HFU HF Underground
Loggings => HF Beacons => Topic started by: Teotwaki on February 08, 2026, 1751 UTC
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DW has become very weak at my home so I went to the HMB SDR to see if it could be heard.
No joy on that but I did find a new beacon with a little bit of key up drift
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Nice find, T!
The new slow dasher's 2nd harmonic can be heard on 8190.8 using HMB, but better using the KPH SDR.
No joy on DW on either, but the Coast Slider is still sliding away on 4109.4.
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I haven't heard the Desert Whooper in a long time -- in months, actually. Although I haven't tried every single night. But over a year ago I was hearing it every night or morning, at varying strengths. I vaguely heard it maybe a month ago. Other nights it was MIA. I ascribe it to poor ionospheric conditions. I'll have to try for this new one, though.
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DW had been the gold standard of desert beacons!
Time for a road trip to do a repair job for someone
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DW, Madonna (I think), and CC Slider are all heard here locally right now (0340z). I cannot speak to them being "up" or "down", as a while back I had a noise source start that has killed my noise floor in several bands, this one included.
T!
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Unless the DW transmitter has developed a fault somehow, I ascribe my lack of hearing it to deteriorating DX conditions over the past year or so. I was hearing the Desert Whooper nightly during the solar peak around June-August-October 2024, and then it started getting dicey hearing it during 2025 with the constant solar storms and the lower bands just haven't been the same since then.
Being at a higher latitude, my location is probably more susceptible to variations in the ionosphere, because the auroral radio zone is closer.
I hope if there is some fault with the DW beacon the owner can fix it. It's a cool thing to hear on the SW spectrum at night. Whoop Whoop!
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Hi Jim and folks - ur al l doing munifenct job keeping up the beacon torch. Gotta give credit where due...
as such...
The NEW impanted "Canyon-Arroyo" beacon in Inyo is in a deep V-shaped arroyo with a horizontal section of NW pointing wire and almost vertical downward pointing (axis) 1/4 wave half of dipole. the usual RC itimed 50% duty cycle on/off (daylight/sun only) with 100 uFD cap across the xmtr input to dertmine the chirp (dep. upon solar irridation upon 5w panel) .. as such.
so the half wave dipole is both horizontal and also vertically polarized leg atop a 40 foot tall granitic-rock spire out in the desert highland boonies at 5K plus feet elevation northern Inyo...
Implanted 27 Jan 2026.. with lady Jackie watching and taking photos.. as I did, also...
Good DXing, mates! Keep up fine job, Jim!
(I wishe there was a way to submit photos directly from this iMac's HHD rather than some web-URL... <img> tags, et al. the ole <img src> tag but from drive-C maybe??
I could u/l some cool pics of the thing if you dudes could help me there,
73... nks
73 de MB--- and you know all... the FCC 2 but they think it might be funny here in all of this an so low ERP celebrating our wonderful public lands we take too much for granted...
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oh yeah...
4011 RC timed dasher to 2N3866 NPN p.a. about 1/2 watt output... that vert.horiz 1/2 wave dipole as described prior post...
amazing ERP short skip here - also @ KFS-SE...
73 MB
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RE: The Desert Whooper: FWIW, I did hear them several nights back, around midnight or later Pacific Time. I don't remember the night exactly, and my logbook is not handy....
They were just barely above the noise level, but I could hear the whoops.
Whether that was conditions improving on that evening, or something happened that improved the transmission, I wouldn't know. It was the first time I'd heard the DW in almost a year.
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I was recently camping in the desert and could reliably hear DW, Coast Slider and KOK at night
My main HF longwire was down for a bit before I realized it was broken. I'm currently using my 1 meter-ish HF loop and a random wire to get by.
I can hear DW fairly regularly here at home but weaker than with the main antenna.
MB: Glad to hear you are building new beacons. Canyon-Arroyo is doing very well into the HMB SE kiwi SDR on 4095.43 but can't hear it at home with the mag loop today.
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I refurbished the "Buddha" beacon a couple of weeks ago: about 4095.92 +/- temp and panel voltage drift. It's antenna was broken in several places. I had not been to it in about 5 years - I noticed that its fund. got weaker while its 2nd harmonic was routine copy here. Far stouter antenna-wire was installed atop the small hill it is on. The reason for the religious figure names is that some friends and I - over several years - have found about four different religious figurines implanted in the desert in this area (Owens Vly.) as though they were geo-cached. So naming the beacons as such was kind of a joke there. "Buddha" is the ~3-second long dasher.
I am presently testing yet another just built 8 sec. long dash - same 4011 NAND gate RC dasher keyer/xtal osc. unit and this one is around 4096.53 kHz fine tuned via two trimmer caps. on the xtal osc. gate. It will be located within a few weeks ("River Boat" it will be called as it's signal looks like a boat with upraised "bow" on the KF-SE Kiwi waterfall, and it will be located near a big river... but for now day-only testing... All the dashers are Sun only, between 0.4 to 0.5 watts output.
DW certainly has now a +10 to 15 dB improvement here over a month ago. Looks like the "4096 cluster" is back again! This hot weather conducive for hikes and outings certainly helps! 73 - MB