Still under construction

Most meteor scatter contacts are made via "Forward Meteor Scatter". This is where two stations are attempting to work and one if not both have directional antennas. These antennas are pointed at each other to get a maximum reflection form incoming meteors vaporizing in the "E" layer of the upper atmosphere. Depending on the radiant this is generally the most effective way to complete a meteor scatter QSO. However, sometimes there are other factors that make "Back Scatter Meteors" fun and effective.

The radiant is an area in the sky where the meteors from a particular shower come from. Meteors not coming from a radiant are "sporadic" meteors. The radiant influences the best direction to have your antenna pointed and or to work stations in that direction. As the meteors enter the atmosphere they enter at a height and angle which is determined or at least very heavily influenced by this radiant. For best results the incoming meteors should be at right angles to the stations attempting to work each other, and the meteors need to be traveling tangent or near tangent to an arc between two stations for foward scatter. The same applies to back scatter except both stations are pointing at a tangent optimal for both stations.

One of the first reasons that comes to mind for using Back scatter meteors is two stations being too close for forward scatter. Of course the second is incoming meteors with a radiant that is not favorable to the stations attempting to work. First lets take stations that are too close for an example. Lets say I want to run a meteor sked with a station that's 350 to 400 miles out. That's just a little bit far for tropo under flat band conditions but also a little close for normal forward scatter. Don't get me wrong here, forward scatter can work but because of the high angle of incoming reflections, pings will be weak, few and far between. We can maximize our chance for success if we both point our antennas to a common scatter area about 350-400 miles out at a point that favors the radiant. This puts 700 to 800 miles between the stations which I have found to be an easy distance as long as the meteors are there.

When the signals strike a trail being left by a vaporizing meteor some of the energy is scattered in multiple directions. Some is even scattered back towards the transmitting station. The refraction is not like a beam of light striking a flat mirror but can be thought of a light striking a uneven or undulating mirror. Some of the energy will return and can be detected by the receiving station. Some of the pings may be as strong a forward scatter but most will be slightly weaker.

When running FSK441 with WSJT at times you will see "Hot A" or Hot B" beam headings. For runs of 700 miles or more these "HOT" headings can generally be ignored. For closer in runs, if after 10 minutes or so with neither station having much luck, It would be wise to turn to one of the "HOT" headings. Doing so has one or two effects. It will incress the radio distance between the two stations and or help optimize the radiation angle for better pings.
Right now this is just a basic primer and as time allows I will add some more information.

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