[SFDXA] WSPR May Hold The Key To MH370 Final Position

[Bill]

  /Interesting article from the DARC list:/


  WSPR May Hold The Key To MH370 Final Position

by:Jenny List <https://hackaday.com/author/jennylist/>
April 24, 2021 <https://hackaday.com/2021/04/24/>

The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 after an unexplained 
course change sent it flying south over the Indian Ocean in March 2014 
still holds the mystery of the wreck’s final location. There have been a 
variety of efforts to narrow down a possible search area over the years, 
and now we have news of a further angle from an unexpected source. It’s 
possible that the aircraft’s path could show up in radio scatter 
detectable as anomalously long-distance contacts using the amateur radio 
WSPR protocol 
<https://www.mh370search.com/2021/04/03/wsprnet-and-inmarsat-satellite-data/>.

WSPR <https://wsprnet.org/drupal/> is a low-power amateur radio mode 
designed to probe and record the radio propagation capabilities of the 
atmosphere. Transmit beacons and receiving stations run continuously, 
and all contacts however fleeting are recorded to an online database. 
This can be mined by researchers with an interest in the atmosphere, but 
in this case it might also provide clues to the missing airliner’s 
flightpath. By searching for anomalously long-distance WSPR contacts 
whose path crosses the expected position of MH370 it’s possible to spot 
moments when the aircraft formed a reflector for the radio waves. These 
contacts can then either confirm positions already estimated using other 
methods, or even provide further course points. It’s an impressive 
demonstration of the unexpected data that can lurk in a trove such as 
the WSPR logbook, and also that while messing about on the airwaves the 
marks we leave behind us can have more benefit than simply bragging 
rights over the DX we’ve worked.

If this WSPR business intrigues you, then have a read of the piece in 
our /$50 Ham/ series about it 
<https://hackaday.com/2021/03/25/the-50-ham-wspr-ing-around-the-world/>.

Header: Laurent ERRERA from L’Union, France, CC BY-SA 2.0 
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boeing_777-200ER_Malaysia_AL_(MAS)_9M-MRO_-_MSN_28420_404_(9272090094).jpg>.

[via Southgate ARC 
<http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2021/april/using-wspr-data-to-detect-mh370.htm>]

Posted in News <https://hackaday.com/category/news/>, Radio Hacks 
<https://hackaday.com/category/radio-hacks/>

https://hackaday.com/2021/04/24/wspr-may-hold-the-key-to-mh370-final-position/
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