...................I must admit to being equal parts intrigued by this beacon, and miffed at the fact that it is operating in an amateur band. I'm both a licensed ham and a CW op, so I am not very happy about this beacon being where it is.
From the Forum's mission statement "We do not encourage any radio operations contrary to regulations. Always consult with the appropriate authorities if you have questions concerning what is permissible in your locale."
Having said that I have a question:
How is it that a "pirate" beacon operating on a non-ham frequency is non-miff-inducing as opposed to one operating in the ham band? LOL
Well, I'm a licensed ham, and an avid QRP'er. 3579KHz is a frequency of interest to some QRP'ers, due to the abundance of cheap crystals available for that frequency, so I would have thought that the reason for the "miff" factor is obvious! Although the unlicensed beacons outside the ham bands don't irk me in the same way, I have always wondered something about them, and that is whether the operators of such beacons go to any effort to attempt to ensure they are not operating on or near any frequencies of critical interest or importance to other, legitimate users of the spectrum.
For the record, I do enjoy listening out for these beacons, but have never seriously considered operating one of my own mainly because, as a licensed ham, there are ample opportunities for me to get my "RF-emitting jollies" by legal means.
Michael Hopkins would be proud:
https://chainsawprivacy.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/frank_and_the_fmla.pdf
(surely where Bill Meara got the Colorburst reference from. Mike Hopkins was great)
I've been an active ham for fifty three years. There's stuff happening on the bands that distresses me. This is not one of them.
This falls into the same category as the WSPR tranmitting pico balloons which routinely fly around the world with no control operator sending telemetry and an ID .... it's kind of a victimless crime. There's no way this signal is going to cause a serious headache for anyone.
I wasn't aware of Mike's writings about the Five Meter Liberation Army. This is great! I must read this soon. As you say, it is almost certainly where Bill got the idea for the CBLA from. I recently became enthused about the use of 3579 for QRP CW operations, and was a bit dismayed to find a beacon on the very same frequency I wanted to operate on. However, as CW bandwidths are so narrow, it's possible to use a nearby frequency with no QRM experienced from the beacon. This is something I will be able to get over quite easily, and it's certainly not keeping me up at night. Nevertheless, I'd prefer that they stay out of the ham bands, even though that seems inconsistent with my enjoyment of listening to the beacons that are operating in other people's bands.
Topic: New Dasher Beacon! "KOK" (Read 4465 times)
