Meteor scatter using the Quadrantids

The Quadrantids meteor shower, which appears to come from the direction of  the old star constellation of Quadrans Muralis near the Pole Star, has just intersected with the earth, as it does every year on the 4th January. I used the ionised trails produced as individual meteors burnt up in the earth's atmosphere to reflect my 50MHz radio transmissions to make contact with other radio amateurs in Denmark, Slovenia, England and the Netherlands by exchanging short, ( for obvious reasons ), text messages with them. The data transmission mode is called WSJT/JT6M, and I used the 500 watt amplifier featured on 25th January and 12th May 2010.
The screen shot shows one of Dick's, ( callsign G1CWP ), signals which I received during my contact with him in West Sussex, in the UK at a distance of 1451kms from me. The burst of signal has the characteristic profile of having been reflected by a meteor trail with its steeply rising leading edge as the trail quickly forms and peaks in intensity, followed by a more gradually falling trailing edge as the intensity subsides until the event is over.
I try to participate in all the major meteor showers during the course of a year; Quadrantids ( January), Lyrids ( April ), Perseids ( August ), Orionids ( October ), Leonids ( November ) and Geminids ( December ).

The 500 watt amplifier under cover

This is the same amplifier that I posted here on 25th January, and used to such good effect during my radio contacts with the Balkans mentioned yesterday. It occurred to me that if I am going to use it frequently, perhaps even every day, over the next few weeks, then I had better carry out some maintenance on it.
So today I disconnected it, removed its covers, cleaned the airways and checked that all the mechanical connections were secure. These can work loose in time owing to thermal cycling, and several needed further tightening.
With the bottom cover temporarily removed there was a rare opportunity, not to be missed, to take a picture. Pictures of the equipment I build are actually very useful to refer to if I want to make any changes, and are not just for blogging purposes of course.
To give an idea of the amplifier's size, it measures 50cm x 25cm x 25cm ( w x d x h ). Regarding it's weight; suffice to say that it's almost too heavy for me to carry !

The metre wavebands - playtime on VHF

My VHF antennas have passed a visual inspection. They survived the ice and snow of winter remarkably well and are still intact. This is very fortunate because in spring and summer I devote more time to listening on the VHF bands in order not to miss the favourable atmospheric conditions, more frequent at this time of year, which allow greatly extended communication ranges on these wavelengths.
Such conditions occurred earlier today in a SSE direction, when I contacted numerous amateur radio stations on the 6 metre band, ( 50MHz ), upto 1840 kms away in southern Bulgaria and Greece.

Circuits

This evening I have been transmitting on longwave, waiting for a contact partner, but none appeared, although I know that my signal was being received in Nuernberg, Germany, 745 kms away.
While waiting, I realised that until now I had never placed on my blog a circuit diagram for any of my construction projects; and yet there might be some visitors who would like to copy some of my designs.
Although the picture can be enlarged by clicking on it, whether I do this again still depends on the clarity.
Anyway, I try it at least once, with the circuit schematic of my GS31B 50MHz amplifier from 4 years ago. ( see also 25th January 2010 ).

50MHz transmitter power amplifier

This home-made amplifier for 50MHz uses the Russian ex-military GS31B triode tube, producing about 500 watts output. It really is a fantastic performer. I remember some noteable reception reports of my signal, namely, "599+++ on my ground plane", "599+30dB" and "remarkable signal", from Belgium, England and Norway respectively !