Compact MS-Soft

Computer control of transmission provides major advantages not only for commercial meteor links, but also for Amateur Radio Meteor Scatter users. For this purpose I collected bits and pieces and put them together in a one package. Compact MS-Soft has been the most versatile and wide spread software written for Ham Radio Meteor Scatter. This project began in 1982 and upgrades have required hundreds of hours of work. Now the datagathering and updating/data distribution takes some 30 hours / year + what it may take to fix or change the receiving setup and the software for data scaling.

No major changes are in sight and it looks the version 5.x is pretty much the thing it has eventually evolved. Recently I have used my time only for updating the data files and solving the few bugs that have emerged. This is done merely to promote the use of Meteor Scatter. I was proud to receive the 1996 Lindell's Prize for technical achievements in Ham Radio from SRAL, the Finnish Radio Amateur League.

Number of users by country

Statistics on MS-Soft users based on available information in 1998.

The Compact MS-Soft includes these main features:

CW high speed transmission and sequencing for Meteor Scatter
Automatic QSO log
On-line expected signal level and T-wait
Schedule keeper
Shower peak prediction calculator
Geometry calculation with: radiant AZ&EL, efficiency, path loss, expected T-wait, ZHR and HR
Viewer for measured raw data (MSDATA)
ZHR history bar graphs from 1980 onwards
Graphs on daily average counts for each month in 1994...1996 .
User maintainable shower parameter list files
Plenty of meteor shower information
Extensive documentation
Free E-mail mailing list service for new meteor (shower) data

The WWW-poll gave the following results on the order of importance of those four MS-Soft main functions:

Peak Calculator, 10 points
Geometry, 8 points
CW transmit, 5.7 points
Schedule Editor, 4.8 points

The results were mixed and each function got first places in the poll, but Peak Calculator was a clear winner.

See the latest MS-Soft's release at this site and get the zip file, if it has been updated. Having this home page, means I can quickly update and upload the revision here for you. The software is only for DOS platforms, but reportedly runs also under other world wide catastrophes; Windows 3.x, OS/2, WIN95&98&ME (DOS-7 mode) and NT-x, W2000 and XPs with some limitations - lack of keying output.

If you wish to run MS-Soft under older (pure) DOS, split the hard disk to two or more drives and make it a multi boot machine. If you have DOS on c: and WIN-98 on d:, you can boot to DOS by hitting F8 key (and selceting the DOS boot) while the system starts. Also on WIN-98 you can create a PIF file that switches qickly to DOS from WIN-98 enabling the keying output and a swift return back to WIN-98 after exiting MS-Soft. These are much easier ways than running the MS-Soft from a DOS boot diskette, which is not even possible if you do not have a DOS partition. See the MS-Soft manual for more on this.

For those interested in visual meteor work, a customized version called Visual Meteor Soft for counting meteors. It includes the same main features, but the CW part is replaced by on- and off-line visual observation logging, with predicted, real-time observed and observation summary ZHR and HR figures. The ZHR prediction uses the revised generic shower profile (Lorenzian) algorithm introduced by the well know meteor astronomer Dr. P.Jenniskens.

Shower prediction quality control?

The past beahavior of meteor showers, specially that of the outbursters, do not reflect their future behavior in a simple way. Only the Rezhnikov/Asher/Lyytinen-type models of meteor stream trailet evolution have proven to give satisfactory results so far on some 5 showers (Leonids, Perseids, a-Aurigids Draconids and Ursids) regarding their outburst behavior. The rest of the showers are expected to behave much like on previous years because the computational model can not be used since the parent comet is either on a short period orbit or is not known at all. This is the long story in short form. Overall the best of the predictions produced by the models are only as accurate as weather predictions are and for some tricky cases there are no valid methods, if you don't count mere intuition on predicting their behavior, such as the Quadrantids shower with it's periodic variations.

You can join MSDATA service by sending me an e-mail message. You will be dropped off the list, if your e-mail bounces repeatedly! After you have a working e-mail address, re-join the list. If your e-mail address changes, I would appreciate if you would mail me the old and new address. Raw data on 12 major showers are sent annually as attachment text files. Mailing of shower data is done 3 to 5 days after shower maxima unless no conflict with other duties occur. Showers currently on the list are either annual showers: Quadrantids, Lyrids, eta-Aquarids, Arietids, zeta-Perseids, delta-Aquarids, Perseids, Orionids, Leonids, Geminids or outbursters with low annual activity: alpha-Aurigisd, Leonids and Ursids.

The MSDATA receiving setup was changed in April 1998, November 1998, February 1999 and again in January 2000. The transmissions are now wide band FM with horizontal polarized with 3-element receiving antennas and system seems to suffer more from Auroras and sporadic-E signals. The detection levels are changed to keep the counts at the same level as before and a special algorithm is used to rescale the raw data, which has not been exactly successful, I must say. The longest reflection parameter suffered from wide band FM modulation for this cause it's acquisition became discontinued in Nov. 1998. There is no significant change in the average incoming azimuth of meteoric signals. The raw data is (unlinearly) scaled from raw data to xxx.M files to match data taken with the old setup 1993 to 1997 for easy viewing with MS-Soft.

Click here to see the screens the different software versions produces. (120 kb GIF animation).