Messages

1

HF Beacons / Re: Long Dasher On 4069.4

« on: April 16, 2024, 2240 UTC »

"Using the LM339 comparator and a 78L05 low dropout regulator for a voltage reference, a simple low voltage disconnect can be built"

That's true. I'm a big fan of the little 78L05's . They're cheap and efficient and perfect for QRP applications.

2

HF Beacons / Re: New Dasher Beacon! "KOK"

« on: April 16, 2024, 2237 UTC »

Michael Hopkins would be proud:

https://chainsawprivacy.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/frank_and_the_fmla.pdf

(surely where Bill Meara got the Colorburst reference from. Mike Hopkins was great)

I've been an active ham for fifty three years. There's stuff happening on the bands that distresses me. This is not one of them.

This falls into the same category as the WSPR tranmitting  pico balloons which routinely fly around the world with no control operator sending telemetry and an ID .... it's kind of a victimless crime.   There's no way this signal is going to cause a serious headache for anyone.

3

HF Beacons / Re: Is the Desert Whooper OK?

« on: April 16, 2024, 2227 UTC »

That sucks, as it's a wonderful beacon that has provided a lot of fun for a lot of people.

Perhaps a relocation might be useful to evade the two legged vermin?

4

HF Beacons / Re: Long Dasher On 4069.4

« on: April 16, 2024, 2210 UTC »

That is a great report, and the details interesting.

It's tricky in a lot of circuits to know that "DC is now OK". 

5

HF Beacons / Re: Long Dasher On 4069.4

« on: April 22, 2023, 1700 UTC »

That intermittent startup may be due to something like the inverted output of a solar detector not liking the "dusk" condition and not having much hysteresis to manage the transition.

Great observation... it will be interesting to see if it repeats ....

6

HF Beacons / Re: Mixed CW / FSK beacon(?) on 4095.38

« on: February 28, 2023, 0038 UTC »

Good copy on this Fin Kiwi- Seems to be weather in morse.

http://sdxl-loh.ddns.net:8073/?f=4095.378cwnz14

Some fading but it does identify as a beacon and it's sending the time and shift and baud rate of RTTY info in its preamble.  It's machine sent code but cadence is odd to my ear.

7

HF Beacons / Re: Central coast DXing

« on: February 03, 2023, 0351 UTC »

Listened today again, but at about 0200Z

The Slider was solid copy but weak.  The "slide" sure helps in finding the station.

DW was quite solid once again in the Goleta area.  In fact , I disconnected the mighty (not)  rain gutter antenna and placed the Belka DX on the sidewalk in the back yard and using only the 28" telescoping antenna could copy DW. 

Amazing signal from down south!

8

HF Beacons / Central coast DXing

« on: February 02, 2023, 0141 UTC »

Got a chance to listen from a relatives house here in SB County.  Rig is a Belka DX hooked to a rain gutter downspout ... top drawer DXing!

0139 UTC and DW is in loud and clear,  and I was able to copy The Slider up the band a bit  with nice signals as well.

Will try again tomorrow from another location and will see what I can find

Congrats to the respective ops!

9

HF Beacons / Re: Coastal Slider Back On 4109.5

« on: January 22, 2023, 0100 UTC »

Sure looking good tonight at 5 PM left coast time!



Good work!

10

General Radio Discussion / Re: All right, fess up! :-)

« on: January 13, 2023, 2151 UTC »

Only government deployed solar panels are permitted on PUBLIC land....

11

General Radio Discussion / Re: All right, fess up! :-)

« on: January 05, 2023, 2229 UTC »

Most anything the press reports on (especially anything technical) is wrong. This is a good example.

And how dare the public put up an antenna on public land without permission.

This cannot stand!           /s

12

General Radio Discussion / All right, fess up! :-)

« on: January 05, 2023, 1829 UTC »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lARsgBr3SGg&ab_channel=KSLNews


"Illegal solar panels on public land"

13

HF Beacons / Re: Coastal Slider Back On 4109.5

« on: December 02, 2022, 2357 UTC »

Could not copy it when I was in the central coast a couple months ago.

14

HF Beacons / Re: Russian MX beacons log.

« on: October 06, 2022, 2309 UTC »

LG, have you been able to determine any impact the Russian invasion of Ukraine might have had on the MX beacon stations? Any regulars missing in action?

Thanks for your wonderful logs

15

HF Beacons / Re: The Desert Whooper

« on: September 29, 2022, 0232 UTC »

Just did some listening from the back patio here in Santa Barbara County, and DW is whooping in here nicely on nothing more than the BELKA DX and it's 20" whip.