[VHFcontesting] AU - How near for VHF prop ?

[Ev Tupis (W2EV)]

N1BUG wrote:

> However, I can tell you that a significant amount of aurora 
> is completely "missed" in North America. I was not 
> listening last night, but over the past few months there 
> have been several occasions when W1XR/b was in quite strong 
> on aurora and there was ZERO QSO activity taking place.

I wholeheartedly agree with Paul on this.

Mike Owen (W9IP) once presented a meteor scatter system whereby he 
monitored TV2 (not a station normally within his range) during meteor 
showers.  When he heard a "ping" there, he'd call CQ on 6m.  His premise 
was "why waste the RF if there's nothing to propagate it?"

It is the premise for the PropNET system (http://www.PropNET.org)... "If 
the band is open but nobody is transmitting, does anybody hear it?". 
Too bad PropNET isn't embraced by the VHF community as well as it has 
caught on with the 10m crowd.  Alas, adoption of digital modes on VHF by 
the masses is still years away.

In the mean time, wouldn't it be cool to create a system that can be 
tuned to a known 2m CW beacon frequency and lurk...waiting for RF to 
"break the squelch"...then report it to the DX alerting networks?

Ev, W2EV