(meteorobs) Possible alternate meteor monitoring frequencies

Jodie Reynolds spacerocks at spaceballoon.org
Wed Jan 16 02:26:10 EST 2013


Hello Jay,

Yup - here in my bunker at my undisclosed location (+38°32'58,
-121°17'29), the lower portion of 6m is nothing but monsterously
ginormously loud teletype sessions.  It looks like anti-aircraft fire
for meteors - they'd be instantly vaporized  if they tried to scatter
any of that... ;-)

I've never tried to demodulate any of those, but with my new
Banana_Republic_Impressing_Spy_Toys, I think I just might for kicks
and giggles.

--- Jodie, K6JLR

Tuesday, January 15, 2013, 10:29:41 PM, you wrote:

> http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Hambands_color.pdf

> The 50 - 54 MHz (6M) band is very protected by Amateur Radio Operators(HAMS)
> for Text Communications. Many Emergency Operations use this band for long
> distance text Comm Traffic. CW Meteor RADAR can use this band but must be
> below 50.1 MHz in Region 2 which include the Americas, the North Pacific
> Ocean, and parts of Antarctica.

> What you are probably hearing is bounce from HAMS TTYing each other. This
> traffic will come and go, and will be sporadic in frequency with MODEM
> Modulation in this Band.

> A well-designed antenna and 150 watt CW transmitter on 50 MHz may be
> detected reflecting Meteors very will as a Beacon at distances of hundreds
> of miles.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org
> [mailto:meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org] On Behalf Of Paul Goelz
> Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2013 8:58 AM
> To: meteorobs at meteorobs.org
> Subject: (meteorobs) Possible alternate meteor monitoring frequencies

> Not sure how much this applies to any particular area, but the last couple
> days I am getting weak but very detectable carriers on
> 55.255.9 and 55.271.6.  These are the actual carrier frequencies, so for a
> 1KHz beat note, tune to 1KHz lower (for USB reception).  These are in
> between the "standard" channel 2 analog video carrier frequencies, so I am
> not sure what they are.  On both frequencies, I detect obvious propagation
> flutter as well as airplane tracks.  I have seen a couple possible meteor
> returns, but the last day or two has been very quiet on the standard
> frequencies as well.

> I found these frequencies using a software defined radio ($16 TV tuner
> dongle and HDSDR software receiver) so I was initially suspicious that these
> were images or other spurious signals.  But they are present using my TS480
> on a different antenna so they would appear to be genuine.  Using an SDR
> makes finding weak signals child's play.  Simply look at the waterfall in
> the area of interest.  Spurious or local signals will show as continuous
> lines with no width or variation.  Signals arriving via ionospheric skip
> will show as lines of variable intensity.  Tune to one and if you observe
> airplane tracks, you have a potential meteor-useful signal.  Signals that
> would be difficult to detect simply by tuning around with a conventional
> receiver are easily found this way.

> My best guess is that these signals are either very low power analog TV
> repeaters, or possibly European TV.  The 10M ham band has been very active
> recently, and I am unsure how high the MUF has been.

> A possible explanation for the lack of meteor returns (aside from low meteor
> activity in general) might be that these signals arrive via more than one
> hop, making meteor enhancement less obvious.  ??

> Paul

> Paul Goelz
> pgoelz at comcast.net
> Rochester Hills, MI
> www.pgoelz.com 

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-- 
Best regards,
 Jodie                            mailto:spacerocks at spaceballoon.org



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