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Re: (meteorobs) Radio Meteors used in Practical Application?



Elton wrote:

>So, to fill in the blanks,  do any of our members know anything about this
>network, such as time frame, location, or persons involved. I would like
to know
>more specifics about it.  

I briefly mention this system on the AMS Radiometeor Project page:

http://www.amsmeteors.org/radmet.html

which says:

"In North America, the most widely known meteor burst communications system
is the SNOTEL system, used by The U.S. Natural Resources Water and Climate
Center, located in Portland, Oregon, to monitor rain and snowfall levels at
remote stations throughout the Rocky Mountains.  These stations are fully
automated weather stations and meteor burst transceivers, which relay their
information to a master station upon command (schanker, 1990).  "

The URL for the system is:

http://wrcc.sage.dridot edu/snotel.html

This system is run by a company called Meteor Communications Corporation
(MCC), operating out of Kent, Washington, if I recall correctly.  You might
try some more searches on SNOTEL or MCC in your favorite search engine.


Could it have been a military project as well? I have
>a faint recollection from my childhood (in the 50s) of my father mentioning
>something like this to me, while tuning in a Braves game one night  He was
>stationed at Mountain Home Idaho Air Force Base during the Korean conflict
in a
>"supply" squadron with 300 intelligence officers assigned (go figure!)
Could it
>be that this remote capability was used somewhere outside the United
States....
>where weather reports were needed from locales where telephone lines were
not 
>connected to Ma Bell!
>


The first such system was the JANET system, first developed in the early
1950's in North America.  (Canada / United States).  There was another
system which was used in the 50's / 60's to receive weather data from
remote locations in Alaska and Canada.  Meteor Burst Communication systems
are also used for encrypted communication, in addition to weather
monitoring.  There are now many such systems in operation around the world,
developed as a result of the cold war -- they provide a secure means of
long distance communication at relatively slow throughput rates in the
event that your satellite network gets knocked out.  Most of these systems
are operated by the military, and their extent, operational parameters, and
so forth are deemed classified.  MCC and another company named Pegasus were
the primary DOD contractors in the US back in 1991 or so, but I don't know
who is doing that work now.  As far as I know, SNOTEL is the only system
left which is "civilian" in nature, although an attempt was made to use
meteor burst communication for tracking trucks in the transportation
industry around 1990 and I don't know if it took off or not.  Most of the
models, studies, and scientific investigations done within the MBC
community are either clasified or propriatary, so I haven't been attempting
to follow the industry lately.

Take care,

     Jim



James Richardson
Department of Physics
Florida State University (FSU)

Operations Manager 
American Meteor Society (AMS)
http://www.amsmeteors.org


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