Cape Town to Pretoria on meteor scatter

On 21 June Pine, ZS6OB, and Naz, ZS1NAZ, made a contact using meteor scatter on 2 metres over a distance of 1 298 km.

They used WSJT software, which has opened up a totally new world of communication for radio amateurs with modest equipment. The power used was 5watts. Pine used four 16-element Yagis, while Naz used a 12-element Yagi. The contact took place around midday, which is normally not the ideal time.

WSJT is a computer program for VHF/UHF communication using state of the art digital techniques. It can decode fraction-of-a-second signals reflected from ionized meteor trails, as well as steady signals more than 10 dB weaker than those required for conventional continuous wave or CW. One of its operating modes, JT65, is particularly optimized for amateur EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) communications. WSJT is open-source software.

To use WSJT one will need a computer equipped with a sound card and running the Microsoft Windows, Linux, or FreeBSD operating systems.

Meteor scatter communications is a radio propagation mode that exploits the ionized trails of meteors during atmospheric entry to establish brief communications paths between radio stations up to 2 250 kilometres apart. As the earth moves along its orbital path, tens of thousands of particles, known as meteors, enter the upper atmosphere. When these meteors begin to burn up, they create a trail of ionized particles that can persist for up to several seconds.

The ionization trails can be very dense and are thus used to reflect radio waves. The frequencies that can be reflected by any particular ion trail are determined by the intensity of the ionization created by the meteor, often a function of  the initial size of the particle, and are generally between 20 MHz and 500 MHz.

Naz and Pine would welcome opportunities to set up skeds with other stations. Send Pine an email to janpienaar@ananzi or to Naz with address erc@pola.co.za.