Messages

811

HF Beacons / Re: Marin ditter 4096.85 KHz

« on: February 07, 2021, 0352 UTC »

No ‘long rambling reply here’ save for some clarifications, and----SNIP

Good technical summary. Cheap 4096 crystals for ICs are often 20 pF load, 30 ohm resistance for operating series resonance across a gate or inverter to form the oscillator. Since the Marin ditter is a Colpitts operating a little above 4096 MHz I'm wondering what type of crystal was used or what it was pulled out of.

If the antenna was about 50' and end fed it's no wonder the second harmonic is strong since the antenna is roughly a quarter wave at 4 MHz; seriously off resonance for 4096 but not bad for 8 MHz

812

HF Beacons / Re: Windy 4102.85 malfunction?

« on: January 31, 2021, 0118 UTC »

I have noticed the pulling from time to time on the "W" as well, it typically has not been that way so I would agree that the battery situation is deteriorating. It had much more "active telemetry" up time in the past. Right now it is sending "S" 01:00 UTC 31JAN2021.

It would be cool if it also had telemetry for the solar panel current the way the Desert Whooper (DW) does. It helps to give a sense of the solar panel output and how well the battery is accepting charge. Around 8 in the morning I'll hear DW reporting over 2 Amps and 14 volts so that's a happy battery getting an electrified breakfast   

813

HF Beacons / Re: Windy 4102.85 malfunction?

« on: January 30, 2021, 1824 UTC »

It still seems that Windy is short of a solid battery/solar solution that would support 24/7 operations. It's anemometer and temperature functions are frequently offline with only H or S being sent. A couple nights ago I noticed that keying of Morse Code "W" was pulling the frequency quite a bit.



Or maybe it's always been that way...

814

HF Beacons / Re: 4094 Beacon

« on: January 27, 2021, 0413 UTC »

Beacon was showing up well on the KFS SE and Omni Kiwi SDRs but it is showing a little high in frequency at 4094.06 KHz

815

HF Beacons / Re: Saturday night trio-- the 4094 joins the party

« on: January 27, 2021, 0410 UTC »

Wind(y) sure puts in a very strong signal to your receiver!

I truly wish I owned the KFS SDR site and all of the antennas too!

TCI 530 Omni LP 6 dBi gain -- TCI 532 LP, 12 dBi gain -- TCI 532 LP, 12 dBi gain -- TCI 537B LP, 15 dBi gain @ 135°

Until I can set up my VHF/UHF LP yagi and it's rotator I don't have an anchor point for my longwires. That means not much HF reception at home so I use the "free" online SDRs for now.

816

HF Beacons / Re: Saturday night trio-- the 4094 joins the party

« on: January 24, 2021, 0157 UTC »

Some strong Saturday Night Beacon Fever

4094.0 ditter
4095.6 Desert Whooper  BAT 13.0  TMP  51  PV 0.0
4097.2 dasher
4102.8 Windy acting normal with decent wind dits, B 11.9  and T  55

817

HF Beacons / Re: Marin ditter 4096.85 KHz

« on: January 23, 2021, 1857 UTC »

I think Steve mentioned that as well.

Pretty sure he was my source....  one of those long rambling posts somewhere here on the forum that are too much trouble to go back and read through. But it does bring up an interesting concept for people in areas with more clouds than sun. Befriend a person out in the country where you could set up a longwire antenna and also plug into an AC outlet for powering a beacon.

818

HF Beacons / Re: New whooper beacon on 4095.6

« on: January 22, 2021, 2336 UTC »

Around 08:30 PST today it was reporting PV as 2.2 (big!) and battery as 13.0 volts

Right now it's reporting 14.0 volts,  PV is 0.5 (assuming amps) and temp is 61

819

HF Beacons / Re: Marin ditter 4096.85 KHz

« on: January 22, 2021, 2329 UTC »

Didn't use Radio Shack caps on this one, evidently! :-)

I sort of recall that this ditter might be on commercial power too but I could be misremembering....   

820

HF Beacons / Re: New whooper beacon on 4095.6

« on: January 10, 2021, 1822 UTC »

Fair signal with fading on the KFS SE Kiwi SDR

BAT  13.8   TMP  75    PV 0.6

The PV number started at 0.9 and dropped slowly, 0.8 then 0.7 with BAT starting about 12.8 and rising rapidly to 13.8

821

HF Beacons / Re: New whooper beacon on 4095.6

« on: January 09, 2021, 1944 UTC »

Fair signal on the KFS SE Kiwi SDR, weak signal on the omni

BAT  13.5   TMP  65    PV 0.2

The PV number was at 0.6 about an hour ago then slow decreased until resting at 0.2

822

HF Beacons / Re: Marin ditter 4096.85 KHz

« on: January 08, 2021, 0426 UTC »

Coming in fair on the KFS Kiwi SDR Omni

823

HF Beacons / Re: Windy 4102.85 malfunction?

« on: January 08, 2021, 0345 UTC »

Very good signal on the KFS Kiwi SE SDR but Windy is only sending "S"

824

HF Beacons / Re: New Dasher 4097.22 KHz ?

« on: January 08, 2021, 0343 UTC »

Very good signal on the KFS Kiwi SE SDR

825

HF Beacons / Re: New whooper beacon on 4095.6

« on: January 08, 2021, 0343 UTC »

Good signal on the KFS SE Kiwi SDR

BAT  12.6  TMP  55    PV 0.0