12/05/2025
HamSCI[1] - 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[2]. 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[3]" (especially for 10
meters) and the groups.io page[4] of the Front Range Six Meter Group (especially
for 6 meters).
For more information, including suggested operating procedures, visit
www.hamsci.org/msqp[5].
[1] https://hamsci.org/
[2] https://pskreporter.info/
[3] https://www.pingjockey.net/cgi-bin/pingtalk
[4] https://groups.io/g/FrontRange6Meter/topics
[5] http://www.hamsci.org/msqp
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