Unusual Meteor-Like Activity

[Bascombe Wilson]

For about 10 days, I've been seeing very unusual activity on the channel I use for meteor watch.  Setup is a six-meter Moxon about 6 meters off the ground, aiming to the east from Berthoud, Colorado, about 25 miles south of Fort Collins.  I have a Nooelec SDR with SDR# feeding SpectrumLab on a Windows 10 machine.  No preamp.

Frequency is 54.310 MHz (USB dial 54.3085 MHz) digital pilot carrier for TV channel 2.

Waterfaall time (left column) is UTC. Windows shows local time in lower right.  Audio frequency scale is in the upper margin of the radio window.

Normally, I can see light traces from 12 TV transmitters.  The two strongest will often give aircraft tracks.  Meteors usually peak in early morning and have a minimum early evening, as would be expected.

Just a few of the traces in the following three screenshots look like normal meteors.

At first, I thought I was seeing RFI, but now I think it's truly signal reflection / refraction from something.

Most days, the traces have peaked mid-day local time and come in swarms of 5 to 10 minutes.  A half hour later, another swarm.  I have rarely seen these in the evening, although it has happened.  80% of the signals show an increasing audio frequency over time, while 20% show a decreasing frequency.  It would be helpful to know locations of the carrier transmitters to do a rough Doppler calculation, but I lack that information.  The FCC database of TV stations shows channel allocations, but not the exact frequency used for the DTV pilot carrier, and stations are intentionally offset.

I am wondering if anyone else has seen similar events.

Possibly, Starlink or someone has been deorbiting a large number of small LEOs?

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

- Jay Wilson, W0AIR

[Hugo Post]

This is my best measurement at 20231104074103 from Dwingelo (Netherlands) to Iper (Belgium).

I do not see one station, only reflections of meteors:

20231104074103:

Op zo 5 nov 2023 om 23:01 schreef Bascombe Wilson <bascomb...@gmail.com>:

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[Hugo Post]

On the waterval the time is local, in the graph UTC

Op zo 5 nov 2023 om 23:11 schreef Hugo Post <hugop...@gmail.com>:

[Bascombe Wilson]

That is an impressive reflection.  Great screen capture.  Do you see those often?

[Hugo Post]

No, this is the first very big one, usually this are the big ones:

But normal it is like this:

Op ma 6 nov 2023 om 01:58 schreef Bascombe Wilson <bascomb...@gmail.com>:

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[Klaus Fenger]

Hello Hugo,

since for some weeks I detekt the same objekt for ca. 5 days at the same time. Is it a meteorit ? I will lock in datas.

73 de Klaus from north Germany

 

[Bascombe Wilson]

Klaus-

The object you are seeing on a regular basis would not be a meteor because individual meteors are seen as one-off events.

Depending on the signal source you are using, it is possible that you are seeing one or more Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites or perhaps high altitude aircraft.  The GRAVES radar in France, for example, can illuminate both.  TV signals reflected off aircraft are very common, so it is quite possible you are seeing a regularly scheduled aircraft.

Looking forward to hearing more details from you.

- Jay, W0AIR