Potential HamSCI Project on a Forward-Scatter Meteor Radar Network

[Ciprian Sufitchi]

Hello,

My name is Chip, N2YO. I am an amateur radio operator with interests in DXing, contesting, HF propagation, radio astronomy, and related fields. I am also a member of SARA (Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers) and operate the LiveMeteors.com website.

I contacted Nathaniel, W2NAF, about two weeks ago but have not received a response, so I am assuming my message may have ended up in a spam folder.

I am writing to ask whether HamSCI might be interested in discussing the feasibility of a project that I believe aligns well with the missions of both HamSCI and SARA.

The concept is to develop a distributed, GPS-disciplined forward-scatter radar network for meteor trajectory reconstruction and radio meteor astronomy. The basic idea would be to obtain a license for a low-power CW beacon operating around 50 MHz and install it at a suitable location in the continental United States, ideally at a university or research institution. A distributed network of volunteer-operated, GPS-synchronized SDR receivers would detect reflections from meteor trails. By combining observations from multiple receiving sites using interferometric and time-difference-of-arrival techniques, it should be possible to estimate meteor trajectories, velocities, altitudes, and radiants.

Such a network could complement existing optical meteor observations by providing continuous radio coverage, including daytime observations and the detection of weak or otherwise optically unobservable meteor showers. In the longer term, it might also contribute to identifying previously unknown or extinct meteor streams associated with dormant comets.

The overall concept is not entirely new. Similar principles are employed by the BRAMS network in Belgium, which uses forward scatter, and by the Canadian Meteor Orbit Radar (CMOR), which uses a backscatter configuration. However, I believe there is an opportunity to develop a coordinated citizen-science network in North America, with an emphasis on calibrated instrumentation, open data, and radio astronomy applications.

Another attractive aspect is that the required funding appears relatively modest. Most receiving stations could be volunteer-operated using existing SDR equipment, while the primary infrastructure would consist of the beacon, supporting software, and a centralized data-processing system. This could make the project well suited for collaboration among HamSCI, SARA, universities, and other interested organizations.

I would greatly appreciate any thoughts on the feasibility of such a project, whether similar efforts are already underway within HamSCI, and whether this might be something worth discussing further.

73,

Chip, N2YO
LiveMeteors.com

[gwyn griffiths]

Hello Chip

This is a fascinating topic. You may consider reaching out to the UK group on this topic via Brian Coleman G4NNS

see https://britastro.org/journal_contents_ite/uk-radio-meteor-beacon

Brian's email is not on his qrz.com page, but if you would like it, please PM me.

73

Gwyn G3ZIL

[Jonathan]

Hi Chip,

Would you be able to volunteer and lead the effort within HamSCI? If so, I know how to spearhead a citizen science receiver system for VHF meteor scatter ping detection, pretty much right out of the box which utilizes a GNSS disciplined SDR and vlfrx-tools software. These systems can contribute to a central server for observational analysis like you mentioned. The receive systems I have in mind can easily be built using common off the shelf components with the open source toolkit written by Paul Nicholson G8LMD [SK], a pioneer in VLF reception at home and automated VHF meteor scatter ping detection. His software and system setup can be found here. I strongly encourage you to take a look at this system as it shows how feasible this design is. Paul is one of my personal heroes and one of my goals is to continue Paul's work. I think this is a great way to do this and make this turn key for HamSCI citizen science.

Paul utilized the GB3MBA beacon (which Gwyn kindly linked) for this system design proof. I'm the VLF lead of HamSCI and I wanted to add this capability to the VLF reception systems I'm designing because I also use vlfrx-tools. It would be possible to deploy a network of these systems. 

Would you be interested in leading this effort? I can help with the receiver system as it has many parallels with the work I'm doing. 

Jonathan

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[Ciprian Sufitchi]

Hi Gwyn,

 

Brian contacted me, thank you!

For this project the most critical part is a commitment from a site owner (or a couple of owners and locations) to host the beacon and antenna on the roof or on a tower. Apparently I am not able to find that. The hardware, licensing, electricity, maintenance costs are not trivial but they are manageable (grant, organization funding etc). What's missing right now is initiative, vision, leadership, a network of good contacts here in US.

 

73 de Chip N2YO

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[Ciprian Sufitchi]

Hi Jonathan,

 

Thank you very much for the offer. Yes, it would be exciting to play a leading role in developing a forward-scatter meteor network.

 

With this project, I think one of the most difficult challenges will be finding suitable locations where the beacons can be licensed, installed, and maintained - or at least finding the right people to facilitate those things.

 

It may sound easy, but I doubt an enthusiast involved in meteor scatter would be particularly thrilled to have a 6-meter, 100-watt beacon running on the roof of their house or in their backyard, as it could potentially interfere with or overload their own receiving equipment.

 

A college or other educational institution somewhere in the eastern United States might be an ideal location for such an installation, but we would need people actively involved with those institutions who could help make it happen.

 

For example, the GB3MBA UK Radio Meteor transmitter is located at the Sherwood Observatory. In Belgium, the beacon was installed at the Centre de Géophysique du Globe, which is part of the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium.

 

Do we know of any enthusiastic group, university, observatory, or other institution in the U.S. that might be interested in hosting such a transmitter?

 

73 de Chip, N2YO

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[Mark Braunstein]

Chip,

First, I really appreciate you running the livemeteors.com website. I frequently tell others about this site as a way to "see" meteors when they are not visible (due to cloud cover) and as a way to make people aware that meteors enter the atmosphere all the time, not just during meteor showers. 

As for potential beacon sites, I'd suggest looking at this list first: 

https://www.newsvhf.com/beacons6.html

The list appears to be quite dated (16MAR2020) so a refresh is definitely warranted. That said, there appear to be a few US-based stations running 6m beacons that might be willing to host additional beacon equipment. 

73,

Mark Braunstein WA4KFZ

[Jonathan]

Hi Chip,

I don't think it's safe to assume that everyone would be against hosting a 6m beacon. With volunteers hosting HamSCI instrumentation, the benefit is for science, so that is the motivation. Some amateur radio operators don't even use those bands as well (including myself).

First, I would come up with a roadmap. You would need actual beacon hardware to host, so perhaps you can come up with an open hardware and open source design for a GNSS disiplined beacon, or perhaps the GB3MBA beacon hardware design can be used. The design should have some sort of remote control via Internet for remote operator control. Once that is finalized, we can find hosts within the pool on interested HamSCI volunteers in addition to observatories and colleges. Volunteers can build the beacon hardware and it also may be possible for future grant funding. 

Then, receive systems can be constructed according to Paul's design and vlfrx-tools software for automated ping detection. I think it's a viable plan.

Jonathan

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[Kristina Collins]

Hi Chip et al,

This sounds like an intriguing idea. May I suggest forming a HamSCI Working Group for it? 

-KC

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[Phil Erickson]

Hi all,

  The professional meteor scatter radar community has some experience that doesn't advocate for transmitters in volunteer locations, and this mirrors Chip's original statements.  Systems like the multistatic radars being deployed in multiple locations by the group at IAP Kuhlungsborn have found it is far more workable to widely distribute receivers and keep the transmitters in a carefully controlled location.  

  In the cited case, one factor is the need to get a license to transmit the kind of wideband codes they use for design reasons, and that is tied to physical location.  Although that isn't as much of a factor for amateur radio (provided one obeys all the Part 97 bandwidth limitations in the US code), there are three common problems that crop up:

a) intermodulation products on different bands than the beacon for the site or its neighbors if you have a CW setup and are trying to use receivers in the vicinity

b) potential desensitization of receivers at the site being used for other purposes, which can sometimes happen with bright out of band transmissions (think dynamic range) and which is different from setup to setup

c) RF safety: if the general public non-amateur (relative, friend, whomever) happens to come in contact with the RX antenna wire, no problem.  Not so much for the TX antenna.  Now liabilities appear.  (Consider for example that ARRL now requires amateurs to conduct even a simple RF safety survey of their equipment and document it.)

  If a working group does indeed get formed, there is a lot of practical experience from the other communities that do VHF remote sensing which is useful to consider.

73

Phil W1PJE

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[Ciprian Sufitchi]

Hi Kristina,

 

I emailed you a proposal for a new working group.

 

73 de Chip N2YO

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[Jonathan]

Hi Phil,

In this case for meteor pings, it's just a carrier beacon and the only modulation that would be used is used for station identification, right, or is there more to it than this? I'm not familar with the rules and power limits specifically.

Jonathan 

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[Phil Erickson]

Hi Jonathan,

  Doppler shifts from a CW carrier are one piece of information - but more is obtainable with a frequency shift keying scheme (FT8 flavor) or equivalent during the time when the channel is open.  VHF propagation studies can provide clues as to good modulation schemes beyond simple carriers.  The system deserves a careful thought process of what the target scientific measurement is, and what balance needs to be maintained between complexity/ease of use and output variables.  The other considerations about intermod and RF safety exist regardless when the system is away from a controlled environment.  Maintaining a transmitter that is on all the time starts to have significant challenges.  Part 97 is also mandatory reading for anyone who is going to transmit continuously.  

  The working group is a capital idea.

73

Phil W1PJE

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[Wes Stewart]

Although I am mostly a lurker in this forum, I was making two-way CW contacts via meteor scatter on the 2M amateur band before most, if not all, of you were born (1974). So my ears perk up a bit when MS is mentioned.  I seriously doubt that I would be a party to this but I do have a couple of comments, speaking entirely from an amateur radio perspective.

1)  I am ignorant about what type of modulation/coding is anticipated, but Phil states that this isn't a factor for an amateur radio installation.

2)  With modern technology IMD is a manageable issue.  Hams are operating HF stations with multiple transmitters feeding the same antenna and VHF/UHF stations running full duplex with the same antenna.

3)  RF safety is almost a non-issue. I can't imagine a viable TX antenna that is within reach of anyone.  A mast, tower or roof mounted antenna by its nature is hard to access accidentally. ARRL has no regulatory authority, BTW.

My two cents

Wes, N7WS

[Denim Leather]

Hi Chip, very interested in hosting a receiver. I have the land for a transmitter but not the terrain most likely. I live in what Appalachia calls a "holler". A narrow mountain valley with steep walls. Please include me in your community. I am a career IT person so I can contribute that knowledge. 

Thanks

Denim

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[Rob Robinett]

All the 20+ HamSCI DASI rx sites will be recording MSK144 on 10and 6m 24/7.  The rx888s are GPSDO frequency accurate, and recordings are time accurate to  better than 1 uSec.  

So the spots will be logged to PSKReporter and a public table at wsprdaemon.org.

Full spectrum 12Ksps IQ wav files could be cached and made available to researchers.

If MSK144 isn't appropriate, then a recording service specific to this project could be easily added to the SW running at those sites.

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[Ciprian Sufitchi]

In my opinion with a single beacon on a very well known precise frecuency, a pure signal of a stability given by an external GPS disciplined generator should not be modulated in any way. This could provide excellent Doppler measurements, a maximum sensitivity to detect weak meteors. Additionally, intereferometry work is possible.

 

Beacon identification should be provided as FCC requires probably by morse code, or voice at specific times. Under 47 CFR § 5.115(a), a conventional experimental station must transmit its assigned FCC call sign unless the station authorization specifically exempts it. For a project involving continuous, frequent, or extended operation, the beacon is not required to transmit the call sign after every transmission; instead, the call sign must be transmitted at least once every 30 minutes.

 

I would not rule out FCC Part 5 (Experimental Radio Service) instead of Part 97. This is the regulatory framework that lets an organization or qualified individual intentionally transmit radio signals for scientific research, engineering experimentation, testing, or development, even when the transmission doesn't fit the normal rules of an existing radio service. FCC can issue an experimental authorization specifying the frequency, power, emission, location, antenna, duration, and other conditions.

 

73 de Chip N2YO

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[J. Gordon Beattie, Jr.]

73
Phil W1PJE,

Interesting comments about the use of "volunteers" to transmit.  

I still think that they could be coordinated into the system.

One small point is that the ARRL does not require an amateur radio operator to perform a basic RF safety check, but the FCC does.

;-)

73,

Gordon Beattie, W2TTT 

201.314.6964 

W2...@ATT.NET

Gordon.B...@VIAVISolutions.us

Get On The Air!

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[Jonathan]

Hi Phil,

I agree that meteor pings are one piece of information. With vlfrx-tools, Paul Nicholson wrote a detector to capture them in an automated way with precision GNSS timestamping that can be put together by the amateur and citizen science community. To my understanding, there are no other automated detectors and the process is fairly manual, but I could be wrong. That was why I was advocating for such GNSS disciplined beacons as GB3MBA as deployment of those and vlfrx-tools-based receive systems to generate a novel data set.

However, I do agree, complete understanding of Part 97, RF safety, and possible intermodulation are challenges that need to be overcome.

Jonathan

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[Rob Suggs]

Hi Chip,

Sorry I haven't been monitoring this reflector for a while and I'm joining the party kind of late.

Jay Weitzen/UMass Lowell and I have been working on a mission statement for a Meteor Scatter Working Group for a couple of weeks now. You are probably aware that HamSCI has been sponsoring a Meteor Scatter QSO Party for over a year now and we have collected a considerable amount of MSK144 data from hams which has been uploaded to Zenodo. Some details are at hamsci.org/msqp. We have done some preliminary dives into the data but have a lot of additional work to do. Of course, the problem with such data is that the transmitters are operational only episodically, generally in the morning hours for sporadics and certainly during major showers. I really like your idea of dedicated beacons either CW or MSK144 or both operating 24/7 to avoid the data gaps we now have. I have been experimenting with a system that monitors digital TV station pilot tones and counts underdense meteors for a couple of years now from the NASA MSFC Amateur Radio Club station (NN4SA) using channel 3 at about 60 MHz. There are 4 or 5 distinct pilot tones in our 3 kHz receiver bandpass and, although I have the FCC database, I'm not sure which transmitter corresponds to which frequency. I think this data would be very useful if that identification could be made. I did this using the old analog video carriers about 25 years ago but the switch to digital TV significantly reduced the power in the available CW signal. 

Jay did his doctoral work on meteor scatter and I'm an astronomer retired from NASA. I worked with the NASA Meteoroid Environment Office for many years and am very familiar with CMOR and UWO. 

In short, we are forming such a working group and would love to have you on-board to help us formulate the best way forward. We have been planning to establish a working group telecon every 2 weeks and would like to know your availability so we can setup a good time. I'll send you our draft mission statement shortly and get your inputs on that and our planned meteor science and communications engineering goals. It is pretty short and needs to be fleshed out.

I look forward to talking with you.

Rob Suggs

NN4NT

[Ciprian Sufitchi]

Hi Rob,

 

I would be glad to be part of the working group. Send me some documentation to better understand what is this about. For group meeting generally my availability is in the evening or even late night (I live on the Eastern Coast).

 

73 de Chip N2YO

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[Jonathan]

I would also like to be part of the working group. I want to reiterate the importance of the use of vlfrx-tools for GNSS timestamped automated detection of meteor pings as part of this effort.

Jonathan

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