East Coast Phfer 5185

[beaconman]

There are vague reports that there might be a beacon temporarily up for testing on 5.185 MHz.  It might be running on battery only, and it might be putting 200 mW into a shortened dipole with an east-west orientation.  It might be a simple 555 beeper, doing about 33 pulse/minute.  With any luck, it might actually be getting a signal out, and be heard elsewhere.

This would be a nice addition to the East Coast PHFERs

Guys lets give a listen for this...very interesting indeed...

NO JOY yet in Colorado

[L Cee]

1/25/10, Nothing here at 20:30 utc.

[syfr]

Nothing yet, but will add it to the normal freq's to ponder...

[beaconman]

Just had this report roll across the desk:

It just faded in here in West Georgia for a few minutes. It's at 5185.09 kHz.
Roughly 35 per minute. Clear upward "chirp" of about 10 Hz when I watch it on
Spectrogram.

I've got a WAV file if anyone is interested...

73 de
Jim W4JBM

[Lima Indigo]

At 10:31 UTC  Jan 26 it rose out of the noise and was very clear for 30 sec then dipped a little, then faded out, then came back; continued this roller-coaster until I stopped listening.  Required no Spectrogramometer to hear chirp.

[Seamus]

5.185 was off the air for a few hours, but it's back now with a topped-off battery and transmitting around 200 mW into a different antenna.  The shortened dipole it was using before has always been a bit fishy, even on the frequencies it is supposedly tuned for.  Hopefully, it will get a better signal out using the wire.  It's still just a temporary setup, as things are still being tweaked and adjusted.

[beaconman]

This beacon is fading up now and then beginning 0247Utc
HQ 180 100 ft end fed wire 8 ft off ground
Location Colorado

[Lima Indigo]

Heard it at 9:33 UTC today, bobbing in and out of the noise like a prairie dog pokin' his head out of a hole.  It's there, it's gone, it's there, it's gone.

[syfr]

Nice signals into NC .... dasher is working well!

[L Cee]

East Coast PHFER 1/30/10 22:40 utc 5.185.5 dash 33/min vry good sig w/no fade
My first reception here in NW VA of this one.

[cmradio]

Been trying since announced

Peace!

[Seamus]

Been trying since announced

Peace!

I would be seriously surprised if you were able to hear this one in western Canada - the original antenna was an east-west shortened dipole, but with questionable performance.  The longwire it's on now is my usual SWL antenna, but due to the way it's strung through the trees, it has strong north-south tendencies.  All of the beacons I hear on it are coming off of a side lobe at best, and it's rare for me to get anything from the western edge of the continent.  Even listening to the hams with "big gun" amplifiers, it's a good day if I hear anything from west of the rocky mountains on this wire.  Squirting 200 mW of RF into it probably isn't going to make the trip over the Divide very well.

I do appreciate your keeping an ear out for it though - hopefully we'll get a day of weird propagation and it'll take a good bounce out that way.  When it warms up a bit, I plan to work on the wire a bit to see if I can't skew the pattern a bit more to an east-west orientation.  When I'm done tinkering with this beacon and it's ready for placement, I plan to give it a westward-pointing antenna, so maybe it'll be easier to pull out of the noise.

Thanks again - still tweaking on it, but happy with it so far...

[syfr]

Doing great today mid afternoon. stable and strong.  good job!

[cmradio]

Been trying since announced

Peace!

I would be seriously surprised if you were able to hear this one in western Canada.....

A couple of summers ago, I was getting a solid stereo signal from a small FM station in Albany, NY... in my car!

90% of the time, DX in the coastal mountains is shite, that other 10% is total MAGIC!

Peace!