RSGB 2022: The UK Meteor Beacon Project

During last years Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) 2022 convention, Brian Coleman (G4NNS) presented a talk about the UK Meteor Beacon Project. The idea behind the project is to use a transmit beacon and a network of user-run receivers to help detect and study meteors. The talk has recently been uploaded to YouTube.

Radio signals can reflect off the meteor and the ionized trail left behind when it enters the atmosphere. This trail is highly RF reflective, so it can allow distant radio stations to be briefly received.

In the talk Brian explains the meteor detection, and explains the project in more detail.

The UK meteor beacon project is a collaborative project between the amateur radio and radio astronomy communities to collect data on meteor events over the UK. Phase I has been to establish a transmit beacon and Phase II is to create a network of receivers to monitor the radio echoes from meteors and stream data over the internet to support the study of meteor events and their impact on the ionosphere. Another key objective is to make possible a range of accessible radio-related STEM projects building on the interest in space and astronomy.