

 

EME - any band

JT65

 

Sporadic E (Es) - Any band

JT6M

(JT65 more sensitive but much slower**)

F-Layer Prop (6M and 4M only)

JT6M  

(JT65 more sensitive but much slower**)

 

 

 


 

50 MHz (6 metres)

70 MHz (4 metres)

144 MHz (2 metres)

432 MHz (70 Centimetres)

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