(meteorobs) Radio Forward Scatter

[Thomas Ashcraft]

Ed Majden wrote:
> Hello Thomas:
> 	I was using 61.26 Mhz from Benton Oregon mostly.  Jeff Brower in  
> Kelowna has switched to 67.24 Mhz using a Saskatchewan Station.  I  
> tried this but so far hear nothing.  I'm using a quad antenna with a  
> reflector cut for 61.26 Mhz so that may be the problem.  I may have  
> to build or modify this antenna for the higher frequency.  Canada  
> switches to digital TV in 2011 I'm told.  I haven't tried FM, have  
> you?  There are so many FM stations around I'm not sure which  
> frequency would be usable without hearing the station directly.   
> Michael Boschat in Halifax uses FM but he says he needed an expensive  
> filter to get it to work.  Fortunately he managed to get an un-used  
> one at the University he is employed at.
> Ed
>
>
> On 12-Jun-09, at 10:59 AM, Thomas Ashcraft wrote:
>   
>> Hi Ed,
>>
>> I think you could probably get the SNOTEL meteor burst communication
>> system from where you are in British Columbia at 40.530 MHz CW.
>>
>> They broadcast from Boise, Idaho and Ogden, Utah and may have an  
>> Alaskan
>> transmission point as well.  Not sure about the Alaskan one though.
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNOTEL
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_scatter
>>
>> Good luck.
>>
>> Thomas Ashcraft
>> New Mexico
>>     

Ed,

I'm not sure what radio you are using but if you have a radio that can 
tune to 40.530 MHz CW ( or USB/LSB) you might try it with the antenna 
you have.  I just use an old tv antenna for my tv scatter work and I 
just tuned into SNOTEL and am hearing ferocious sporadic-E today .  Due 
to sporadic-E it makes the station sound like a constant mechanical 
growl noise with lots of pinging in the background.  Not a very pleasant 
sound.  But if you hear this then you know you are able to receive 
SNOTEL.  When there is no Sporadic-E you will just hear a kind of 
pinging sound when meteors strike, though not the same kind of pinging 
that analog tv carriers produce.

Also, for test purposes you might just try to use a simple dipole antenna.

Regarding 89-108 MHz FM scatter:  Most places suffer from station 
congestion with no vacant spaces to work on the FM dial.  If a person 
lives far from any urban areas then it might still be possible to do FM 
meteor scatter.  I used to do FM scatter ( in the 1990s with George 
Zay's mentorship back then. Hi George. ) But the FM dial totally 
saturated since then.

Thomas