HFU HF Underground

Loggings => HF Beacons => Topic started by: stendec on September 09, 2022, 1654 UTC

Title: UNID ditter beacon: 7998.2
Post by: stendec on September 09, 2022, 1654 UTC
At 1615Z I am hearing a slow ditter on 7998.2 using the KPH SDR. Signal is S2-S3 and ~65 dits per minute. Also copied on the KFS Omni SDR but not as strong.



(https://i.imgur.com/f98rLSn.jpeg)

Title: Re: UNID ditter beacon: 7998.2
Post by: HQ180 on September 09, 2022, 1709 UTC
What you heard was the Hiker Beacon...7998.2 Khz.
Title: Re: UNID ditter beacon: 7998.2
Post by: stendec on September 09, 2022, 1719 UTC
Hmmm....I check the "Currently Active Beacons" before posting, and noted that nothing is listed for 7998.2.

On the list, HIKER is listed at 8005. Has this beacon changed frequency?
Title: Re: UNID ditter beacon: 7998.2
Post by: HQ180 on September 10, 2022, 2120 UTC
The beacon list is not correct at this point in time ,the correct freq. is 7998.2 Khz. 
Months ago I copied a cw message on the beacons freq. it referred to the beacon as the hiker beacon.
What you and I  heard was the slow dasher or ditter if you prefer. It has a ditter at a bit faster rate. It even has a very slow long  1.5 sec dash with a space of about 2 sec.
It has been a few months since the operator has sent cw.  I don't think many of the HFU listeners ever caught the morse messages.
The speed is pretty slow 10-13 words per minute sent  by a military leg key from the Vietnam period of time.  The operator was a high speed intercept operator. 
I forgot, the cw messages seem to follow the Long dash mode. The beacon is in a jeep with a tuner and a whip antenna. I think this info. is probably on this web site.
This summer the op. was fishing a lot of small streams and therefore the location of the beacon was in a state of flux.


Title: Re: UNID ditter beacon: 7998.2
Post by: stendec on September 12, 2022, 0345 UTC
HQ,

 Thanks for the info and details on the HIKER beacon. I'd sure like to catch one of those hand-sent messages.