(meteorobs) Possible meteor scatter on 49.80 and 49.92 central Pennsylvania

[drobnock]

The following may be of interest to observers in the Mid Atlantic states
(Pa, Md, WVA, Va, NJ)

Pennsylvania State University filed an application (on or about
08/13/2012) with exhibits for experimental license “to accomplish
engineering and scientific research activity with two main goals: 1)
Develop a prototype of next generation meteor radars with improved
ability for deriving neutral winds, temperatures and individual meteor
properties; 2) Develop a more accurate characterization of the global
meteor flux and its effect on upper atmospheric physics. The proposed
activities require the operation of a 50 MHz radar in Pennsylvania
capable of observing at least two of three primary types of meteor
reflection: 1) the commonly used specular meteor trails; 2) the recently
understood non-specular trails, which result from plasma instability and
turbulence generated field aligned irregularities (FAI); and 3) meteor
head-echoes, which are a radar target moving at the speed of the
meteoroid. Since the proposed system can detect and resolve in time and
space at least two mechanisms, we can study the observation biases
introduced by each technique.” Operation is to be at Pine Grove Mills,
Pennsylvania on 49.80 and 49.92 MHz.

This summary is a selection of applications for the Experimental Radio
Service received by the FCC during July and August, 2012. These are
related to medium-frequency communications, meteor radar, space-to-space
communications, UAV communications, synthetic aperture radar, TV white
space, 600 MHz LTE, disaster communications, cellular content caching,
GSM, passive intermodulation distortion, ultra-wideband, TDD,
ground-mapping radar, Doppler radar, and ground surveillance radar.  The
descriptions are sorted by the lowest frequency in the application.
See:
http://stevencrowley.com/2012/09/09/experimental-radio-applications-at-the-fcc-27/

Dated but of interest:
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19850024231_1985024231.pdf

George John Drobnock