Messages

166

HF Beacons / Re: New whooper beacon on 4095.6

« on: April 01, 2021, 1448 UTC »

Listened to DW last nite and could hear it inside on the whip  antenna on the portable. Really impressive performance for a very marginal receiver.

Windy appears here earlier and disappears earlier than the whooper.

167

HF Beacons / Re: Hiker 8005

« on: April 01, 2021, 0200 UTC »

No joy tonight. Will try in the AM .  Glad to hear of a new/old beacon back on.

168

HF Beacons / Re: Windy 4102.85 malfunction?

« on: March 31, 2021, 0208 UTC »

Windy with a whole bunch of pips this afternoon.  It's windy down at Windy.

Listening from the Central Coast, Windy is considerably louder then The Whooper at 0100-0200.

Again, even with just a 3' long whip to the Degen portable, Windy is strong enough to carry on a QSO.  Impressive stuff.

169

HF Beacons / Re: New whooper beacon on 4095.6

« on: March 29, 2021, 1725 UTC »

Thanks for sharing your observations on the PV telemetry.  I normally don't listen early in the morning as I have the opportunity to  this week, and the sun availability vs PV number correlates well to what you describe. 

I've noticed also, that the battery is pretty stout (especially given the duty cycle of the transmitter) and its recovery time is short, which supports your observation on the capacity of both. It's a well designed system and hopefully will be with us a good long time.

Wish we could send out the Geek Squad to service Windy.

  I had never noticed that last slash before telemetry as being truncated as I heard it yesterday. Perhaps the AGC of whatever radio I was using further shortened it to the "dit" I heard

170

HF Beacons / Trifecta

« on: March 29, 2021, 1546 UTC »

Nice image of three beacons in the 4096 area, including DW and a couple dashers.  This is via KFS, but DW and one of the dashers are also audible this morning at 1530 UTC on the degen portable, here in the Ca central coast area.

171

HF Beacons / Re: New whooper beacon on 4095.6

« on: March 29, 2021, 1518 UTC »

The three digit PV numbers are puzzling!

I noticed listening last night that the last whoop before telemetry is now more of a long dit than the normal whoop.  Was that just an anomaly of yesterday?

172

HF Beacons / Re: Windy 4102.85 malfunction?

« on: March 29, 2021, 0034 UTC »

Listening on Degen 1103 with just the telescoping whip from Santa Barbara county and can copy Windy with normal telemetry (85 in the desert at 0030) .

No sign of DW from here with the same setup

Update:

45 min later, Windy is armchair copy, and I can hear the occasional whoop from DW, but nowhere near as strong.

173

HF Beacons / Re: Power output of MX beacons?

« on: March 14, 2021, 2204 UTC »

Thanks for the comments. Those power levels would make sense (to the extent that any of this makes sense) given their purported purpose.  At those levels, and keeping in mind their mission , I'd guess the antenna systems are not extravagant, but who knows?

Thank you for your logs of them here. They finally got me interested in trying to logthem. It's interesting to listen/watch  them over time on my Kiwi given their regular presence. I've only heard some of the LF versions so far, but they are regular visitors in the early evening here.  When I get my rotator fixed on my tribander I'll be in a better position to listen for the upper HF versions.

We have to thank the Soviets for leaving perplexing HF signals scattered around the spectrum to listen for and ponder.  :-)

174

HF Beacons / Re: 6703.5 new dasher

« on: March 13, 2021, 0126 UTC »

No joy tonight , Mark...

175

HF Beacons / Re: Russian MX beacons log.

« on: March 10, 2021, 0127 UTC »

P, D and A all copyable by ear and by one of the Kiwis here     0126Z

176

HF Beacons / Re: 6703.5 new dasher

« on: March 09, 2021, 2336 UTC »

See it on the  Omni there for sure.

177

HF Beacons / Power output of MX beacons?

« on: March 08, 2021, 2345 UTC »

I suppose this is information that is beyond obscure, but has anyone ever seen a reference that might define the power output of the various MX beacons?

Hard to imagine they'd intentionally run huge power given their stated purpose.

178

HF Beacons / Re: Russian MX beacons log.

« on: March 08, 2021, 2340 UTC »

"A" is doing quite well tonight. Easy 359
First time I've seen "P" appear on the waterfall but it's quite weak here.

179

HF Beacons / Re: Windy 4102.85 malfunction?

« on: February 28, 2021, 0103 UTC »

A very low speed CW "S" on Windy tonight, but VERY stong.

180

HF Beacons / Re: New Dasher 4097.22 KHz ?

« on: February 28, 2021, 0101 UTC »

It's kind of a mini-whooper itself, though I suspect it comes by that via a weak DC rail rather than FSK! :-)