Beacon Project "Common and Precious III" (OFF air, 26510 kHz, 8W)

[ulx2]

The beacon is active at the moment! And I have it's signal again here.

[Zazzle]

Hi!

26510 kHz would be correct here in the US, I changed the subject for you.

Thank you!

The beacon is active at the moment! And I have it's signal again here.

Thank you for reporting. Nice to know that it's working properly.

Kind greetings,
Zazzle

[R4002]

I checked three different KiwiSDRs (one in the UK, two in different parts of Russia) and was able to hear Common and Precious III on 26510 kHz / 26.510 MHz around 1720-1740 UTC on July 20th, 2017.  Keep up the good work, Zazzle! 

See the logs:

https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,36222.0.html

https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,36224.0.html

https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,36225.0.html

[Zazzle]

Hey R4002!

Thank you for pointing me to the logs. I likely never took notice of them without.


Kind greetings,
~Zazzle

[Zazzle]

Hey,

Rodents really like my mains wires. This time I found one of the wires cut and with bitemarks on the insulation. I guess it happened approx 14 days ago. So, yeah, this one had a downtime as well. But it's up again by now.

Kind greetings,
~Zazzle

[Zazzle]

Hey,

Offline right now. Storm damage.

We had two heavy storms recently. One managed to break the 5/8 clean in half.

Oh well, hello quick and dirty fix. I know... Copper on Alu isn't the best thing but... eh.. it'll do for a while. Too cold in the dark hours for complicated tasks.

Kind greezings,
~Zazzle

[Zazzle]

Heyho,

the beacon is up again.

Also, I might delay other repair works for now. Winter is knocking at the door. The weather was stormy  today and the temperature went up/down all day long. Despite the fact that the weather report forcasted positive degrees... it was wrong and we're below the freezing point now.

When standing on the roof I took notice of some odd white stuff on it. Oh. Patches of frozen water. Actually, I felt for turning and going back home. But given that I had my pockets full of tools and stuff to fix the antenna (and tune it properly again)... I decided to go on. Turned out that the grip on the roof was still okay. But I won't do that again with freezing temperatures. Not worth the risk.

Fixing everything went smooth and - despite my expectation - I managed to finish everything within half and hour and before I started to feel cold. I took the antenna analyzer with me. SWR is 1.07 (with 51.6R feedpoint impedance, X is below 2R).

Also, this night full of small adventures was another one to memorise. Sometimes it happens that the atmosphere and feeling is just right. I always get into this specific deeply content and slightly longing (not in a bad way) mood then.

Just standing in the middle of the roof, the antenna rising into the canopy of stars above like a finger reaching out, sending its message quiet and unnoticed. Hear me. Find me. Love me. Watching the stars, feeing their soothing shine that makes me feel at home and lost at the same. Hearing the wind whispering in the leaves, tempting them to fall. Thoughs wandering, maybe to such silly though and questions like whether there's actually such a thing like werewolfes that run the forest at night. And whether they're really bloodthirsty things or just human being that are scared out of mind while they go to the burden this transistion with each lunar circle anew.

Fun fact: If I was granted to change my form for one night I'd definitely go for a fox on two legs. Kinda were-fox, you know? But a kind one, no one that seeks blood. Big proud ears, all black on the back. A thick, fluffy rusty red winter coat to keep warm. Bright amber eyes and a nose to match those keen eyes. Not to forget those big black paws to walk on, with soft pads on the sole that allow me to feel the soil I walk on.

I love the mood such night-outs get me in. Oh well, or it's my brain being half frozen from being up on the roof. Or me lacking badly of sleep.

In anyway - kind greetings,
~Zazzle (in human shape right now)

[Josh]

https://ixquick-proxy.com/do/spg/show_picture.pl?l=english&rais=1&oiu=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.maykool.com%2Fmedia%2Fcatalog%2Fproduct%2Fcache%2F1%2Fimage%2F600x900%2F9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95%2Ff%2Fu%2Ffurry-fox-halloween-costume-022157.jpg&sp=7b4b63113214b175cb234d1d1f3e7576

[Zazzle]

*blinks*

I guess I'm slowly waking up from hibernation. It's still cold but not slippery (one the roof) anymore (so far). The new season is about to start and I got some new ideas.

Anyway, seem like someone's playing cat and mouse with me. The Beacon was down for - dunno - 6-9 weeks or so?

Remember that I got problems with a wire gnawed by a rat or so? In retrospective, it's more likely that someone tried to cut it with a blunt knife.

When I was checking for the reason of the deceased operation I found this:
- Out of three pairs of wires exactly the feeding couple was ripped out of the terminal.
- Also, the cable that runs under the roof (!) which I patched last year had one side ripped out of the terminal. I really wonder how someone managed to get under the roof. Except with exhausting climbing actions (which I had to conduct to fix the connection).

I wonder what this is all about. Maybe it's some kids having fun. Or someone's doing this with a rason. I wonder what the reason might be then. In any case, I grew suspicious and very careful. Maybe I'm gonna move everything eventually.

Anway, this one's up again. I wonder what (and when) will be next.

Greetings,
Zazzle.

[m_a_x]

Beacon received today 09june2018 at 19,00 CET 26510KHz from Italy JN63KV
https://soundcloud.com/massimo-martini-985500288/sdrsharp-20180609-162206z-26509000hz-af

[Zazzle]

Hi,

so yeah... after all those years the first serious issue. The Antenna got stolen and some wire-cutting done.

Once more the whole issue doesn't really makes sense when it comes to understanding it. The Antenna got removed WITH its short wooden pole. The wooden pole itself was mounted with U-clamps. The Antenna was bolted to the wooden pole with standard screws. So, someone took Antenna + pole. Why the pole as well? All radials got cut clean of. The ground wire as well. The Antenna cable got cut approx half a meter away from the transmitter box.

In addition, the power cable to the socket (in which the PSU was plugged in) got cut. The transmitter itself was left alone.

The whole setup of Cap 2 (self build Dipole) some meters away was left alone and is still OK (went off air as well because the power cable leading to it  was looped through the socket for this beacon).

To make the whole issue even more odd... the cable that runs under the roof (required climb the metal construction for that) got cut as well. Eh...

So what is this about?
- Most likely someone stealing the CB Antenna. (Have fun trying to tune it to the CB-Bands... won't work. )
- FCC? No way. They'd taken everything along.
- Someone else wanting to shut down my beacons? Why just (really clean and neat) uninstall the antenna and not break all setups and take the transmitters along?
- Why cutting the cable under the roof (again... I had cut cables at different points three times by now...)

I stick to Occam's razor. The Antenna was of interest. Everything else doesn't make any sense without further information.

Gonna think a bit about what to do now. So far I took all transmitter units along. Doing maintainance and finally fixing the swapped numbers in the morse code of CaP 2 (sends 52W instead of 25W).

Since the whole area might be torn down sooner or later... gets me pondering whether to get it back on air or find another location. Also, might not give away the location through locator again.

Questions over questions.

(But to mention something positive: had a young fox - likely born last year - following me bit with curious looks. Handsome lad. But I better not get started on foxes again or I get counter-posted with kinky lady-fox costumes once more. ;p )

So long...
Zazzle

[syfr]

Thanks for the update zazzle. I think your analysis is correct. I would certainly agree with not broadcasting the location.  A mo e of lovation seems wise also. Thank you for maintaining this weekend . It's really only chance we in the US to Log a European beacon.

 Also super interesting to read off your photojournalism documenting both your beacons construction and placement . Please keep up the good work