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4095.6 - the Desert Whooper Returns

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stendec:
 The Desert Whooper has returned -- good copy on most west coast SDRs at 0200Z today. It had disappeared a couple of weeks ago - for reasons unknown.

The Coast Slider went silent around the same time, but is still off the air. Hopefully it'll make a return like DW.

Teotwaki:
Good news!!!

Teotwaki:
My observations:

The signal is weaker than before
The reported voltage appears to be static at 13.2 volts
Reported  temperatures are always in the low 70's and always 2-3 degrees apart
PV value is always zero

One might guess that it has been recovered, repaired and is in testing before redeployment

stendec:
I wonder what the problem was. It seems there's many things that can happen to a beacon in a remote location-- component failure, antenna down,  critters chewed thru the feedline, water ingress, beacon was used for target practice...It's a wonder that many of them (DW, Coxie, Rainy, etc.) are so long-lived!

Perhaps the beaconeer can post what happened it.

Teotwaki:

--- Quote from: stendec on April 10, 2022, 2238 UTC ---I wonder what the problem was. It seems there's many things that can happen to a beacon in a remote location-- component failure, antenna down,  critters chewed thru the feedline, water ingress, beacon was used for target practice...It's a wonder that many of them (DW, Coxie, Rainy, etc.) are so long-lived!

Perhaps the beaconeer can post what happened it.

--- End quote ---

Some good guesses, but hopefully we'll soon hear from the folks that actually built DW. It's sort of a "young" beacon at less than two years old. I also hope the Coast Slider is brought back to life in June. Wish I could help out. It's still a weird coincidence that both beacons went down in the same storm on the same day.

DW tech information & background thread is here:  https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,85047.0.html

The Mojave Beaconeer" didn't build DW but he did give the nasty critters a great moniker:  "Nibblers & Biters"   ;D
His beacons may be old but at least three of them have survived many long years and have sort of anchored the hobby for all of its listeners. I'm sure those stalwart beacons inspired many other people to try their hand at building pirate beacons.

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