HFU HF Underground
Loggings => HF Beacons => Topic started by: MojaveBeaconeer on June 24, 2018, 2123 UTC
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The "Y" beacon has changed frequency from around 4096.5 kHz previously, and now will be going most nights (dusk to about 0900 PDT/1600 UT) on 5644.0 kHz (or pretty close to exactly 5644.0 kHz). Of course do check for harmonics such as the (well-heard) second harmonic when Y was previously on 4096.5 kHz.
A new 40 ft. sloper antenna wire radiates way-better in comparison the previous too-low (and buried in a Tamarisk tree that greatly absorbed RF energy) 60 ft. end-fed wire that Y was going into when it was on 4096.5 kHz over the past few months.
So please listen and enjoy the desert's "Y" on 5644.0 kHz. Seems to be a vastly stronger ground-wave signal at 1 mile distance, to it should get out via skywave better also, hopefully!
73 - MB
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This is tough to hear here. I think I may have "heard" it rather than see it on Argo early on Monday morning. Not sure. But I am getting USB activity on 5643 when I checked the last 2 mornings around 0930 +/- utc. Will keep listening and hoping for better prop! Tnx for having this on the air! For me Fun stuff!
73, Mark
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Been trying but nil.
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Y on 5644 is a good bit better here than when it was on the 4096 freq.
T!
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:) Thank you very much Mark and Token for the recent "Y" reports - the freq. around 5644 kHz seems clear here, and the xmtr's antenna is 1/4 wave near resonant, so the output on the fundamental is about maybe 600 mW output CW mode and maybe a tad below 200 mW (unmod) carrier when I have it playing music in AM-mode (the latter during morning-time desert walks after I have usually switched it off from the "Y" ident CW-beacon mode for the day (not every-day is it playing music around 1700 UT or so, but maybe 3 mornings per week).
I hear Haystack, Coxie, and Viking as usual here (all three fine in short skip by 1500 UT usually), and they all seem normal. Haystack is due for a visit and battery-swap when the wx gets cooler in Sept., but for the time being it seems normal as usual (Haystack ~4096.35 is maybe 150 mW output).
The 4096 cluster (at night) has only two beacons, both are much humbler in output than long ago over the Millenium and for a half-decade after.
73 and tnx agn guys for your fine reports - MB
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Well.. looks like I found it! +/- sunrise and sunset seems to be the best time for me to catch it! It was doing real well here this morning! Y and a 2 sec dash!
73, Mark
(http://)
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5644.034 kHz Y beacon. Weak with slow fading
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been hearing Y over the last hour, weak with fading but readable.
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5643.997 kHz Y beacon. Weak but readable
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Heard it finally. Been trying for weeks. Maybe the smoke up here helped!
Very weak here into Shasta County CA, 500-600 mi north of the Mohave, fading into nothing for 4 or 5 minutes, then coming back.
0448Z 5644.033
Using a KX3/PX3 combo and a Pixel Loop, also hearing it on a 2 el 40m yagi
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5644.029 KHz Y & Dash beacon. Very weak with fades. The dash is not hard to pick out but the "Y" is in the noise.
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Hey dudes - thanks MUCH Jim etc. for the loggings of "Y." The ant. is a sloping 1/4 wave end-fed wire, but amongst a lot of trees 9Tamarisk) that attenuate the field by 10 dB at HF, so the ERP of Y is maybe 100 mW from an overgrown yard of Salt-Cedar/Tamarisk tree (metal like). But the groundwave is great for 200 mW AM music broadcasting (carrier 200 mW and modulating at 80% peaks for maybe 500 mW PEP, so it is in AM mode in mornings, etc. when I hike in nearby desert, otherwise, Y is dusk to about 0830 PDT daily thru Summer 2018... 73... ML/MB