Meteor burst communications via back scatter propagation

Communications by forward-scattering of radio signals from ionised meteor trails (meteor burst communications (MBC)) has been exploited commercially since the 1950s. MBC has been shown to provide a reliable link over distances from 400 km to 2,200 km. This paper investigates the use of meteor trails for communication links of less than 400 km by making use of the back scatter phenomenon. Measurements of back scatter signals have been made and the results are used to predict the link duty cycle and hence the average available bit rates.