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Loggings => HF Beacons => Topic started by: Teotwaki on June 02, 2014, 2310 UTC

Title: DX-pedition beacon log
Post by: Teotwaki on June 02, 2014, 2310 UTC
5-31 041:5Z

4094.5 X beacon
4096.24 Hexie dasher
4102.3  possibly the W beacon but very weak

06-01 0400Z

4094.5 X Beacon
4096  hearing what sounded like a long 5 second dash
4096.24 Hexie
4102.3  W a.k.a. Windy beacon. Clearly heard W in Morse but interspersed with other Morse-like dits that made no sense. So is that supposed to be wind speed?
6626.3 fast ditter
6700.5  possibly Hexie 2

Was using my Elecraft KX3 and a center fed 132 foot dipole elevated 30 feet while camped at 8500 feet in the Inyo Mountains near Death Valley
Title: Re: DX-pedition beacon log
Post by: ChrisSmolinski on June 03, 2014, 1050 UTC
Nice catches!  I haven't heard any 4 MHz beacons in quite some time.
Title: Re: DX-pedition beacon log
Post by: Token on June 03, 2014, 1338 UTC
The 5 second long beacon you list at 4096, did it have a chirp at the leading edge?  I have been seeing this one, but not sure how long it is around.  Freq has been about 4095.7.

Yes, Wendy has a W followed by dits.  The number of dits between the W’s tells the relative wind speed, lots of dits close together is high wind, fewer is lighter wind.

The 6626.3 fast ditter was possibly Rainey, Rocky was likely in there also, but it is mixed in with Rainey and if you don’t know what to look for you can mix it under Rainey.

Surprised you did not try for Sally while in the Inyo Mnts, you probably had a pretty good chance for it.

T!
Title: Re: DX-pedition beacon log
Post by: Teotwaki on July 03, 2014, 0333 UTC
The 5 second long beacon you list at 4096, did it have a chirp at the leading edge?  I have been seeing this one, but not sure how long it is around.  Freq has been about 4095.7.

Yes, Wendy has a W followed by dits.  The number of dits between the W’s tells the relative wind speed, lots of dits close together is high wind, fewer is lighter wind.

The 6626.3 fast ditter was possibly Rainey, Rocky was likely in there also, but it is mixed in with Rainey and if you don’t know what to look for you can mix it under Rainey.

Surprised you did not try for Sally while in the Inyo Mnts, you probably had a pretty good chance for it.

T!

Sorry for the late replies! I did not have notifications set up properly.


Thanks Chris, the camp site in the Inyos was great for listening. I mainly had the radio on at night and in the daytime I was out hiking or driving the old mining roads.

Token,

I did not notice a leading edge chirp but I'll try to listen for it on the next trip. I have a really good 3 minute audio recording of Windy I'll have to post somewhere. Any suggestions for something easy? Otherwise I could make a "video" version to post on YouTube
Title: Sally-ditter saline vallley : Re: DX-pedition beacon log
Post by: vlfradio on July 03, 2014, 0413 UTC
It would seem that "Sally" 5205.3 Saline Valley daytime ditter is now QRT - nothing hrd. in very quiet Inyo locales of it in a year or so.

he (Tim) must Must be at cerro gordo... pretty close to me...

-v-

Title: Re: DX-pedition beacon log
Post by: vlfradio on July 03, 2014, 0416 UTC
I meant JIM is camped up in Inyos at Cerro gordo - should be in the area to hear all the solar-only ones as groundwave or semi...

Listen on 13563 kHz...

FM 97.9 MHz


-v-
Title: Re: DX-pedition beacon log
Post by: Teotwaki on July 03, 2014, 0428 UTC
Well, I was camped out there a while back on May 31st but I was closer to Burgess than Cerro Gordo.   ;D
Title: Re: DX-pedition beacon log
Post by: Teotwaki on July 03, 2014, 2130 UTC
I was stuck on some endless conference calls so I cobbled together the "W" beacon recording on YouTube with some random photos here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLpYIXNigww&feature=youtu.be

The original recording is a little over 3 minutes but I shortened it a bit.

Jim
Title: Re: DX-pedition beacon log
Post by: Teotwaki on July 03, 2014, 2134 UTC
Ha! I just found Token's recording from 4 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhuPcNZ-EIk
Title: Re: DX-pedition beacon log
Post by: vlfradio on July 04, 2014, 0227 UTC
I Dfed (W) Wind-speed beacon in spring 2001 in the upper Colorado (not state of) Desert.  It was on 4095.5 kHz back then, before QSY to 4102.7. Employs three spoons (grapefruit type) on muffin-fan spindle - one turn of anenometer makes for one dit of the "ditting portion" of the ident using an optoisolator, then "W every 10 seconds.

It has been suffering battery problems for years now.

-w-
Title: Re: DX-pedition beacon log
Post by: Teotwaki on July 04, 2014, 1401 UTC
I Dfed (W) Wind-speed beacon in spring 2001 in the upper Colorado (not state of) Desert.  It was on 4095.5 kHz back then, before QSY to 4102.7. Employs three spoons (grapefruit type) on muffin-fan spindle - one turn of anenometer makes for one dit of the "ditting portion" of the ident using an optoisolator, then "W every 10 seconds.

It has been suffering battery problems for years now.

-w-


Any pictures??