Space.com reports that this year's Aug11/12 Perseid shower will be unusually intense. This promises potentially spectacular meteor burst sporadic E propagation, especially at 6m and 2m. For details see: http://www.space.com/33648-perseid-meteor-shower-extra-awesome-2016.html
Now for hams that's some good news related to a comet! The "Ping Jockeys" should be very active. Get ready for some "blue whizzers"!! The advent of WSJT digi modes has been a big boost for working this type of prop, but more traditional SSB/CW (or HSCW!) still work fine especially in bigger events like this could be. Those who don't do VHF all-mode (why not?) but have HF should realize that 28 MHz, now mostly dead for longer DX propagation, also works very well for meteor scatter. That's how I was able to nab the otherwise too close (to FL) Navassa expedition on 10m SSB last year. I'll be listening for you "on the rocks"! 73 de John - WØPV
The Perseid meteor shower will be available to listen to audibly via Stan Nielson's - KB5VL online feed http://www.roswellmeteor.com/index.html originating from Roswell, NM. It also contains near real time meteor return received graphical results http://www.roswellmeteor.com/meteor-charts.html from low band ATSC TV pilot carriers as well as HF 25.00 MHz. Both KB5VL and K0LGI will be updating the received chart results throughout this years Perseid meteor shower event. Denny - K0LGI -
Most VHF rigs aren't all mode. But I wish they were. My old 706MKIIG is, but my newer 7200 is not. Seems like things are going backwards. Hope to see you all next year when I get setup at the new QTH. I'll have a year to figure out what these 'pings' are about.
According to the sky map for Thursday (for USA-Canada) it looks like the Perseid meteor shower will be higher in the sky on Thursday between around 04:00 AM local time and Noon local time. That's not the best time to view it, but it should be better for radio bounces. See you on 28.400 kHz USB.
Tune to 54.3085 MHz USB or 60.3085 MHz USB to listen for meteor pings. This is a web receiver tuned to a TV transmitter: http://www.livemeteors.com/ Good article by Dennis K0LGI on monitoring modern digi TV signals for meteor burst communications: http://www.roswellmeteor.com/Receiving Meteor Reflections Using DTV Transmitters.pdf
