[amsat-bb] Leonids Meteor Shower APRS wrap-up from Huntsville, AL

["Tim Cunningham" <tim_cunningham@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Leonids Shower has come and gone.  We had a nice light show
here in the Southeast with frequent faint streaks of lights going in 
various directions.  So far I have several reports of my APRS beacon
being heard by other station.  Out of the reports, three of them are 
most likely Meteor Shower activity.  They are covered in my summary
below:


N8DEU Leonids Meteor Shower APRS results as of 0400 UTC 21-NOV-99
=================================================================

My transmit ERP was approximately 35.27 dBw using the following 
setup:

Ant   = M2 2MCP22 (RHCP)
Radio = Yaesu FT-736R (147.585 MHz FM)
TNC   = Paccom TNC-200
S/W   = APRSdos version 844
Amp   = 300W

Beacon rate using 100% duty cycle with Meteor Scatter mode in
APRSdos v844.  The means I was set up for quadrant 2 in the 
Southeast transmitting between the 15-30 second mark past 
each minute and listening for 45 seconds.  This is aggressive,
but necessary to increase the odds of hitting a rock with an
APRS signal.  This function is built into APRSdos so that each 
4 quadrants of North America get a 15 second time slice to 
transmit to the other 3 quadrants.


The following stations have reported hearing my APRS beacon
signal from EM64pt during 18-NOV-99 0000-1400 UTC on 147.585 MHz.
There is one report listed that took place on 17-NOV-99 and 
another on 19-NOV-99.


 Call    Grdsq   Date    UTC       QTH                   RCV ANT
=======  ====== ======= ==== =====================  ==================
 N2PUA   EM63xp 17NOV99 0353 Eastaboga/Ohatchee, AL J-Pole @ 20ft
 N2PUA   EM63xp 18NOV99 0843 Eastaboga/Ohatchee, AL J-Pole @ 20ft
 AC9R    EM66wc 18NOV99 0711 Brentwood, TN          7 ele yagi

 KE0VN   EN16ow 18NOV99 0630-1200 approx time
                             Fargo, ND              Eggbeater @20ft

 KC5ILO  EM23lo 18NOV99 0248 Clarksville, TX        Omni @ 50ft 
 N0BKB   EN21ui 18NOV99 0536 Greenfield, IA         Hustler G7 @ 85ft
 KC5ILO  EM23lo 19NOV99 0642 Clarksville, TX        Omni @ 50ft 


Note: AC9R was most likely a ground path contact since we had a 
successful keyboard with no signal fluctuation.  Although, I must 
admit I could hear AC9R just about everywhere I turned my beam (not
bad for being 100 miles away).  N2PUA is most likely ground path, 
but could have been Meteor Scatter.  Both stations are within 120 
miles from my location.  The last three entries in the list are most
likely Leonids Meteor Shower hits stretching from Texas to Iowa and 
on up to North Dakota.  These were most likely hit when my antenna 
was pointed to the western horizon.

The issue with using 147.585 MHz was a DX Cluster located in 
Franklin, TN.  It appeared that we co-existed peacefully and I 
really thank them for their patience during the Leonids Meteor 
Shower.  There was another station reporting DX Cluster activity
in Central South Carolina using the same frequency. 

I leaned that you should put your e-mail address in the beacon.  In
fact, I received no reports until I added my e-mail address to the
APRS beacon.  The shorter the e-mail address, the better your odds 
of being captured by another APRS station.  The AMSAT and ARRL e-mail
reflectors provide the opportunity for short e-mail addresses.  Many
thanks to these two organizations for that wonderful service.

The best part of it was I could sleep while APRSdos on my computer 
was doing all the work!



73's

Tim - N8DEU
Huntsville, Alabama




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