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Author Topic: another mystery beacon on the air  (Read 1898 times)

Offline mark-n-nut

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another mystery beacon on the air
« on: March 29, 2010, 0213 UTC »
Since were talking about mystery beacons here is another one.! I have been listening to another new/mystery beacon out here this last week.  I guess I have heard it for several days now.  I regularly here Rocky, Rainy and Hexy2k here and started hearing a new ditter beacon on 6626.100 early this last week.  I thought at first that it was Rocky and was running much slower than normal but then both rocky and rainy came up out of the noise and caught all 3 on the air at once.  Its been there every day at one time or another.  Its appears to be ~80 dits a minute.  Stable in freq.  Thinking it was out west and perhaps on solar power, I listened to the sun set on it a couple of days ago.  The number of dits slowly decreased and turned into dashes each getting longer and it faded away.  Probably took about 5 min or so.  Here is a screen grab of all 3. 

Mark
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Re: another mystery beacon on the air
« Reply #1 on: March 29, 2010, 0447 UTC »
Hi Mark,

From the time it goes to dash and fades, can you get an idea about how far west it is of you?

Peace!

Offline Token

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Re: another mystery beacon on the air
« Reply #2 on: March 29, 2010, 1547 UTC »
The time of sunset, if that is what is causing the dits to lengthen and eventually drop off the air, should draw a line of possible locations.  Actually watching the change each day, and ploting each line, should eventually result in a single point that should be fairly close to the location of the beacon.  Of course local shading and altitude will cause the point to shift so that it is not necessarily exactly the location, but I bet it could be plotted to within a few 10's of miles.

Late edit.  I also thought of something else.  As the grey/dark line of sundown slants from SW to NE at this time of the year the line of sunup slants SE to NW also.  Plotting both of those on a map, based on the stop/start times of the beacon, should yield a plot of the approximate location.
« Last Edit: March 30, 2010, 1256 UTC by Token »
T!
Mojave Desert, California USA

Offline Token

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Re: another mystery beacon on the air
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2010, 0243 UTC »
Tonight the dashes went long and quit at 0235 UTC, center freq was 6626.16 kHz.  My own sunset was at 0210 and dusk lasted until 0239.  I am thinking the beacon, if solar powered only, might be slightly west of me, or possibly south, but it is probably fairly close.

I will be checking this freq often when I am out in the 4x4 or even when driving the high desert highways.  With any luck I might get an idea of the general area.

It might be interesting to watch it as clouds or weather fronts move through the area, that might give some indication also.
« Last Edit: March 30, 2010, 0246 UTC by Token »
T!
Mojave Desert, California USA