Operating Meteor Scatter
Glenn, WB6RLC
A few weeks ago, Tom KJ6DZT sent me a photo that his friend Kelly Fujikawa took of a recent meteor shower. It is quite an impressive photo and it caused me to think about Ham Radio and meteor scatter. It’s just one more fascinating little side note to our hobby.
The Earth is continually being bombarded with meteors, 24/7. We just never think of them during the day. Usually it’s at night, setting around the pool, enjoying a glass of vino with our main squeeze and wishing upon a shooting star. OK, back to reality.
Meteors come in sizes from that of a grain of rice to, well, very large boulders, or larger. As they enter the Earths atmosphere they burn up. But as the go, they leave a trail of ionized particles. You can bounce a signal off of this meteor contrail.
It does not take much. If you are already working FT8 and similar digital modes, you already have all that you need. If not, some new HF radios have a USB port on the back. Otherwise will will need to purchase a SignaLink or similar radio to computer interface. Then download WSJT-X at https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html
Once installed and set up (easy enough, I can do it), there is a pull down menu Mode. Under that is the new FT4 mode, FT8 and further down is MSK144. Click on that. The screen is about the same as FT8 and the timing is the same. You need to click on the station answering your CQ, it’s more manual than FT8. But nonetheless you can at least still listen. OK, sometimes it’s like watching grass grow. You have to wait for the right meteor to hit to have the right guy at the other end bounce a signal off the contrail
The most active bands are 6 Meters and 2 Meters, with some activity on 10 Meters and 440. I operate on 6 Meters at 50.260 MHz. Kind of the calling frequency. At first I was intimidated by all of it. I read all of these do’s and don’ts. I finally emailed a guy I saw on my waterfall. It was the right guy as well. He told me to just get in and do it. He said that there are lots of people that want to tell you all of these rules. None of them are official FCC rules, just stuff a group has made up. It’s all crud (not what he said), Just get in there and give it a shot.
I did. My best contact so far was a guy in Idaho. I run 75 watts on digital to a 3 element beam that only points east, and is only about 15 feet off of the ground. Not a monster station by any stretch. If you want to give a listen, the best hours seem to be the first few hours after sunrise. It’s fun listening and all of a sudden you hear this “burp” and a call appears on the waterfall.
There are lots of web sites with great information and You Tube is full of videos. Give it a try.
