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Author Topic: Currently Active Beacons  (Read 31075 times)

Offline ChrisSmolinski

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Currently Active Beacons
« on: January 02, 2013, 2108 UTC »
As it can be confusing to keep track of the various active unlicensed beacons by reading the various messages, I thought it would be useful to keep an up to date message as a "sticky" at the top of this forum. These are for unlicensed (read not legal) beacons. Ham, Part 15, and military beacons are not included. 

As new beacons are discovered, or old ones disappear, this message will be updated. If you think a change is needed to a beacon status, or to suggest an additional beacon, post a message as a reply to the chat thread: https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,68701.0.html

Please DO NOT REPLY IN THIS THREAD.

Recently Reported Beacons updated 3/10/2024, frequencies in kilohertz:

2097.3   "A"  Fairly high power, an easy target even out east. Back on air Nov 2021

4069.43 Dasher with a strong second harmonic at 8138.86 and it's night time only  3/10/2024

4086.7 dasher sends about 8.7 dashes / min, each about 1.7 sec long

4094.0  id's UFO TMP three times, after TMP two numbers are sent then back to dashes. On the air around Nov 2020

4094.8  SFI twice in slow Morse separated by a series of 8 dashes. Active in June, 2023

4095.03  Beacon L sends in slow Morse about 2 seconds apart

4095.170  MudDuck in Morse with ten 1 sec dashes. First heard 1/1/2022

4095.380  Common & Precious, CW AND RTTY (170HZ SHIFT 50 BAUD 2 STOP BITS), BASE LOADED 5M VERTICAL WITH CAPACITY HAT, 35M ABOVE GROUND. 50W

4095.700 "Desert Whooper". Discovered Nov. 16, 2020. Sends "DW" in Morse, then 30 upward frequency sweeps or "whoops" at 1/sec. Repeats five times. Next sends 5 slow whoops, BAT & 3 digit voltage, O TMP then 2 digit temperature, I TMP then 2 digit temperature, PV and solar panel current with values ranging from 0 to over 2000 in milliAmps. 

4096.0  "Coxie" Slow dasher, about 4.5 seconds, 700 mW, Joshua Tree NP, daytime only with dead battery

4096.15  send L every 7 seconds. Strong in SoCal

4096.2  Slow dasher called Buddha, was "Phallaxy" was "Viking". About 30 mW, daytime only. On for 3 seconds, off for 3 seconds

4096.85 "Marin Dit", 24/7  5-10 mW, harmonic of 8193.77 radiates better

4097.08   Slow Dasher, 2secs on and 2 secs off. Discovered Nov. 2020, it does appear to be related to 7997.2 kHz.  The two dashers appear to be in sync.

4097.1  Fast Ditter. New in 2021

4097.23 Fast Dasher called Madonna, 1/3 watt

4100.01 F

4100.05 H, repetition 3 seconds

4106.86 About a 2 sec dash followed by a 5 sec space

4109.50  "Central Coast Slider" slow whooping beacon, coastal mountains of central CA, 335mW, EFHW antenna, solar/battery power

4175   Z

5644  Y and 2 second dash

6626.2 "Rainy" - Mojave NP, CA - daytime ditter/chirper in Mojave NP, 1.5 watts, first on-air March 2003

6627.0  Gendarme  - a whooping beacon, quick-falling in-freq. deliberately the result via a 100 uF cap. on the voltage rail from the 2w panel and the freq. falls during cap. discharges on key-on. 50% duty-cycle/0.5 watts.  Somewhere in the southern Great Basin... sun-only

6700.5 "HexY2k" Joshua Tree NP, daytime only, 100 mW to inv. vee, 150 mW first on-air 29 Dec. 1999

7000.65 "Stumpy" Ditter, about 0.17 seconds long, sent every 22 seconds.

7039.4 "T" beacon  OK0EPB sends a marker each second, a longer one at the minute, and callsign.

7956 kHz Cry Baby  1/second dasher with chirp, 10 mW solar powered daytime only. Located East of The Continental Divide somewhere high in the Rockies. On the air May 19, 2021

7997.0 kHz dasher appears to be a 2 second on, 2 second off, dash. may be related to 4997.08 dasher

7998.3 "Shorty" sends 18 dashes starting every minute.

7998.9 Ditter, dits about 0.15 secs long, about every 0.6 secs, or about 100 dits / min   

7998.9 KHz, dashes of roughly two seconds long with about five seconds inbetween dashes

8000 KHz  "S" sent at about 5 seconds. Heard on Nth Utah SDR. Reported on Sept 28th

8000.35 Very long period dasher, 40 or 50 seconds. Sometimes sends a broken dash that sounds more like an A or AE.

8001.2   New beacon as of Dec 20, 2015, 5 second period, frequency 8001.2 - 8001.6

8005    "Hiker", Dit rate is 60 per min. 500 mW into whip antenna.

8006.7   V5 sent 39 seconds apart

8138.86 Dasher with a primary signal at 4069.43 and it's night time only  3/10/2024

8191.9   second harmonic of Coxie on 4095.9

8193.7 "MarinDit" - 24/7 in Marin County, CA - about 80 dits/min. 10-15 mW only - on-air since spring 2000 (an "attic beacon"), this is the second harmonic

8200.15  D, repetition 3 seconds

8498.5 Fast Dasher dits are about 0.14 sec long, and about 0.6 sec apart, or about 100 dits / min

8500.3 Slow Dasher

13563.45 "T" sent every 2 seconds, 4 mW. Technically a 22m Part 15 beacon and should be logged here: https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/board,35.0.html
« Last Edit: March 11, 2024, 0330 UTC by Teotwaki »
Chris Smolinski
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Offline Teotwaki

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Currently Inactive Beacons
« Reply #1 on: January 05, 2021, 0137 UTC »
As it can be confusing to keep track of the various inactive unlicensed beacons by sifting through numerous old messages, we thought it would be useful to keep an up to date listing as a "sticky" at the top of this forum. These are for unlicensed (read not legal) beacons. Ham, Part 15, and military beacons are not included. 

As beacons go off the air, this message will be updated as best as possible. If you think a change is needed to a beacon status, or to suggest an additional beacon, post a message as a reply to the chat thread: https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,68701.0.html

Please DO NOT REPLY TO THIS POST.


Beacons No Longer In Operation
updated 07/21/2022, frequencies in kiloHertz:

2008.4 dasher sends about 17 dashes/min, each 1 sec long, cycles on and off

2018.3 dasher sends about 48 dashes / min, each 0.22 sec long, cycles on and off

2025.1 "Inyo Dark Ditter" 67 dits/minute.  Night-only, about 2 watts output to inv. vee on granite rock-pile. (s.w. USA in Calif.) - QRT

4070.3 GT

4070.3 ZT

4079.6 "TMP" beacon

4089 Death Valley Ditter "Scotty Beacon" off the air Nov. 2011

4094 dash rate is 60 per second when it speeds up to the 100 per min that is a signal that a CW message will soon follow

4094.5 "X" beacon, about 6.8 sec between letters - reported still active January 2016

4096.15  Beacon "L”, sends temperature in Celsius and battery voltage every 45 seconds. Discovered 6/14/21, Off the air 6-17

4096.24 "Hexie" 24/7 1 second-long dashes, 24/7, Joshua Tree NP, 400 mW on since Dec. 1997

4096.35 Haystack 24/7, 3 second dash, new beacon as of Oct 2015, 200 mW Off air, may be relocated

4096.6 "Kelsie" Mojave NP

4097.25 "Inyo Whooper" daytime-only, about 90-chirping dashes/min. 3/4 watts. First on April 2007.

4098.3 ZN, repetition 4.4 seconds, drift to ~4103 kHz daytime

4102.85  Windy. On the air before 2009. Off the air since Dec. 2021. When it was functioning properly, Windy sent W followed by dits for the wind speed. Every so often it sent TMP and the temperature, then B and the battery voltage. Speculation: When the battery voltage was low (below 11.3v ?) it sent "H"  and as the voltage trended lower it sent "S"

5205.3 "Sally" ditter beacon in the Saline Valley, CA - east-facing solar-panel so mainly morning only (a daytimer). 1/2 watt.  First on-air Feb. 2006

6626.3 "Rocky" a "buzzer-beacon" located in Inyo, Co, CA with about 300 mW output, fast dasher, about 120~150 DPM - daytime only, first on-air Spring 2007, off air May 10, 2021  (See replacement, 6627 Gendarme in active beacon list)

6398.50  25W CW. Half Wave Dipole Antenna. Located in Germany. 24/7 operation. Sends its name "Common and Precious" and additional information (like a locator).

6668.0 "L" beacon, about 9.3 secs apart, or 6.5 times / min, hearing extra leading dit

6998.73  Archer Beacon 2W. 64' end fed 1/2 wave sloper antenna. Sends "ABK" once every ~55 seconds in slow CW. N/W U.S.

7000.0 "Itchy" Ditter, 0.21 seconds long, sent every 1.39 seconds.

10237.73 kHz, 5W CW. Half Wave Dipole Antenna. Located in Germany. 24/7 operation. Sends its name "Common and Precious" and additional information (like a locator).  CURRENTLY OFF AIR

10238.18 "Hiker", Dit rate is 100 per min.

26510 kHz 8W CW. Located in Germany. 24/7 operation. Sends its name "Common and Precious" and additional information (like a locator). Currently there are no known versions of Common & Precious on the air on other frequencies.
« Last Edit: July 21, 2022, 1555 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 Teotwaki

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Re: Currently Active Beacons
« Reply #2 on: March 25, 2021, 0343 UTC »
DO NOT POST REPLIES TO THIS THREAD


 If you think a change is needed to a beacon status, or to suggest an additional beacon, post a message as a reply to the beacon chat thread: https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,68701.0.html
« Last Edit: March 25, 2021, 2242 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