Messages

31

HF Beacons / Re: NEW REMOTE BEACON "Cry Baby" AKA CB

« on: May 22, 2021, 2124 UTC »

AWESOME TO KNOW as every beacon put on weak or strong contributes to the HUF fun and to propagation research, too! Thanks for the beacon info - it's small power reminds me of MarinDit's second harmonic well heard but only about 5-10 mW ERP on 8193.75 kHz or so...

73 and will try for in the Owens Valley - MB

32

HF Beacons / Re: Currently Active Beacons Chat

« on: May 13, 2021, 0038 UTC »

In the news I can neither confirm nor deny, allegedly:

~6627.0 kHz "Gendarme"  - a whooping/'siren' beacon quick-falling in-freq. whooper/chirper beacon - deliberately the result via a 100 uF cap. on the voltage rail from the 2w panel and the freq. falls during cap. discharges on key-on. 50% duty-cycle/0.5 watts. OTA 10th May 2021 - 10.45 PDT.  Somewhere in the southern Great Basin... sun-only/formerly 'Rocky' - named by a cool artist lady whom heard the thing and named it...

Big. S7 sigs on the KiwiSDR (KFS-SE) Half Moon Bay, CA at 14.30 PDT today... stronger than 6700.5 HexY2K.

Tnx. Jim/Chris for this HFU fun and the great bcn. lists... 73 de MB

33

22 Meter Band HiFER Beacons / 13562.85 (or so) RR Keeler, CA reactivated

« on: April 19, 2021, 1516 UTC »

13562.85 kHz or so (some drift) "RR" Owens Lake area has been reactivated 24/7 with outages for listening - mainly mid-morning local time.  Standard CW mode ident (A1A). Hrd in NM regularly last year, and he just visited my place in the desert... 73 de ML

34

HF Beacons / Re: Rainy 6626.2 KHz

« on: April 14, 2021, 0352 UTC »

I suppose Rainy, like all of the other beacons, are a form of GeoCaching but with RF emanations... somebody is fixing and maintaining my:

HexY2K 6700/5 or so; - not 24/7 like on beginning evening 29 Dec. 1999 then we hiked back to White Tank CG to watch crazed Europeans in pointy hats all drunk singing NY Eve... SOMEBODY COOL is fixing it to this day as I have not been there since 2006...

Same for 6626.3 RAINY  -- in a very AH-AH place (a'a') like when I lived on the Big Island 1986-1991--hard to get to or even if it is still there --or relocated after a long spell DOA when I thought it was, well, DOA...Rainy lives on well. - thanks for the head's up a couple of months ago - bombs in here somedays when skip is shorter...!!! THANKS...  MB

35

HF Beacons / Re: Currently Active Beacons Chat

« on: March 24, 2021, 2229 UTC »

Desert beaconeering... alledgedly i can neither confirm nor deny:

Madonna Beacon - fast dasher inyo - sun only 1/3 watt - 4097.23 plus/minus drift Sun angle/etc.

Buddha (once Phallaxyy for a rock formation nearby...) is weak - like 30 mW ERP on 4096.20 or so 3 sec dash - alopng with Coxie drifting JTNBP 4096.0-ish... this was Once Viking...

go figure...

just hear-say and thoughts... Hmmm...

36

HF Beacons / Re: New Dasher 4097.22 KHz ?

« on: February 13, 2021, 2149 UTC »

I note a slow dasher - rather weak most of the time - per above on about 4097.22 or .23; a very fast ditting beacon stronger on 4097.27 or so, and "Coxie" slow (OTA a very long-time now) dasher around 4095.9 and higher (it drifts); and the telemetry-whooper below all of the other noted beacons in its frequency. Note the telementery-whooper has the "opposite whoop" than the former Inyo Whooper (solar-only) did...

I don't note the slow dasher around 4097.22 or .23 on the KFS/SE receiver in listening over the past couple of days, however, but I heard it this morning very close to the fast-ditter around 1100 PT/19z though far weaker.

HexY2K ~6700.5 and ~6626.3 Rainy noted strong here at times mid-day, including today...

MB

37

Fishing Drift Net Beacons / Re: Introduction to Drift Net Fishing beacons...

« on: February 07, 2021, 0308 UTC »

Regarding daytime propagation (skip) on the fish-net beacon freqs., way out here in the northern Mojave Desert of Calif. - particularly in mid-Winter, there is always some vestigal daytime skip on upper MF as noted on the expanded-band of 1620-1700, and lower in freqs. even, and on some days when the D-layer is particularly weak, with a sensitive receiver/ant daytime DX on the MW/AM band is astounding: even strong NDBs from BC, Canada are audible mid-day - something akin to night-time reception but maybe down 20-30 dB plus.

Much of the daily daytime skip is shorter skip than night-time skip, of course.  Lay out a Bev. antenna out in the desert remote from local AM stations, and the daytime-skip is amazing--even in mid-Summer!  The daytime fading-rate is quite slow in-comparison to night-time skip and particularly skip during as sunset locally,which can be VERY fadey.

Experience out at Point Reyes, Calif. in the 80s has low-angle, very long-haul MW skip from Down Under as similarly being quite stable and slow-in fading-rate.

Just some thoughts from DXing experiences on the MF band.  BTW, when I lived in Hawaii on and off between 1986 and 1991, the fish-net beacons between 1640 and 1690 kHz (before that segment filled-up with "X-Band" b'casting stations) were very numerous and often a couple or few of them were atop each other on the same frequency! 73/Steve

38

HF Beacons / Re: Marin ditter 4096.85 KHz

« on: February 07, 2021, 0216 UTC »

DGG...,

I have never had the MarinDit beacon that high in frequency - it might drift 20 Hz plus/minus from nominal frequency of 8193.75 kHz due to the "cold to hot temps" in the attic there, but not so high as 8194.59 kHz! 

THAT would be 4097.29 kHz or so (if it is a second harmonic of one of the many beacons I am now hearing here between 4096.2 and 4097.3 kHz)! 

MarinDit "dits" about 88-89 per minute.  I DO hear a slow-dasher and a fast dasher on about 4097.3 +/- since listening the past 3 days...

It is not MarinDit if it is a fast-dasher, as I capture here, BTW.  73

39

HF Beacons / Re: Marin ditter 4096.85 KHz

« on: February 05, 2021, 2229 UTC »

No ‘long rambling reply here’ save for some clarifications, and I tend to now rarely check-in here, but the MarinDit unit was built in Jan-1988 and is a 3X 2N2222A and 1X 555 beacon in a small blue plastic box - ALL parts were bought at the local RadioShack in Marin back then.  First placed in a deep-canyon in-middle Marin on a gel-cell (I had it out of state in OR going from a rental house for a spell in 1996/7), then put in theMarin-attic in 1999 and strongly heard in Alberta August 2000/Saskatchewan in 2001.  About 2002, the final amp. died and it is only doing its signal from the colpits oscillator transistor (2N2222A) keyed by a 555/2N222A keying transistor circuited to "dit."

It is indeed on house power via a 9v wall-wart.  A tiny enamel wire (end-fed) maybe 50 feet long winds amongst the attic-rafters.  Est. power is less than 5 mW on fund. and it's second harmonic as most know whom monitor it (here it is now daily 8193.77 or so - some drift due to temps.) is easier to catch, generally.

This was the original 4096 cluster beacon.  The second xmtr became the "Hexie" 4096.23 dasher in JTNP, now long gone...

So that is the story and info. re. MarinDit.

73-McGreevy

40

HF Beacons / Goodbye from Steve McGreevy - N6NKS

« on: November 14, 2020, 1617 UTC »

Mark and readers:

I am not creating new beacons anymore due to now delving into ELF and other non shortwave realms of EM waves, so the only 4096 beacon of mine is Coxie long dasher on 4069.0 plus and minus drift. I think Rainy is QRT now... unheard even with short daytime skip. HexY2k 6700.50 is still functioning by day amazingly but I wonder if someone has moved it or replaced maintained it in my 14 year absence from Joshua Tree NP. A few days ago MarinDit was in on 8193.77 so that oscillator only beacon on AC power might very well wind up as my final and only beacon signal remaining as they all dwindle away, so enjoy my remaining signals.

I am always laughing here at the "Windy Beacon Monitoring Fan Club" here having been one of a few whom have seen that up close, long ago, in another time...

It is good others are on this bandwagon so I can depart it. Good luck , DXing, and 73...

41

HF Beacons / Steve McGreevy - N6NKS' Comments

« 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.

42

22 Meter Band HiFER Beacons / Re: 22 meter beacon list

« on: July 04, 2020, 1932 UTC »

Actually I wish to correct my statement re. LWCA - made incorrectly as I'd had a misunderstanding. 

Actually, I and a good friend appreciate the present thrust of 22m beacons, as it compares long ago to our LWCA centered (and has bulletings such as "Western Update" and Northern Observer" and as such formed the basis for a truly fascinating "hobby" cum career in radio. THANK YOU.  Also, I really DO now appreciate Jerry (OWR's) 22m listing efforts.

Improvements made to the RR-dash 13562.85 beacon (A1A) have it routinely heard in NM.  I hear BCN here.  VAN (formerly an ident I used in 2014 from on old Ford Van inner antenna under it's bubble top.  Now in Sacto, Ca area but entirely different installation yet similar.  I have heard perhaps 6 or 7 CE beacons between 13.555 and 13565 here.  I note the CNR-1 Chinese jammers and some UnID on 13570 that goes off by 1659z.  Mike heard that in NM at his local dawn.  Never too strong but puts some splatter on RR-dash and BCN, VAN, etc.

A link to the past with LWCA groups and LowFER and MedFER happenings circa 1986-1990.:

http://www.auroralchorus.com/lowfers.htm

Thanks Chris; John D. Jerry; Tesla; Token for all of this.  73-Steve - RR-dash 13562.85 - noted at .89 also. DM16

43

22 Meter Band HiFER Beacons / Re: 22 mtrs is not just a day time event

« on: June 12, 2020, 0258 UTC »

Frequently, E-skip at night occurs into local night hours - even on the FM band (but usually just HF and Low_VHF.)  Thusly, night-time skip on 22m is always possible... check nearby SWBC ones, also... 73-ML

44

22 Meter Band HiFER Beacons / Re: HiFer archive Project

« on: June 12, 2020, 0255 UTC »

I assume "legal" 22m ones or very weakie-squekie too-teeny-to-DX "legal" ones, only, no? 73-ML...

45

HF Beacons / Re: Windy 4102.85 malfunction?

« on: June 12, 2020, 0251 UTC »

Mark,

~4096.35 Haystack was taken off-air in March, along with Viking.  Viking was relocated elsewhere away from too-frequented Viking Mine and to another place - day only and -10dB from Viking ERP.

A big windstorm last week blew 6626.3 *Rocky's* solar-panel 4 ft. away from the beacon site - rabbits has eaten its supply wire to the beacon.. I took it all back home...

Yup -- no reception of "The Wind Beacon" (true name we named it back in - uh, before 2000 Millenium...)

It's
The
End
Of
The
World
As
We
Know
It,
And I
Feel
Fine
(AIFF)
REM 80's tune.  dunno why I just thought of it...

73 - ML

Alright here I go!  This morning I was on looking for the L beacon on 4096 and haystack or the other long dasher around 4095.  Neither heard here so went online to the Southern NV SDR.  And it was not hearing them either so while drinking some coffee and waiting just in case they might fade up out of the noise I noticed some CW up around Windys old freq.  I started to imagine I could see and hear a W and some telemetry, very weak with QSB.  This was around 1300 utc.  I'm purty sure it was there.  Though I have to remember I was in High School in the late 60's early 70's.  This lasted maybe 15 minutes and then there was a long dash off and and on for a few minutes and then....  it was gone....   da di dah da da    da di dah da da....

73, Mark