[aprssig] APRS Meteor Paths

[Bob Bruninga]

> As I was heading home last night, a station come in from 
> Sheffield VT to Hudson NH. The path was about 130 miles....

We have demonstrated packets coming in from 500 to 1100 miles away during
meteor events.  See the APRS meteor page:
http://aprs.org/meteors./html

We did this during meteor showers by going off to a different quieter
frequency (I suggest the same Propnet channel we use sometimes fo APRS DX
147.585).  But meteors are a 24/7/365 thing and so it is not at all
unexpected occasionally to see a lucky packet from a lucky trail at the
right geometery and when your particular HOME receiver happens to hear a
moment of silence.  So it is possible on 144.39.

But The Leonids is coming up soon... 17/18 Nov and the Geminids on 13/14
Nov.

If you really want to see some meteor packets, set up APRS on 6 meters.  It
is guaranteed to see 1000 mile direct packets during a meteor shower.  Go to
50.62 MHz and fire away.  APRSdos has a meteor mode built in, that would
fire off nearly continuous packets for 15 seconds out of every minute from
each of the 4 quadrants of the USA.  This way, 3 quadrants were listening
while one quadrant was sending.

But if nothing else, feel free to set at least once every few seconds
beacons during a MS on 50.62 MHz.

But remember, that some areas, Wash DC have an active 6m APRS channel there,
and so those poor guys will see heavy QRM (only from someone in that area
that is TXing)... They would be HAPPY to see a MS packet arrive too.

Remember that Meteor Reflections are specular... meaning that two people say
more than 50 miles apart can be TXing at the same time, but at some magic
distant point, only one will hit that spot at any particular ionized trail
instant.  Justs like now two people in the Disco see the same flash of light
from the disco ball at the same time, no matter how close together they are
standing.

See http://aprs.org/meteor.html

Bob, WB4APR