[HCDX] Merlin to test during Leonids

[jerry.monroe@xxxxxxxxxxx]

The following is from RGSB website in Britain, this is interesting since I have always associated meteor scatter (MS)
 DX to VHF (FM band) frequencies. 
It might be possible to ID other stations not normally heard in the middle of the night perhaps when they are playing 
their interval signal.  Normally quiet bands like 16 and 13 meters would be likely targets.
Any suggestions?

Leonids Meteor Shower Occurs This Week

For this year's Leonids meteor shower, which should be observable around Thursday the 16th, 
Friday the 17th and Saturday the 18th of November, Trevor Sanderson, G4OEY, and colleagues 
in the Space Science Department at the European Space Agency's Technical and Research Centre 
have made arrangements with the BBC's service provider, Merlin Communications, to leave one of 
their 17640kHz World Service transmitters switched on from 2000 to 0400UTC on the nights of Monday 
the 13th to Sunday the 19th of November. 

This transmitter is normally only transmitting from 0700 to 1500UTC. 

More details can be found on the ESA's web site, and there's a link from the RSGB's site at www.rsgb.org 
Anyone within the skip zone of the transmitter with suitable equipment - such as a general-coverage receiver
 with SSB mode, a good antenna, and a PC with suitable software - should be able to use the Doppler Method 
to detect the meteors. G4OEY described the Peter Martinez, G3PLX, method of using the Doppler effect to 
detect reflections of radio signals from the Leonid meteor shower in the March 2000 issue of RadCom, and the 
original article by G3PLX can be found in the May 1998 RadCom. 
Suitable free software can be downloaded from the web site of Bev, G3URZ / CT1EGC, and a link is provided from 
the RSGB web site. 

Unfortunately the freeware does not allow files to be stored, but with the fully-licensed software the programme can 
be left running overnight and the results stored in a file.Tests conducted on a sporadic meteor stream a week ago 
gave echoes in the early hours of the morning of around 50 per hour. 
Expected Leonids echoes will be much higher during the shower time and the best results this week are also 
likely to occur in the early hours of the morning.
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