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Re: (meteorobs) Useful Meteor Energy...was something else?



At 13:32 11/19/98 -0800, Lauren Sobkoviak wrote:
>When I was assigned to Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, in the eighties, I wrote an
>article regarding the use of the ionized column to bounce radio waves from
>distance operating bases to the main base at Elmendorf.  I wish I could
>remember the name of the project, but I just can't right now.

Believe this was White Alice.

Of course, meteor scatter propagation, overlooked by others, was
"discovered" by Amateur Radio Operators long ago.  Owald G. Villard, Jr.,
W6QYT, of Stanford University, suggested it about 1945 (QST, Jan. 1946).
The Giacobinids (oops - Draconids) shower in 1946 produced many contacts on
50 MHz, tho probably many didn't know what was happening.

In the early 1950's, Paul Wilson, W4HHK, who still is active from
Collierville, TN, along with, I believe,  W2UK, W4AO, and W3GKP observed
"pings" on their 144-MHz signals and immediately begain to experiment.  In
1953, W4HHK and W2UK made the first intentional meteor scatter contact, on
144 MHz.  (I heard *both sides* of a MS contact between W4HHK and W1FZJ
[later of Aricebo] on 1955 August 12, having heard only a few pings on
their previous schedules).

In 1957, Walt Bain, W4LTU, wrote a seminal article on meteor scatter
propagation (QST, April 1957), and MS took off from there.  Around 1980,
the Europeans pioneered the use of high-speed Morse code for MS, using
programmable electronic keyers to send at a high rate and modified tape
recorders to record and then slow it back down.  While most operators are
pushed to copy 20 words per minute (WPM) code, this allowed speeds up to
400 WPM.  Last year, with the help of a computer program, the use of high
speed CW began in North America.  The DSP-function of the computer was used
to slow down the code even more, so that a number of contacts at up to 3300
WPM (!) have been made (tho this speed really isn't practical - 800 to 1200
WPM being the commonly-used speeds in N.A.).  This allows "pings" as short
as 0.02 seconds to contain usable information.  But the Morse code is still
copied by ear after slowing it down, as this is far beyond the ability of
current computers to handle.

And yes, I was on hand for the 1966 Leonids.
73, Shelby Ennis, W8WN
Shelby, W8WN - EM77bq
w8wn@ne.infidot net

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