It’s been a while since my last blog entry. I spent most of last week on the radio (when not in QRL) doing Meteor Scatter mainly on 2 m but a bit on 6 m, too. It’s been the time of the Perseids meteor shower that passes earth every year in early August.
I started using Meteor Scatter on 2 m myself about 20 years ago and have very fond memories of a lot of nice contacts made in highspeed CW and SSB. Nowadays almost all activity concentrates on digital modes like JT6M and FSK441 thanks to the efforts of Nobel laureate Joe Taylor, K1JT, and his WSJT software suite. It sure made MS (as Meteor Scatter is abbreviated) much easier. SSB is just used during the peak of a shower when you can expect reflections of several seconds up to a minute or so. This year’s shower was not outstanding but not too bad either. I’d classify it as “normal”. SSB activity was quite low but that might be related to the fact the shower peaked in the middle of the night from 12th to 13th August in a normal working week. I had set up a sked with Jussi, OH5LK, an old time VHF friend, to work on SSB MS hoping for a big enough “stone” to be able to complete our QSO in a single reflection. Maybe it was just bad timing but we needed almost 45 minutes to complete. Reminded me of all those many hours spent on CW & SSB in earlier years to work a new one when things were still more difficult and activity much lower. 😉
MS is an easy way to work new squares on VHF. This shower was no exception. There had been a few guys activating rare grid squares as well as residential guys providing new ones by popping up to do some MS QSOs. As activity is higher than normal you also happen to work some nice tropo contacts in-between. These are the almost one hundred QSOs worked on 6 & 2 m during Perseids, the asterisks denoting new locators on the respective bands. My grid square totals are up to 617 on 6 m and 503 on 2 m now. 🙂
------------------------------------------------------------------ DATE TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR BAND MODE PRO. QRB ------------------------------------------------------------------ 03/08/14 20:53 GM4ZJI IO86KE 2 m. FSK4 MS 1159 03/08/14 22:23 EI6GF IO62RG 6 m. JT6M MS 1396 04/08/14 17:06 G3VYF JOØ1FN 6 m. JT6M MS 949 04/08/14 19:51 SP3BJK JO81HT 6 m. JT6M TR 224 04/08/14 19:57 S58P JN76ID 6 m. JT6M MS 784 04/08/14 20:06 SA3AZK JP73GF * 2 m. FSK4 MS 1116 04/08/14 20:27 E77AR JN94AS 2 m. FSK4 MS 976 04/08/14 20:59 F5GXX IN95LP 2 m. FSK4 MS 1381 04/08/14 21:13 EI8IQ IO62SF * 2 m. FSK4 MS 1391 04/08/14 21:18 F8GGD IN95UQ 2 m. FSK4 MS 1335 05/08/14 16:49 UT5ERP KN77AQ 6 m. CW ES 1525 05/08/14 21:15 IV3DXW JN65QQ 2 m. JT65 TR 836 05/08/14 21:50 S51AT JN75GW 2 m. FSK4 MS 806 06/08/14 21:27 DL8NP JN58SC 2 m. CW TR 595 06/08/14 21:29 DL8NP JN58SC 2 m. SSB TR 595 07/08/14 20:04 OH8MGK KP23PQ * 6 m. JT6M MS 1329 07/08/14 21:16 UT3UX KO5ØHJ 2 m. FSK4 MS 1168 07/08/14 21:46 F5GHP IN96LE 2 m. FSK4 MS 1340 08/08/14 20:47 RA3MAU KO97XP * 2 m. FSK4 MS 1687 09/08/14 06:59 EB5AL IN9ØWB * 2 m. FSK4 MS 1817 09/08/14 07:36 LA9BM JP4ØCM * 6 m. CW MS 892 09/08/14 07:54 UR5LAK KN89KL 6 m. JT6M MS 1620 09/08/14 08:28 GØCHE IO9ØPS 2 m. FSK4 MS 1054 09/08/14 08:38 GØHVQ IO81UX 2 m. FSK4 MS 1120 09/08/14 08:48 GW8JLY IO81JM 2 m. FSK4 MS 1194 09/08/14 09:24 F6IFX/P IN87XC * 2 m. FSK4 MS 1336 09/08/14 10:06 YL/OK1MU KOØ7SH 2 m. SSB TR 652 09/08/14 18:28 IW7DEC JN81GF * 2 m. FSK4 MS 1341 09/08/14 21:01 R5BI KO86OQ 2 m. FSK4 MS 1511 09/08/14 21:50 USØLW KO8ØEE 6 m. JT6M MS 1557 10/08/14 05:45 OH9HEU KP25TD 2 m. FSK4 MS 1475 10/08/14 06:08 RM5P KO94HA 2 m. FSK4 MS 1605 10/08/14 06:26 SM2A KPØ4NP 2 m. FSK4 MS 1332 10/08/14 06:52 G6VXB/P IO95EN 2 m. FSK4 MS 1056 10/08/14 07:17 OK2PMS JN89WW * 6 m. JT6M MS 441 10/08/14 07:53 OH7AZL KP33ON * 2 m. FSK4 MS 1374 10/08/14 08:52 F4EZJ JNØ5DK 2 m. FSK4 MS 1322 10/08/14 09:12 SM/PA2DW JP84HP * 2 m. FSK4 MS 1281 10/08/14 09:40 EA3LL JNØ1NE 6 m. JT6M MS 1655 10/08/14 10:02 SP3MIP JO82HX 2 m. FSK4 TR 163 10/08/14 10:58 F1MPQ JNØ8XS 2 m. FSK4 MS 986 10/08/14 17:23 EI9E/P IO41TU * 6 m. JT6M MS 1661 10/08/14 21:58 EI9E/P IO41TU * 2 m. FSK4 MS 1661 10/08/14 22:27 SP7QJF KO1ØFQ 6 m. JT6M MS 629 11/08/14 17:28 YO6OBK KN26TR * 2 m. FSK4 MS 1085 11/08/14 21:18 F/PA5MS JNØ4MW 2 m. FSK4 MS 1323 11/08/14 21:44 UW8SM KN28IV 2 m. FSK4 MS 874 11/08/14 22:35 EA3BTZ JN11BI 2 m. FSK4 MS 1596 12/08/14 05:55 RU1MS KO48VR 2 m. FSK4 MS 1145 12/08/14 06:23 OH9EKT KP38SP * 2 m. FSK4 MS 1854 12/08/14 06:47 F6APE IN97QI 2 m. FSK4 MS 1234 12/08/14 16:40 RW3XR KO73FU 2 m. FSK4 MS 1336 12/08/14 17:57 UA1OEJ KP94VN * 2 m. FSK4 MS 1915 12/08/14 18:17 RM1A KO59BU 2 m. FSK4 MS 1220 12/08/14 18:58 R3YA KO73FA 2 m. FSK4 MS 1347 12/08/14 19:33 R3ICQ KO77LJ 2 m. FSK4 MS 1388 12/08/14 19:43 RK3AF KO75WO 2 m. FSK4 MS 1422 12/08/14 19:51 UT2UB KO4ØUO 2 m. FSK4 MS 1099 12/08/14 20:14 OH2LKV KP2ØIL 2 m. FSK4 MS 1029 12/08/14 20:54 EI7IX IO53FT 2 m. FSK4 MS 1565 12/08/14 21:14 EI8HH IO53HN 2 m. FSK4 MS 1557 12/08/14 21:41 UA1ANA KO59EW 2 m. FSK4 MS 1237 12/08/14 21:55 OH6UW KP22WH 2 m. FSK4 MS 1224 12/08/14 22:00 EU6AF KO35LA 2 m. FSK4 MS 854 12/08/14 22:24 RA3UAG LOØ6GU 2 m. FSK4 MS 1715 12/08/14 23:08 OH5LK KP3ØON 2 m. SSB MS 1134 12/08/14 23:38 YL/OK2ZAW KO17BF 2 m. FSK4 MS 673 12/08/14 23:46 RN3A KO85NV 2 m. FSK4 MS 1501 12/08/14 23:59 US5EY KN67RX 2 m. FSK4 MS 1471 13/08/14 00:02 UW7LL/A KN66IQ 2 m. FSK4 MS 1502 13/08/14 17:12 EA3AXV JNØ1TJ 2 m. FSK4 MS 1613 13/08/14 20:03 RV3MA KO98JB * 2 m. FSK4 MS 1624 13/08/14 20:10 SM7SJR JO87FB * 6 m. CW TR 454 13/08/14 20:20 SP8SN KO11FI * 6 m. JT6M MS 597 13/08/14 21:02 GD6ICR IO74PF 2 m. FSK4 MS 1246 13/08/14 21:27 F1NZC JN15MR * 2 m. FSK4 MS 1154 13/08/14 21:39 YL2DA KOØ6MM 2 m. FSK4 TR 573 13/08/14 21:49 G8RWG IO91WH 2 m. FSK4 MS 996 13/08/14 21:55 F6BEG JN25JS 2 m. FSK4 MS 1067 13/08/14 22:15 F8DO JN26IF 2 m. FSK4 MS 1030 14/08/14 19:54 SM5P JO88FX * 6 m. CW TR 659 14/08/14 20:13 SM3LWP JP72NC * 6 m. JT6M MS 993 14/08/14 20:23 OZ7KJ JO46ML 6 m. CW TR 493 14/08/14 20:33 IW2HAJ JN45NO 6 m. JT6M MS 919 14/08/14 20:59 GM4VVX IO78TA 6 m. FSK4 MS 1279 14/08/14 21:35 IKØOKY JN61ES 6 m. JT6M MS 1276 14/08/14 21:41 I6WJB JN72CK 6 m. JT6M MS 1195 ------------------------------------------------------------------
After spending so much time on the radio I certainly need a break now! 😉 Will be driving some 600 km tomorrow to meet some contester friends at DP9A in Jessen. Andy, DK4WA, invited me to joing their annual BBQ so looking forward to some “non-radio contacts” now. 😉