{"id":5282,"date":"2026-04-20T19:54:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T22:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.summersidearc.com\/?p=5282"},"modified":"2026-04-20T19:54:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T22:54:57","slug":"lyrid-meteor-scatter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.summersidearc.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/20\/lyrid-meteor-scatter\/","title":{"rendered":"Lyrid Meteor Scatter\u2026."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Meteor scatter radio, or MSR, is basically a method of radio communication that uses the ionized trails of meteors as reflectors.&nbsp; These trails, formed when meteors burn up in the Earth\u2019s atmosphere, act like temporary mirrors, bouncing radio signals over hundreds or even thousands of kilometers.&nbsp;&nbsp; I\u2019ve found that it\u2019s especially useful for VHF (Very High Frequency) communications, where signals normally travel in a straight line and are limited by the curvature of the Earth.&nbsp; Without meteor scatter, communicating over such distances at VHF frequencies would require incredibly high-powered transmitters and massive antennas, making it impractical for most Amateurs.&nbsp; These ionized trails typically last from a fraction of a second to several seconds, though larger meteors can create trails that persist for a minute or more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The best frequencies for meteor scatter are typically in the 50 MHz (6 meters) and 144 MHz (2 meters) bands. &nbsp;Digital modes like MSK144, which is part of the WSJT-X software suite, are particularly effective for meteor scatter communications due to their ability to decode signals from very brief meteor bursts.  I had a lot of fun and made many contacts mostly on 6 meters SSB&#8230;give it a try or at least a listen.  Your contact will usually be fast, just your call and signal report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Lyrid meteor shower occurs between April 16-25 every year.&nbsp; Lyrids are active throughout the second half of April; one important thing here is that the shower will reach its peak on April 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>GL de Ken   VY2RU<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meteor scatter radio, or MSR, is basically a method of radio communication that uses the ionized trails of meteors as reflectors.&nbsp; These trails, formed when meteors burn up in the Earth\u2019s atmosphere, act like temporary mirrors, bouncing radio signals over <a href=\"http:\/\/www.summersidearc.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/20\/lyrid-meteor-scatter\/\" class=\"read-more\">Read more\u2026 <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.summersidearc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.summersidearc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.summersidearc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.summersidearc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.summersidearc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5282"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.summersidearc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5284,"href":"http:\/\/www.summersidearc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5282\/revisions\/5284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.summersidearc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.summersidearc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.summersidearc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}