METEORSCATTER

 

Meteor scatter is the reflection of radio waves from the ionised trails from meteors burning up in the upper atmosphere. This may be used by radio amateurs to make QSOs up to about 2,300km. Meteor scatter is described many places in the amateur literature, but just to make sure you know the basics here is an overview.

Meteors burn up in the upper atmosphere at a height of around 105km. The trail will reflect our radio waves best if the trail is orientated as shown in figure 1, which is taken from Meteor Burst Communications The Gap Filler by Daniel E. Warren, http://www.borg.com/~warrend/metburdu.html.

Figure 1: Meteor reflection GeometryFigure 1: Meteor reflection Geometry

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 are easier to make. Most work on 144 MS is done during showers, where 144.300 may sound like 14 MHz in the bursts.

 

 

 

 

 

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Meteor Showers   

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Operating procedures for MS QSO'S

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links

 

HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

- SSB station for one or more VHF bands
- Computer running Windows 95, 98 or ME. Windows 2000 and a beta release of Windows XP have also been found to work, although the present level of testing has been less.
- 75 MHz Pentium or faster CPU
- Monitor running at 800 x 600 or higher resolution
- At least 32 MB RAM
- At least 40 MB of free disk space
- Windows-compatible soundcard
- Station interface like those required for PSK31, MFSK16, Hellschreiber, etc. The DTR or RTS line of one COM port is used  to key your transmitter's PTT line. Standard connections are required between your radio's audio output and the computer  soundcard input, and vice-versa.
 

my equipment:

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RIG:                     KENWOOD TS 2000, ICOM IC275H

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ANT:                    TWO YAGI ON VERTICAL STACKING (2 X 17 el. F9FT)

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INTERFACE:          HOME MADE (thanks to my dear friend IK2JUB Stefano)

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SOFTWARE:          WSJT vers. 4.2 ( download click here )

 

ACTIVITY MS PHOTOS

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During Leonids 2003 (17-18-19 november 2003)

Equipment: Icom IC 275H, 2x13 yagi DJ9BV, EME pwr.

Me & IW2HAJ Claudio during the sked with M5MUF Mike

Me & IW2HAJ before SSB sked

P.A. EME, ME & IW2HAJ Claudio

IW2HAJ Claudio

IW2LC Luigi & ME

MS QSO ping from PE1IKX

Decoded PE1IKX

IK2JUB Stefano, IW2NOR, IW2LC Luigi

IK2JUB & IW2LC

 

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During Geminids (December 2003)

Equipment: Kenwood TS 2000, 2X17 yagi F9FT @ 40m agl, 100W

 

 

 

 

                                    LOG MS over 900 Km

Data Ora Indicativo LOCATOR TX RX Modo NOTE QRB
29/11/2003 22.42 GW3LEW IO71PS 27 27 FSK441   1230
30/11/2003 09.50 GØGMS IO82XT 27 27 FSK441   1145
08/12/2003 19.47 DJ9YE JO43HV 27 26 FSK441   927
11/12/2003 22.26 OZ2M JO65FR 27 26 FSK441   1153
12/12/2003 21.02 GØRRJ IO91FE 27 26 FSK441   1009
12/12/2003 23.21 SM7XON JO87FD 27 26 FSK441   1381
13/12/2003 00.08 DF9CY JO54AL 27 27 FSK441   993
13/12/2003 19.05 LZ9M KN32RL 27 26 FSK441   1495
14/12/2003 12.25 OZ2TF JO46PE 27 26 FSK441   1181

 

 

 

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