G4BAO - 70cm new beacon testing

John G4BAO (about 8km) has been testing beacon bits for the new 70cm UK beacon network, at 1mW level so far, to a vertically polarised antenna. Not knowing his polarisation, last evening I copied the 1mW signal on my 5 el horizontal 70cm beam at about 559 by ear. Signal is about the same level as the Kent beacon on 2m here.

I will look for his test beacon (G4JNT design,, GPS disciplined) on my V2000 vertical to avoid cross-polarisation losses, if still on the air. Frequency is/was temporarily 432.440MHz.  The beacon sends FSK and JT65.

It will be excellent when the UK 70cm beacon network is running again. At the moment, the only beacon I can copy frequently is in Holland! GB3BSL (Bristol 70cm beacon) used to be a decent signal here and was a good propagation indicator, sadly now QRT like most of the original 70cm UK beacon network.