2200m beacon

Looking through some old photos, I spotted this one from 2012 showing my beacon for 2200m (137kHz).

As I recall it produced about 8W although the ERP was in the microwatts as my antennas were not very good.

4m personal beacon

Jason M0NYW has a personal 4m beacon. I predict he will see lots of spots this Es season.

It is on 70.093 MHz (70.092 USB-D) sending FT8 + CW ID + dashes. It has an output of 1W to a halo. I hope I can spot it. It runs pretty much 24/7.

See www.qrz.com/db/M0NYW/b for more details.

GB3MCB 8m beacon in Cornwall

This beacon on 40.050 MHz began operation this weekend. 

It is situated in mid-Cornwall near St Austell. It should be very useful to indicate when 8m is open across the Atlantic. It has an FT8 sequence, so can be monitored with WSJT-X free software. The antennas are crossed dipoles.

Initially, it is operated under a test and innovation licence. In my view both the RSGB and OFCOM should have just granted them an NoV to the amateur licence as this truly helps propagation research and self training. The RSGB should have made the case and OFCOM agreed.

OFCOM and the RSGB -- just wake up!!!  You are making yourselves look unbelievably stupid! Surely the whole purpose of our hobby is self training and radio research. Is it any wonder we cannot find RF engineers in the UK if there is no support?   

8m need not be "more of the same". It is uniquely situated in the radio spectrum, on the HF/VHF boundary, to offer radio amateurs a real chance to contribute to radio propagation research. Instead, both the RSGB and OFCOM appear to be obstructive.

I am still totally puzzled why OFCOM seems so against even 5 kHz (just 5 kilohertz!!) at 8m being allocated to the amateur service by NoV. They could insist on narrow digital only and make us secondary users with limited power. It just seems so short-sighted. Like the Chinese trying to stop Covid or King Canute trying to stop the tide - there are some things in life that make no sense.

UPDATE 0804z:  No spots overnight.

UPDATE 1556z: Still not a sign of that beacon. My feeling is that this is a complete waste of time.  I thought I might see the odd MS burst, but nothing. Maybe I should remain on until the morning? Probably the 15 second TX period is too long for random MS. In a shower I might have better luck.

Amateur beacon on the moon?

 Amateur Radio Weekly reports that the Japanese hope to put a UHF beacon on the moon.

See https://www.isas.jaxa.jp/home/omotenashi/JHRCweb/jhrc.html .

If successfully deployed, this could be a good test for receivers. I am not sure what it will send or when the launch is planned.

St Helena 2m beacon

In PW today (May 2021) is report on the new St Helena 2m beacon ZD7GWM/B being copied in South Africa and Namibia. This is a sea path over water that is mostly warm, so some tropo ducts can be expected at times. It will be interesting to see if this is copied in South America or the Carribean.

8m beacon

At some point we will be allocated some frequencies at 40MHz.  In the coming Es seasons I can see many more applying for limited access to the band. These may be spot frequencies with limited power. Small first steps.

There is a beacon which may be worth checking in the Es season S50ZMS.  This is ideally placed for Es to EI and the UK.

481THz optical beacon

 

One of my Facebook memories today was this photo of my 481THz optical beacon. This was made in 2012 I think. 

I still have it and hope to use it again. It uses a K1EL keyer to produce either CW or QRSS. My first test is likely to be some sort of reflection test, possibly off trees.

It seems I like to experiment at the extreme ends of the spectrum, HI.  Either VLF (sub 9kHz) or optical comms (481THz)!

Android WSPR beacon

To say I am a WSPR fan is an understatement! Nothing compares with the ability to span the globe with QRP, perhaps excepting OPERA. I see there is a WSPR app (Android) which allows a tablet to be hooked up to a rig to form a WSPR beacon. The app costs £1.58.

See https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iu4apc.wsprbeacon

New Greenland 6m Beacon

Southgate News mentions a new 6m beacon OX6M in Greenland on 50.047MHz. This is worth listening for, especially in the Es season. I have worked Greenland with 2.5W handheld on 15m SSB in the past from the back garden with just a base loaded whip on the rig.

See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2016/october/new-ox6m-beacon.htm

70cms beacons

Last year, I could always hear the Leicester 70cm beacon GB3LEU on 432.490MHz when listening on my 2m big wheel antenna. I can no longer hear it so there are several possibilities: (1) it is not operational at present, (2) summertime and the attenuation through trees over this 100km (ish) path is now too great, (3) there is water in my antenna or cable? GB3UHF in Kent is operational on 432.430MHz I am told. Although the co-sited GB3VHF beacon is a decent signal on the big-wheel omni on 2m, I have been unable to find the UHF beacon with the same antenna so far. It may be just there, but it is below noise most of the time.

UPDATE 1504z: GB3LEU is shown as "off air". That explains a lot! See http://www.leicestershirerepeatergroup.org.uk/beacons/gb3leu.html

6m WSPR - doh!

I knew I had to offset my FT817 on 6m WSPR but it helps to be on the correct frequency! I realised I was set to 50.292700 whereas I should have been 50.292970. As soon as I corrected my stupid error of the last few days I was immediately spotted by G0LRD (25km) at +5dB S/N. I feel so stupid. Maybe now I'll see some 6m Es!  Silly boy.

Meanwhile my fully stand-alone W5OLF 10m 500mW WSPR beacon continues to be spotted across Europe and beyond. This little beacon has given me so much fun - it beats everything I have ever owned. It is so tiny too. If everything else had to go this is the one bit of kit I would want to keep. In terms of DX per pound spent this is incredible value. It is so small it can be overlooked, but boy does it pack a punch.

UPDATE 1835z: My first DX Es spot on 6m WSPR this season: EA1CCM (1301km) spotted me at an incredible +4dB S/N at 1832z. Yes, it definitely helps to be on the right frequency!

UPDATE 2135z: OH7AZL (2000km) was spotted on 6m WSPR earlier this evening.

From Steve G1KQH - Spybot anti-beacon for Windows

This came in on an email from Steve G1KQH. I have not tried the link.

Someone sent me this link stops them spying on you!

Seems to work

https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/

73 Steve
http://www.g1kqh.talktalk.net/

In praise of Jay W5OLF's WSPR beacon

I received this email from Jay W5OLF:

"Hi Roger,

I was catching up on your blog and saw the comment about how much you like the 10M beacon. That warms the heart.  We all try and make a contribution to the hobby and guess I at least made one.

Cheers, Jay, W5OLF"

W5OLF WSPR beacon

To which I replied, with great pleasure:

"Hi Jay,

I can honestly say I have had more fun from your 10m WSPR beacon than from ANYTHING in all my time in amateur radio. Thank you!

73s
Roger G3XBM"

I was an SWL in 1961 and had a licence since 1966. The beacon needs no PC and is totally self contained. As a routine I reset to internet time every day but you could use a radio for this and once a day is probably far more frequently than necessary.  As you can see, it is very small. The last time I looked there were 1W beacons for 30m and 20m and a 0.5W one on 10m. If you enjoy this mode, I can recommend these. It never fails to amaze me how something so small to a small, low, wire antenna regularly gets spotted around the planet.

See http://w5olf.com/2014/12/18/new-wspr-axe-cw-beacon/ .

GB3VHF off?

Although I can copy beacons in Holland and Belgium on 2m and GB3LEU NW of Leicester (432.490MHz) on 70cms with my 2m big-wheel antenna, GB3VHF in Kent (144.430MHz) was absent when I looked earlier this afternoon (around 1340z). Maybe it is off for maintenance or they plan to co-site the new UHF beacon? Anyway, the big-wheel is great. Beacons are great for checking propagation when there are no active stations about.

Anyone know about GB3VHF please?

WSPR-AXE-CW oddity

A local, David G0LRD reported that my time sync was well adrift despite me doing a reset against internet time very recently. A hard reset (all power removed for over a minute) seems to have fixed the issue, which is possibly a bug in the software.  David suggested it could have been a very short power outage?   In future I'll do a hard reset more frequently. This little beacon has served me well for over 6 months and is often on 24/7.

W5OLF WSPR beacon

W5OLF - WSPR-AXE-CW beacon

There are other solutions around for WSPR (like the Ultimate 3 kit from Hans Summers - excellent I am told) but I have had Wolf's 10m 500mW,  fully stand-alone, WSPR beacon (WSPR-AXE-CW) running more or less continuously for 6 months now. This fits in a small Altoids sized box and needs no PC at all. The frequency is randomised but always on TX. My antenna is a 3 band low wire and certainly not the best for 10m. Despite this, it has been copied in the USA most days for months and has been spotted in every continent on the planet including Antarctica and Australia. If I am around, the 10m WSPR beacon is usually on. If you are after a fully stand-alone WSPR beacon for 30m, 20m or 10m these beacons are on a single PCB and work well. As the photo shows, the board is simple and the kit comes with a pre-programmed chip with your callsign, locator and power ready for use.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/w5olf .

VLF field test tomorrow

Today I adjusted the turns ratio on my 8.976kHz VLF QRSS3 and 10wpm CW 5W beacon to better match my earth electrodes. At this QTH they look much greater than 50 ohms, which I measured at the "old" QTH and optimised for.

On the way I managed to blow up a TDA2003 IC, which I had to replace. The whole exercise was far more exhausting than I was expecting. It seems that after about 10-15 minutes of physical or mental effort I am done in. Before my cerebellum brain bleed everything today would have been trivial. Now trivial tasks feel like climbing mountains! Although I can see progress in my recovery there is still a long way to go. One of my aims (among many) is to be able to resume field tests as before, but time will tell if I am really up to this: it is quite hard when your brain is still foggy a lot of the time. Oddly, when sitting down at home or when driving things are fine. It is when I do something requiring real physical or mental effort that I get tired. I guess the radio work today was hard as I had not done this sort of thing for some time.

Anyway, the good news is that I hope to do a VLF field test tomorrow.  Everything is ready and tested. It will not be until late afternoon as both my wife and I are busy before then. The XYL will be there at the test site if I get really tired.  Setting up the gear will be especially tiring in my current state. The test site is not too far from home. I have soak tested the TX and it should be fine on QRSS3 using my loop and Spectran at the RX end. I shall report results tomorrow. This will be my first VLF field test in over 18 months. How I have looked forward to this. If the loop is successful I may try the E-field probe.

Transatlantic USA 10m WSPR spots today

 KB1YMI (5188km) was the first USA station to copy my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon today at 1212z.

I went QRT on 10m at around 1920z. At 1916z N2BJW (5262km) was the last station still spotting my 500mW 10mWSPR beacon.  As I have gone QRT, I shall never know if later spotters were possible.

Last 10m WSPR USA spot today

KE6BID (5295km) was the last USA station to spot my 500mW 10m beacon today at 1716z. It seems the band, which has been open every afternoon for months now to the USA, is closing earlier as the days get shorter. In the spring it will be a battle between falling sunspots and lengthening days. I suspect we'll still have decent 10m propagation for a year or so yet. By 2016 though, the best chances of USA stations will be by multi-hop Es in May, June and July. I could be very wrong.

Using the W5OLF 500mW 10m WSPR beacon today

W5OLF WSPR beacon - complete - no PC needed

This WSPR-AXE really is a very impressive little rig, in my case for 10m WSPR.  Because of my current disabled state -  I find all electronics building just about impossible - Jay very kindly sold me a built unit to evaluate. Results in just a few hours of operating have been truly impressive. No PC is needed as long as the push button is pressed at the start of an even minute. Jay says it stays stable for weeks thereafter. I ran mine for 3.5 hours and got masses of decodes. After lunch it has been getting LOTS of spots from the USA. I am sure it will reach Australia soon.

The unit needs about 15 minutes to frequency stabilise and is always on (the PA can be turned off), but it randomises the slots within the WSPR transmit window. This means it is unlikely to be "clobbered" by more powerful stations or cause others co-channel issues. 500mW seems plenty. In a word - BRILLIANT.

Best DX report (so far) today is FR1GZ (9724km).

10m WSPR - unique spots with the W5OLF beacon today, arranged by distance

If you want to buy one Jay W5OLF may be contacted on w5olf@comcast.net .