FM DX courtesy of the Camelopardalis meteor shower

Perseids meteor shower Photo: NASAHat tip to David Goren for sharing this article from Alltop:

“Just in case it’s cloudy where you are [tonight] when the new Camelopardalis meteor shower is set to hit, check out how you can still tune into the show without any equipment fancier than an AM/FM radio.

The key is to find a station on the FM dial, most likely below 91.1 MHz and tuned to a distant station, where the appearance of the large meteors expected from the shower will momentarily enhance reception as they fall to Earth.” [Continue reading…]

Ham radio operators, like my buddy Mike Hansgen (K8RAT), were already anticipating a little DX from these ionized trails. Mike suggests that you should listen on a clear frequency, or as he put it, “[n]ot only can the signal of a weak station be enhanced by a ping off a falling rock, but you can tune to a frequency where no signal at all is normally heard and listen for momentary bursts from never before heard stations.”

The only catch is that the best Camelopardalis viewing/listening time, for many of us, is between 2:00-4:00 AM. I hope I can wake up in time!

For more info, check out this article at EarthSky.

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