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HF Beacons / Re: New Dasher Beacon! "KOK"
« on: April 01, 2024, 0522 UTC »By coincidence, I decided to take a listen on the colorburst frequency this evening and maybe call CQ, in a vain attempt to revive the activities of the CLA (Colorburst Liberation Army). I like to monitor my signals on the KPH and KFS online SDR's. On looking at the waterfall, I noticed the KOK beacon, close by, on 3579 KHz. I can hear it at home in the SF East Bay, at about a 5 by 2. It's about a 5 by 5 on both KPH and KFS (Point Reyes and Half Moon Bay).
Googled it, found a YouTube video of it, and then this sub-thread.
Colorburst Liberation Army!! LOL!
The Colorburst Liberation Army was a concept, if not started by Bill N2CQR, then much promoted by him in both the Soldersmoke Daily News blog, and the Soldersmoke podcast. The idea behind the name was to pay tribute to the armies of ham radio homebrewers who would liberate the colorburst crystals from the TV sets their neighbors put out on the curb, and put them to good use in homemade transmitters.
I must admit to being equal parts intrigued by this beacon, and miffed at the fact that it is operating in an amateur band. I'm both a licensed ham and a CW op, so I am not very happy about this beacon being where it is.