"L" beacon this morning 6668 KHz

[cwguy]

Thought I'd start the thread again (with an "L" in the subject line) since I'm definitely hearing an "L"...

Hearing L with some noise @ 1545Z  -  6668 KHz.  Weak - Moderate strength at times, ionosphere must still be warming up (!).  I too hear the little burp before the first dit at times...  Gives it some personality!

Any chance this is the L that was reported back in September?  There weren't too many posts on that one...

[zackers]

Does anyone have an idea where this is located? Good signal here again this evening, 0030Z on Nov. 14. It was a little better last night but still S4-S5 tonight.

[Greenfroggy]

NOV. 13
Keep in mind I hear WM sent on this freq. at around sun rise and then WI...when the sun gets up around 1410Utc according to my notes L comes in and stays most of the day.  Could this be three different beacons or one that has a unique keying cliche...anyway I find these things totally enchanting.
GF

[Token]

I believe we might all be reporting the same beacon on this freq.  I have it reasonably strong and can watch it for extended periods of time.  I see it changing the character it is sending from time to time.  Because of the nature of the changes I suspect it is not intentional.  I have not seen something I can definitely tie to temperature, for example, but I have been trying to see trends.

Most frequently it sends the letter “L”, dit-dah-dit-dit.  Here is a spectrogram of that being sent:




The next most frequent I see is “L” with an extra little short dit at the beginning.  The short dit is clearly heard when this happens, and I occasionally catch myself thinking “was that UI or a question mark minus a dah”?  Here is a spectrogram of that happening:




Other times I hear the dah shortened up, with the short dit at the beginning, and then it sounds like “WM”.  Here is a spectrogram of that happening and followed by a dit-L, you can tell the missing portion of the dah is actually there but reduced in power, to the ear it sounds gone.




I also have heard AO out of it a few times.  The short leading dit is present and the dah partially drops out.  If you look closely the dah is actually there but appears to sometimes be low in power for a portion of it.  I sometimes hear this repeated for many cycles.  Here is a spectrogram of the AO:




As for zackers question as to where this is located.  Based on the fact I can often hear it in daylight and have it fairly strong I am betting in the northern Mojave Desert area.  As I said, I have it about the same conditions/strengths as I used to have the TR beacon, I would not be surprised if they were not from the same general area.

T!

[cwguy]

Wow Token, that's a cool analysis!  What a wierd beacon! (No offense intended!)  Thanks for the screen shots - the visual explains a lot, and I too would think they are all the same beacon, with an occasional malfunction.  They all seem to derive from the letter "L".

Does the pattern change at any particular time?  I wonder if it is a temperature thing, assuming it is operating outdoors, or maybe a voltage sag until the sun hits a solar panel or something like that...

[zackers]

Interesting. What I have been hearing the past few evenings was definitely an L with the little fraction of a dit just before the L sometimes. Sounded like a keying error. I don't know how the CW is being generated but there may be a small glitch in the generator.

I'll listen at other times for the other characters. Wish I had a 40 meter beam!

[Kilokat7]

Here's what it looked like tonight, just above the noise floor.  This was captured at 0309 UTC:

[ChrisSmolinski]

L heard here on 6668 at 1147z. First time I have received it.

[cwguy]

L heard just after sunrise with good sigs today - even heard the phantom half-dit that often preceeds it.

[weaksigs]

The loggings and comments about "L" got my curiosity up.
Tonight listening 6668 before sundown produced no sigs.
At twilight a weak signal with characteristic QSB was heard
and by 0045Z The signal was peaking up to be quite unmistakable.
At 0110Z it is nearly a constant copy.

First heard it on a low noise antenna feeding a preamp and
then a bit better on a 38 foot per side horizontal loop. It is not
strong enough for comments on any possible keying anomalies
as has been suggested.

Nice to hear a new beacon here in Florida.   

[Kilokat7]

0145 UTC tonight: The "phantom half-dit" clearly heard (and seen) now:

[sat_dxer]

Heard 0053z to abt 0125z 18Nov 2012; RST 229 using the narrowest cw filters at the noise level sounded like slow code "L" But w/QSB heard what sounded like an "S" sometimes. Will try agn at local sunrise.
18Nov 2012:
Very weak RST 219 @ 1445z & 1506z peaks, w/QRM from non-English USB chatter
19Nov 2012:
Peak @0114z RST 33N "L"
RST 22N 1502z
20Nov 2012:
Peak @0132z RST 45N "L"
21Nov 2012:
Peak @0100z RST 339 "L"


The last two days signal has been very weak to nil at both terminator times.

A little stronger tonite (24Nov 0030z) abt RST 239

Since the weekend signal has been nil at both terminator times.

30Nov 2012:
1310z RST 239 "L"

[mark-n-nut]

Wow!  great signal here in northern UT at 2322 utc.  Solid S-5 on the meter here at the moment.

73, mark-n-nut

[cwguy]

Noisy here this morning, but able to hear L with some fading - can even hear the odd half-dit that preceeds it during fade-ups.  1615Z.

[cwguy]

Have L again this morning, very weak and in and out of the noise at 1700Z.  Sometimes the ID disappears altogether for minutes at a time.  Most days I have reasonably good copy, but condx must be less favorable today.