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Meteor Scatter 

Meteor Scatter is a specialised form of radio propagation practiced by a number of amateurs around the world. Contacts of between 500 and 1400 miles can be made at 28 through to 433MHz via reflections from the ionised trails left by meteors as they travel through the ionosphere. The kinetic energy of meteors no larger than grains of rice are sufficient to ionise a column of air 12 miles long in the E layer. Although the particle itself never reached the ground, the ionised column may persist for a minute or more before it dissipates which is sufficient to make brief contacts by reflections from the ionised trails.

The preferred mode of operation for meteor scatter is CW and usually high speed CW. The prime band for MS work is MHz but 144 is also widely used. The early morning hours around dawn are usually best for MS operation because the morning side if the earth faces in the direction of the planets orbit around the sun.The maximum velocity of meteors around the sun is 42km/sec but when  the relative velocity of the earth is considered, most meteors enter the earths atmosphere somewhere between 12 and 72km/sec.

Meteor contacts ranging from a few seconds to more than a minute can be made nearly any morning at 28 and 50 MHz but contacts at 144 and higher are more difficult because reflected signal strength and duration drop sharply with increasing frequency.

The best months for MS opportunities are July and August because the average number of meteors entering the earths atmosphere peaks during those months.

Because of the speed at which meteors travel only fleeting moments of communication are possible. Special techniques are therefore used to enhance the chances of completing a contact. Pre-arranged schedules and high speed morse code are popular and these are often supplemented by specialised computer programs and recording techniques which can make effective use of very short meteor bursts.