Perseids

Old Reflector
1

I first discovered this meteor shower in 2002. I was camping in Essex with the lads and a mate and his kids. Me and my mate Steve were sat outside the tents after all the kids were asleep in their sleeping bags one night, drinking vodka. We both thought we had drank too much when we started seeing shooting stars! An amazing light show went on for hours and it was spectacular.

Well the peak of the annual event comes on Monday night/Tuesday morning, and I’m going to try and catch it from the summit of The Cloud G/SP-015, and try to get the best of the visual display - and enhanced conditions on 50MHz. Hope some chasers will be stopping up late - and the wx is good!

Conditions on 4m and 2m are also said to be enhanced by the Perseids.

Tom M1EYP

2

In reply to M1EYP:
Hi Tom,

I will be listening for you on Monday night but always struggle to work The Cloud on 2m.

Please check out the following link to my club website for more info about this subject http://www.g4nok.org/perseids-meteor-shower/

73 de Mick M0MDA

3

If it’s cloudy, tune your rig to about 143.04875 MHz on USB, stick a 2 metre antenna up (pointing south-ish if it’s directional), and listen for echos off meteor trails from the GRAVES system ( Graves (system) - Wikipedia ).

…and good luck with the meteor scatter contacts. :wink:

73, Rick M0LEP

4

Hmmm, I may in fact go for this tonight as well, maybe from Shining Tor G/SP-004, for the minimum light pollution.

BTW Mick, my intention is for 6m, not 2m. Thanks for the useful link, which directed me to some other useful links.

Tom M1EYP

5

In reply to M1EYP:
Hi Tom,

I will listen for you on 6m tomorrow if you are out and about. Unfortunately I will not be near a radio this evening.

Glad the link was useful :slight_smile:

73 de Mick M0MDA

6

In reply to M1EYP:

You get fewer meteors in the evening but a higher proportion of fireballs, which can be quite spectacular! Not much cloud about here so it looks promising for tonight - the trouble is that if I go out in the garden after dark, security lights come on from both sides of me! Perhaps my time will be better spent on the air!

73

Brian G8ADD

7

Do both - from Walton Hill.

Another excellent idea from M1EYP…

8

In reply to M1EYP:

http://www.uksmg.org/content/deadband.htm

Diurnal variation shown by graph.

9

In reply to M1EYP:

I’d love to, but it would take dynamite to get the XYL out on a Sunday evening!

I’m saving my effort to get her out for comet C2012 ISON in the autumn, it could be the brightest one of my lifetime, and my memory goes back to Arend-Roland!

73

Brian G8ADD

PS Look for noctilucent clouds this evening, its late in the season but not impossible.

10

In reply to G8ADD:

security lights come on from both sides of me!

Ugh! Set out a comfortable deck chair, put your feet up, and stay still. Perhaps they’ll go out… :wink:

(More seriously, (but straying well off SOTA) you probably have the law on your side if you want those lights properly shielded so they don’t shine into your property. See http://www.britastro.org/dark-skies/cleanact.html )

73, Rick M0LEP

11

Interesting stuff Richard. In reality, if activity is good tonight, what proportion of active stations will follow those suggested procedures?

Well I guess I’ll find out!

Tom M1EYP

12

In reply to M1EYP:

what proportion of active stations will follow those suggested procedures?

All of the stations who want to make SSB QSOs via scatter.

Andy
MM0FMF

13

Well that was bobbins.

Walking up Shining Tor G/SP-004 at 11pm on Sunday 11th August 2013, I suddenly remembered that I was absolutely shattered after my walks up Manod Mawr GW/NW-035 and Allt Fawr GW/NW-025 the previous day! “Why am I doing this?” was the question buzzing around in my head.

The bit between the path down to the Peak View Tea Rooms and the gate where you turn left and initially downhill for Shining Tor summit, seems a much longer section of walking in the dark!

As for meteors and fireballs, forget it. There were a few watery hazy stars occasionally visible through gaps in the cloud, but nothing else. Most of the sky was blanked out by cloud, the base of which was reflecting the orange glow from the lights of Macclesfield and Manchester. So skygazing for the Perseids was out.

I erected the 6m delta loop next to “Mickey’s Seat”, but despite lengthy calling, self-spotting, and use of all three modes - CW, SSB and FM - I made not a single 50MHz contact. Tuning around the band, I didn’t hear a single other station. I did hear a few beacons:

50.020MHz ED2YAH IN91sr
50.042MHz ?*
50.043MHz GB3MCB IO70oj
50.075MHz ED7YAD IM76qo
50.076MHz CS5BLA IM57px

*The transmission on 50.042MHz was strange, and appeared to be the following string repeated: TEAVSETETIAVAEETEVEEEETEENEET - This left me rather mystified!

Anyway, I wasn’t prepared to leave the summit empty handed, so I resorted to the VX7R handie to ensure that some activator QSOs took place. Three were made on 2m FM before midnight UTC.

And then after more nothingness on 50MHz, three more 2m FM QSOs were made after 0000 UTC on Monday 12th August 2013. A heavy shower could be seen approaching from the west, and I deployed the bothy bag just before it hit me. It did not last long, and I was able to pack away and descend in the dry. I kept me eyes open for meteors on the walk back to the car, but gaps in the clouds were infrequent and didn’t allow lengthy examination with the headtorch turned off anyway.

I have tried to catch the Perseids several times in the last ten years. But I have never seen anything like the spectacular display seen from the Strangers Home camspite in Essex back in 2002.

Tom M1EYP

14

In reply to M1EYP:

Hello Tom,

“…As for meteors and fireballs, forget it.”

Lots of MS activity today (EU and elsewhere) on 2M & 6M and as I glance at the dx-cluster right now the last 4 of 10 spots have been MS.

Mike G6TUH

15

In reply to M1EYP:

Random MS can be challenging Tom. I think you really need a beam rather than the loop. You need to point the beam along the expected track of the trails to maximise the reflection path. When I’ve tried it on 6m (some 15 years back now) the reflections could last for upto 2+mins. When there was a suitable trail 6m sounded like 20m! You need patience and lots of it.

Nowadays use of programs like WSJT make it possible to have effective QSOs (OK exchange of call and report) using random meteors 24hrs/day with much more fun during the showers. But it’ still hit and miss. But you can leave the PC doing its stuff whilst you do something else.

But, MS is an effective 24hr/day comms propagation medium. The old BMEWS sites (Flyingdales Golf Balls etc.) used full duplex RTTY links via MS. 5-7ele beams were used with about 1kW of RF on frequencies near 50MHz. Each end sent a continuous probing signal that the far end listened for. When one could hear the probing signal it knew there was a viable path to the far end and would transmit packets of data. Whilst there would be periods of no communications, the throughput statisically averaged out at near 9600bps. The best thing was that if your war went from cold to hot and someone’s EMP had taken out your satellites and terrestrial microwave links, MS and high power troposcatter links (HIGH ACE) would still work. Assuming your antennas hadn’t been vapourised when things went hot in the first place. :wink:

Andy

16

In reply to MM0FMF & M1EYP:

Yes I agree about a beam.

Tom - I use Dimension4 for time sync - free and works extremely well. I have the machines here synced to a Swiss time server (you can choose which server around the globe) with a poll rate of 120sec intervals. Not sure if it works on other platforms - here Win7.

http://www.thinkman.com/dimension4/download.htm

Mike G6TUH

17

In reply to M1EYP:
Hi tom will you have any two metre kit with you tonight i gave a couple of calls for you on s20 about twelve fithteen but heard nothing Dave M3XIE

18
  1. Yes, always have 2m kit with me.
  2. Made plenty of calls on 2m FM last night - worked into Wrexham, Northwich, Manchester etc.
  3. Have cancelled alert for tonight.
  4. May reconsider and go and do it after all.

:wink:

Tom M1EYP

19

In reply to thread:

OT, but now the Perseid are fading I’m going to watch the Nova in Delphinus:

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/Bright-Nova-in-Delphinus-219631281.html

73

Brian G8ADD

20

In reply to G8ADD:
…and there’s a handy picture in today’s APOD: APOD: 2013 August 16 - Nova Delphini 2013

73, Rick M0LEP