Loggings > HF Beacons

Madonna

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Dave Richards:
I didn't see a thread for Madonna, so am starting a new one. I'm guessing it has been included in the posts that some of our members make when they post all their loggings for the day.

Madonna at 4097.27 ~240 dits/minute at 4:40pm PDT (2340z) on 8-29-2022 Copyable above the S1 band noise most of the time, though occasionally dips under.
Heard on the KFS SDR. Also on KPH, with a similar report.

stendec:
I could be wrong, but are you sure "Madonna" is not really the Marin Ditter? The long-running Marin Ditter (a fast ditter) was on 4096.85, but perhaps now has drifted up in frequency a bit to 4097.27.

The Marin Ditter, was/is is often heard better on its second harmonic, just like this 'new' ditter is often heard better on 8194.55 kHz

/Stendec

Dave Richards:
I'm not sure. I just heard it on the KPH SDR, on 4097.27 again, just above the noise. I tried the second harmonic, at 8194.54, and it was coming through a bit stronger. The fact that the second harmonic was a bit stronger does make one wonder whether it is the Marin Ditter.

Do we know for a fact that Madonna is/was a distinctly different beacon, or was there always the possibility that it was simply the Marin Ditter?

Teotwaki:
Searching on “Madonna” gets us some hits


--- Quote from: MojaveBeaconeer on March 24, 2021, 2229 UTC ---Desert beaconeering... alledgedly i can neither confirm nor deny:

Madonna Beacon - fast dasher inyo - sun only 1/3 watt - 4097.23 plus/minus drift Sun angle/etc.

Buddha (once Phallaxyy for a rock formation nearby...) is weak - like 30 mW ERP on 4096.20 or so 3 sec dash - alopng with Coxie drifting JTNBP 4096.0-ish... this was Once Viking...

go figure...

just hear-say and thoughts... Hmmm...

--- End quote ---

So Madonna is/was a dasher beacon in the Inyo mountains area and sun only. The Marin Ditter is AC line powered in the attic of an apartment building

Dave Richards:

--- Quote from: Teotwaki on September 01, 2022, 1620 UTC ---So Madonna is/was a dasher beacon in the Inyo mountains area and sun only. The Marin Ditter is AC line powered in the attic of an apartment building

--- End quote ---

Thanks for that Teotwaki.

I have not been actively listening out for HF beacons for long, so cannot tell the difference between some of these "legacy" beacons by listening to them, otherwise I might recognize subtle differences in the speed of the ditting, or even the sound of the keying waveform. I heard what I think was Madonna during daylight hours so, by that metric, it could have been either beacon. However, the beacon I heard was on 4097.27, which is only 40hz from the frequency that MB reported Madonna as being on. For it to be the Marin Ditter, it would have had to have drifted 420Hz from it's earlier reported frequency. Though not impossible, it's quite a lot, for what I assume is a crystal-controlled oscillator - even if there's a fair amount of inductance and/or capacitance in series with the crystal (unless the frequency was altered by human intervention).

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