Is it true that ham radio operators bounce signals off of the moon?

Question

I know that lasers are bounced off of retroreflectors left on the moon, but why do that if ham radio operators have done it for years? Have they?

Answer 1

Moon bouncing is indeed a subdivision of radio amateur activities. I don't think it's much practiced because it requires special equipment. Other esoteric radio amateur activities are meteor scattering when only very short signals are send on VHF frequency over long distance when a meteor shower scatters the ionosphere and reflects the signals. Slow-scan TV is also practiced and so is VHF orientating where people run in the woods, picking radio signals on small beam antennas. Morse is still going strong too. But the weirdest is this:

Some radio amateurs have experienced that, after they stop talking, they can hear their voice half a minute later. No one has a good explanation of this. Some even suggest that the signal has gone in space and bounce back somewhere at the edge of our solar system by some weird unknown phenomena. But most likely, the signal gets trapped between two layers of the ionosphere, spins around the earth a few thousand times at the speed of light to eventually find its way back to the surface. The phenomenon is extremely rare but reported by some serious radio amateurs.

Best 73 de LA0HA

Answer 2

Not many ham radio operators bounce signals off the moon - it takes a more powerful transmitter than what most hams have - but they certainly participate in signal-bounce activities such as the one described at the reference.

Answer 3

well, for one, most are not powerful enough to reach the moon and back. And most do not have the ability to accuratley place the signal on the reflector which Apollo 15 left.

Answer 4

sure. this is well documented. they even have contests to see who can talk to the most stations that way. they're been doing it for years. some hams who were using the 2.3 ghz ham band for this tuned their gear down to 2.28 ghz and listened to apollo missions.

the reason they go to all the trouble of using the apollo reflectors for ranging is to get coherent signals off the moon they can measure. ham radio signals illuminate most of teh moon, bounce off innumerable mountains and boulders, and are not all the useful for measurement by the time they get back to earth.

Answer 5

I think you are confusing radio operators with this:

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/...