Meteor Scatter QSO Party on December 12 and 13

 

Operators/Monitors Wanted for Meteor Scatter QSO Party December 12-13

12/05/2025

HamSCI — the Ham Radio Citizen Science Investigation program — is looking for “ping jockeys,” or ham radio operators who enjoy making contacts via meteor scatter (MS), to take part in its Meteor Scatter QSO Party during the Geminids meteor shower on December 12 and 13, 2025. Operation will take place on the 10-meter and 6-meter bands only (28.145 and 50.260 MHz), using the MSK144 digital protocol. The event is a combination on-air contest and data collection for what HamSCI describes as an experiment “to analyze the feasibility of HF meteor scatter for future scientific research.”

HamSCI pointed out that little research has been done on 10-meter meteor scatter, due to past symbol rate limits imposed by the FCC. Those limits were removed in early 2024. 

The group is looking for both active operators (seeking and making contacts) and passive monitors, recording .WAV files of MS contacts and uploading them to PSK Reporter. Researchers will collect contact data from both 10 and 6 meters and will analyze that data offline, using PSK Reporter raw data, operator contact logs and .WAV files.

HamSCI says the best operating times will be between 8 PM and 8 AM local time, and suggests announcing CQs on “Ping Jockey Central” (especially for 10 meters) and the groups.io page of the Front Range Six Meter Group (especially for 6 meters).

For more information, including suggested operating procedures, visit www.hamsci.org/msqp.

Meteor Scatter QSO Party 2025

 Did you ever experience a meteor scatter propogation? Its a pretty neat experience. Check out these events coming up later this month and beyond.

HamSCI – The Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation is preparing for a series of meteor scatter (MS) experiments later this year. The target storms are in August (Perseids) and December (Geminids). Preparation and testing are underway now. This is a combination 'special event' and a contest to generate contact data during meteor scatter events using 10 meters and 6 meters. Contest rules will be released shortly.

Currently, we need operators to be active (i.e., CQ-ing) on MSK144; or passive, if possible, reporting via PSK Reporter as 'monitors'. The best times are early morning hours prior to 10M opening to F2 propagation. Meteor scatter propagation occurs well below F2 and is supported in or near the E layer where the meteor ionization tracks occur. Saturday mornings are being used regularly to announce and coordinate 10M contacts using Ping Jockey Central. Announcements are also made on the Front Range Six Meter groups.io due to the substantial number of meteor scatter operators in that group.

To be successful, this effort needs operators, both active and passive. The upcoming April-Lyrids shower is an excellent time to set up your equipment and join with other operators preparing for the events later this year. If you do not have the time to be active, at least set up passive reporting. PSK Reporter currently has scarce 10M MSK144 monitors; so we need to increase those numbers during the early morning hours.

The best Lyrid times are around midnight and early morning hours, peaking April 21-22, but also for several days before and after the peak dates. We expect large numbers of 10M and 6M MSK144 operators to be both active and passive during the Lyrid events.

Read the whole story here: https://www.hamsci.org/article/save-dates-hamsci-meteor-scatter-qso-party

Learn more about meteor scatter: https://www.arrl.org/files/file/QST%2520Binaries/nt0z.pdf