[meteorite-list] Listening to meteors

From: GEORGE BLAHUN JR. <KS1U_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:21:08 2004
Message-ID: <000f01c351e8$7f2ca280$a0df3ccc_at_satellite>

Hello everyone. Listening to meteors or communicating with another station
utilizing the ionized trails of meteors is something many amateur (HAM)
radio operators do frequently. If anyone is interested they can get some
information (some free, some not) at the www.ARRL.com website. It is the
headquarters for amateur radio, located in Newington, CT.
Most communicating over ionized trails is done with highly directional
antennas using either CW (Morse code), SSB (single sideband) or digital
modes with fairly high power levels.
     If any of you have scanners and can monitor the amateur bands at 50,
144, 220, 440, 928 and 1,200 MHz you'll be able to hear these short bursts
of communication. Additionally, many hams use EME (earth-moon-earth)
communication, bouncing signals off the moon with vhf, uhf and microwave
signals. I personally am setting up a radio telescope at a new house and
will ultimately give a shot at EVE earth-Venus-earth. That attempt is still
a couple years away as the house repairs must come first.
     There are quite a few publications on meteor scatter communications,
some of which I have seen on (where else) eBay. You don't need a license to
listen, but you do to transmit.


George
Quaker Hill, CT
Received on Thu 24 Jul 2003 09:35:46 AM PDT