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Author Topic: Currently Active Beacons Chat  (Read 21736 times)

Offline ChrisSmolinski

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Currently Active Beacons Chat
« on: May 26, 2017, 1600 UTC »
Please use this thread for chat about the beacon list.

I've made several changes to the list. Please let me know if there's any beacons I have missed.
« Last Edit: June 23, 2020, 1731 UTC by ChrisSmolinski »
Chris Smolinski
Westminster, MD
eQSLs appreciated! csmolinski@blackcatsystems.com
netSDR / AFE822x / AirSpy HF+ / KiwiSDR / 900 ft Horz skyloop / 500 ft NE beverage / 250 ft V Beam / 58 ft T2FD / 120 ft T2FD / 400 ft south beverage / 43m, 20m, 10m  dipoles / Crossed Parallel Loop / Discone in a tree

Offline Teotwaki

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Re: Re: Currently Active Beacons
« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2017, 1638 UTC »
I've made several changes to the list. Please let me know if there's any beacons I have missed.

to me the numbers for B seemed to be Battery voltage, but I could be wrong   ;D

4102.74 Windy sends W followed by dits for the wind speed, every so often it sends TMP and the temperature, then B and the barometric pressure.
Jim
NRD-525, Elecraft KX3 and Elecraft PX3 Spectrum Display
76' end fed long wire & 66' off-center fed dipole for 10/20/40 meters
Orange County, SoCal, The better half

Offline ChrisSmolinski

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Re: Re: Currently Active Beacons
« Reply #2 on: May 26, 2017, 1641 UTC »
Yes, that does make more sense!
Chris Smolinski
Westminster, MD
eQSLs appreciated! csmolinski@blackcatsystems.com
netSDR / AFE822x / AirSpy HF+ / KiwiSDR / 900 ft Horz skyloop / 500 ft NE beverage / 250 ft V Beam / 58 ft T2FD / 120 ft T2FD / 400 ft south beverage / 43m, 20m, 10m  dipoles / Crossed Parallel Loop / Discone in a tree

Offline Teotwaki

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Re: Re: Currently Active Beacons
« Reply #3 on: July 24, 2018, 0351 UTC »
I've made several changes to the list. Please let me know if there's any beacons I have missed.

5644 KHz  Y & 2 sec DASH 
Jim
NRD-525, Elecraft KX3 and Elecraft PX3 Spectrum Display
76' end fed long wire & 66' off-center fed dipole for 10/20/40 meters
Orange County, SoCal, The better half

Offline R4002

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Re: Re: Currently Active Beacons
« Reply #4 on: August 28, 2018, 2305 UTC »
Common and Precious III 26510 kHz 26.510 MHz CW 11 meter beacon is apparently off the air per the owner's reports
U.S. East Coast, various HF/VHF/UHF radios/transceivers/scanners/receivers - land mobile system operator - focus on VHF/UHF and 11m

Offline Exo

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Re: Re: Currently Active Beacons
« Reply #5 on: September 08, 2018, 0637 UTC »
4098.3 ZN, repetition 4.4 seconds, drift to ~4103 kHz daytime
4100.05 H, repetition 3 seconds
8200.15  D, repetition 3 seconds

Exo
HF aficionado. On the coast of northern California.
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Offline MojaveBeaconeer

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Re: Re: Currently Active Beacons
« Reply #6 on: October 31, 2018, 0157 UTC »
HI Chris and all,

Some updates 30 October 2018.  I know that the two 2.0x night-only dit beacons shown on the main list are not on air anymore.  I know the gent whom put em in...

"Y" 5644 was only temp.  It is off air -- just a test for a spell of time.  The xmtr is re-crystalled on 6283 and is AM music (maybe 600-700 mW PEP AM mode for desert hiking...

New Super MedFER:

A "Tribute to INE" super-medFR is in 521.48 kHz and hrd. in 5 states so-far, incl. TX, since 2015.  It is dusk to dawn presently - 1500 mA ant. current.  33-35 watts input to an IRF-540N MosFET p.a. (class - E- switching -- highly efficient and cool running - series tuned so if the ant./loading-coil variometer is out of tune, p.a. current (DC) drops too).

It will go this DX season dusk to dawn sans outages for listening.  - MF is wonderful nowadays with exc. solar-minimum, long-haul DX reception, with Asian MW stations in well by 1200 UT (good audio 774, 972, 828, 1566, lotsa hets elsewhere)...  Since we miss INE as many's first hrd. NDB, "R" with a 5.1 second ident cycle, like an NDB, runs in the absence of 521 INE-MT now QRT.   It is also a **tribute** to the big, longtime "A" beacon of which I have met the op. and thee description of "A" 2097.3 is way cool. Now a lower-MF one to try for... the (CW) A1A mode-ERP is way-less than "A" be aware, as it is just a 23 ft. vert. with cap. umbrella and minimal ground radials/screening... 73-MB

Offline Exo

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Re: Re: Currently Active Beacons
« Reply #7 on: November 22, 2018, 0024 UTC »
2 suggestions about the listing of the "Rocky" beacon at 6626.4 kHz. 

  • 1. Rocky beacon might better be described as an "AM variable tone beacon" rather than a "buzzer beacon".
  • 2. The observed average center frequency of Rocky this year has been 6626.4 kHz, rather than 6626.2 kHz.

It appears that the transmitted tone modulation frequency is possibly related to temperature.
The hotter, the lower pitched the audio tone.
The colder, the higher pitched the audio tone.

When observed on a hot day in August, the frequency was 56 Hz, and it indeed sounded like a buzzer due to the lower pitch of the audio tone.

However, when observed during colder days in November, the audio tone modulation frequency was running between about 700 Hz ~ 1000 Hz, and it didn't sound at all like a buzzer, but more like a triangle wave or square wave oscillator, listen:

PLAY AUDIO 6626kHz Rocky AM tone beacon 2018NOV 2324UTC

We wonder whether the suspected temperature tone variability is intentional?

If indeed the temperature vs tone frequency is an intentional feature of this beacon, then this beacon might be described as an
Amplitude Modulated tone temperature telemetry beacon

Isn't that fascinating? :)


 
« Last Edit: November 22, 2018, 0111 UTC by Exo »
Exo
HF aficionado. On the coast of northern California.
Various receivers, transceivers, and broadband antennas.
kiwiSDR receiver on private LAN for multi-freq HF monitoring.

Offline KandiKlover

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Re: Re: Currently Active Beacons
« Reply #8 on: September 16, 2019, 0723 UTC »
Anyone know if the Inyo beacons are still on after the wildfire that's been going the past week?

https://twitter.com/Inyo_NF/status/1173409206243774464

Offline Teotwaki

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Re: Re: Currently Active Beacons
« Reply #9 on: September 16, 2019, 1526 UTC »
Hi KandiKlover,

I was on highway 395 yesterday and drove by the Taboose fire. I don't think it  is a threat to any hobby beacons I know of in the overall area.

I think there was only ever one beacon (Inyo Whooper) in  the Inyo Mountains but it has been off the air for a long time and I am told it won't be back. Maps of the Inyo National Forest show it has ranges on both sides of the 395 so there are lots of places to hide a beacon.  :-)

The beacon called Haystack on 4096.370 KHz is a good indicator of propagation from the high desert and mountains in that region. I can hear it right now.

Jim
NRD-525, Elecraft KX3 and Elecraft PX3 Spectrum Display
76' end fed long wire & 66' off-center fed dipole for 10/20/40 meters
Orange County, SoCal, The better half

Offline cwguy

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Re: Re: Currently Active Beacons
« Reply #10 on: September 25, 2019, 1454 UTC »
Could this be the Inyo Whooper?  An imposter maybe?   Listening to the Northern Utah SDR this morning 1445Z I see and hear a dasher on 4097.2 KHz.  Seems to be a bit faster than one dash/sec.  Some fading but overall a pretty good signal into that receiver.
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Offline Teotwaki

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Re: Re: Currently Active Beacons
« Reply #11 on: September 25, 2019, 2147 UTC »
Could this be the Inyo Whooper?  An imposter maybe?   Listening to the Northern Utah SDR this morning 1445Z I see and hear a dasher on 4097.2 KHz.  Seems to be a bit faster than one dash/sec.  Some fading but overall a pretty good signal into that receiver.

Here is what the Inyo Whooper used to sound like before it was taken off the air

https://youtu.be/kbu3I75oit4?t=70

Jim
NRD-525, Elecraft KX3 and Elecraft PX3 Spectrum Display
76' end fed long wire & 66' off-center fed dipole for 10/20/40 meters
Orange County, SoCal, The better half

Offline Dude111

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Re: Re: Currently Active Beacons
« Reply #12 on: October 23, 2019, 1814 UTC »
Thank you Chris for the list,quite interesting seeing them all!!

Offline Teotwaki

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Re: Re: Currently Active Beacons
« Reply #13 on: May 02, 2020, 1641 UTC »
updates for the list

Change Rocky to 6626.4 KHz

Off the air:
4095.9 "Viking"  stated as being removed by McGreevy

4096.0 "Coxie"  removed as far as I know

4096.35 Haystack stated as being removed by McGreevy

Update Windy's freq to 4102.83KHz
« Last Edit: May 04, 2020, 1410 UTC by Teotwaki »
Jim
NRD-525, Elecraft KX3 and Elecraft PX3 Spectrum Display
76' end fed long wire & 66' off-center fed dipole for 10/20/40 meters
Orange County, SoCal, The better half

Offline MojaveBeaconeer

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Re: Re: Currently Active Beacons
« Reply #14 on: May 04, 2020, 2237 UTC »
Former Viking re-installed as "Phallaxy" (due to the shape of the cool granite rocks nearby...).  I think you guys have the other updates fine.. MB

 

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