HFU HF Underground
Loggings => HF Beacons => Topic started by: MojaveBeaconeer on July 13, 2020, 0018 UTC
-
I'm astounded that Hexy2k still runs, but very much a daytime/sun-only beacon now. That xmtr. was implanted on 29 December 1999. EdH and I never imagined it would last more than a couple of years - it is just one of our throwaway xmtrs: a 4011 RC keying and osc. ckt. to a 2N4427 p.a.. FT243 xtal.
It was once down near 6700.4 but seems over time to have drifted upwards by 100 Hz - not much considering it's age! Not audible much in Inyo due to being too close (in JTNP) and the lack of F2 skip and low MUF. Occasionally in well enough here sometimes to let me know the thing still sounds the same! I can always get on the KPH KiwiSDR/etc.
BTW, 6626 "Rocky" is sstill QRT pending cooler wx. to implant in a much safer location away from the hoards of jack and cottontail rabbits that CHEW wires... Perhaps back to the same location as its former dipole is still on-site but just taken down...
I personally know the developer of the KiwiSDR units - a guy in NZ once from San Anselmo in Marin. We were both deep into LowFER beacons in the mid-to-late 80s whe I lived in San Rafael. His work has made this DXing pursuit really great! 73-ML/Steve McGreevy - N6NKS.
-
Hexy2K making it into Central Arizona this afternoon at 23:30, and I have heard it off and on for the past couple of hours. Very clean keying and quite strong on the up take. Amazing how such a simple circuit has endured the elements for over 20 years. Maybe simplicity is the key.
Copyable on both vertical and horizontal antennas, stronger on the vertical.
I have it at 6700.500 KHz 03AUG2020 23:30 Z
-
Hexy2k with a good signal this mid day. 6700.51 KHz 18:10 UTC 25 OCT 2020
Have seen it in and out the past couple of days.
-
Hexy2K fading in and out this morning, good signal on the upswing. 14:45 UTC 08 NOV 2020
-
Hexy2K has been in the past couple of days, 6700.450. Very strong right now and solid, S5 signal, almost no fading. Makes one wonder if this is the same 150 mW beacon from 1999. 20:54 UTC 22 JAN 2021
-
Very strong, solid signal at 18:22 UTC 06 FEB 2021