For the last six years since I have been working steadily with my YouTube channel and blog, the presence of XMJ-225 Toronto Marine Weather radio on VHF162.4MHz has been a welcome occurrence. While studying various VHF broadcasts such as AIS and DSC, I used this station as a starting placeholder. For the first generation of… Continue reading Toronto Marine Weather 162.400/162.475MHz
CHU – Bon Voyage!
In a recent article from the SWListening Post, I learned that the long time short wave station CHU is going silent key this June 2026 (Ref.1/2). I can remember tuning in to this station many times over the years, initially on my HQ100AC in the early 1960s. Several years ago I examined propagation from CHU… Continue reading CHU – Bon Voyage!
Meteor Scatter MSK144 Channel on GNURadio
Introduction In the previous post I was able to receive MSK144 meteor scatter transmissions on 6m using the RTL-SDR (Ref.1). I thought it would be worthwhile to see how robust this protocol is using a simple GNURadio channel model. In the QEX design paper the following performance figures are given (Ref.2):SNR>0dB, almost all frames decoded… Continue reading Meteor Scatter MSK144 Channel on GNURadio
RTL-SDR for Meteor Scatter
Introduction I first learned of Meteor Scatter communications during the late 1980s in connection with sending meteorological data from remote locations. The principle made a lot of sense, using natural occurring phenomena to aid in transmission of signals with simple and minimum equipment. Weather sensor data could be collected and sent back using a solar… Continue reading RTL-SDR for Meteor Scatter
RTL-SDR for Satellite Weather – Meteor M2-3+
Introduction Last Saturday I was able to receive Meteor M2-3 down at Toronto Harbourfront (Ref.1). So I thought it would be interesting to try and receive it from my home location. At Harbourfront, there was some signal loss due to QRM. At my home QTH there was no QRM, but some multipath and obstruction. A… Continue reading RTL-SDR for Satellite Weather – Meteor M2-3+