Satgen 452 Wall to Wall Leonids by GM4IHJ (BID SGEN452) 22Nov97 If what occured on the morning of 17th November 1997 was a precursor of an even bigger and better Leonids meteor shower next year. Then 1998 will see IHJ sitting in the operating position wearing his crash helmet. The 97 Leonids were the best meteor shower recorded in 25 years of operating from this Scottish location. The morning of 16 Nov had produced some excellent long meteor echoes around 1000ut. So station and operator were on the air early on the 17th ready to record DSP spectrum analysis of a 2.3 kHz section of the European low VHF TV band around 48.25 MHz. Whilst simultaneously watching for locked pictures on a TV set covering 48.25 and 49.75 MHz western and eastern european TV bands. Augmented by constant audio patrol of 2m radio amateur meteor scatter communications. Unfortunately clouds completely filled the sky , so no visual observation was possible. At 0600ut there were strong continuous echoes from 2 euro tv stations on the DSP display lasting several minutes. There was then a break with only short echoes until, at 0620 the continuous signals got stronger and TV pictures started locking from Sweden and Denmark. They were joined at 0645 by TV pictures from Spain. All persisting strongly until 0725. >From 0725 onwards more TV stations switched on their morning programmes and by 0756 ut Eastern european test cards where competing with western soap operas for the screen. Such that the whole thing began to look like Sporadic E. But as the doppler curves on the DSP display revealed it was meteor scatter. With meteor echoes curving sharply at their beginings. Having to leave from 0800 to 1000 ut, operating restarted at 1005 ut with the DSP screen showing continuous 30 dB over noise echoes for several minutes at a time, and, where one station faded another took its place. Whilst on the tv screen 7 different soap operas seemed to be flickering in and out in a random sequence. The strong consistent echoes continued until 1220 ut , and while half minute echoes appeared at brief intervals until 1600, the peak was clearly over by 1220. Next day 18 Nov. There were several 1 to 3 minute echoes of powerful TV carriers in the time period 0800 to 1200 ut, and this was repeated albeit with less intensity on 19 Nov. What happened on 2m ? As heard from IHJ the mutual interference was appalling, although some sensible station shifted to clear frequencies and got well deserved sequences of succesful QSOs. For once in a meteor shower, SSB was perfect for fast action provided you were clear of the QRM. But circuit discipline around the ms calling frequency was dreadful. A lot of people calling in vain on top of one another . If as seems possible, 1998 is even better, can one make a plea for a little more common sense. Or, Leonids 98 will be even more like the nightmare cocktail party in a disco, were no one hears anybody .