Meteor-scatter contact between Wales and Bulgaria

Meteor scatter contacts are entirely different from radio contacts on the high frequency ham bands, so let us tell you how the story went on, because this contact is quite an achievement.

Gordon, GW8ASA/GW3NDB approached our DX Editor Dimiter by e-mail on August 9 saying that the previous night on 144 MHz meteor scatter he heard LZ9X calling CQ. He went straight to the QSY frequency and started calling, sending a report of 26 26. Some time later he received the magic GW8ASA LZ9X R27 R27. He then switched to sending ASA RRRRRRRR and did so until he saw that LZ9X was calling CQ again on 370 some 40 minutes later.

According to the IARU meteor scatter procedure, Gordon could have stopped sending RRRRRRRR after 3 periods and the contact would have still been valid. However, he would love to know if LZ9X did get his RRR. Later on Gordon spoke with LZ9X members in the ON4KST two meter chat room on the Internet who confirmed that the meteor scatter contact was indeed completed.

GW8ASA used IC910 with MGF1302 pre-amplifier, solid state amplifier providing 200 watts and a 9 element Yagi antenna. His station is 76 meters above sea level near the South Wales coast, IO81EM.

LZ9X was operated by several Bulgarian radio amateurs on Chumerna Peak in the eastern Balkan Mountain Range. No data on their equipment used is available at the moment. A distance of 2424 km was covered in this fascinating meteor scatter contact! Congratulations to both parties!

Dimiter Petrov, LZ1AF
DX Editor, Radio Bulgaria

Other recent stories..

Other News Stories

• Get our news headlines for your website - click here
• Submit your news story - click here