Long Dasher On 4069.4

[l0ngwire]

At 0745z here in Santa Barbara I am hearing a long dasher on 4069.4.  It does not quite have a pure CW note--a pirate beacon or just another utility signal?  It is stronger on the Token SDR and very weak on the KFS omni.

And what happened to the Desert Whooper and Coastal Slider?  No copy either on the usual SDRs.  Perhaps "Uncle Charlie" got tired of the unlicensed fun?

[zombie_medic]

nope, Desert Whooper is still around, i can pick it up here in VA albeit not all the time and when it does come through its pretty faint.

[Teotwaki]

nope, Desert Whooper is still around, i can pick it up here in VA albeit not all the time and when it does come through its pretty faint.

More likely transmitter failure or even vandalism. It would be awfully expensive for the FCC to send people out into the roadless desert

[l0ngwire]

I hope you're right.  I believe both beacons went off the air on the same day central and southern California had a fairly large rainstorm, which might have silenced them.

[Desert Whooper]

DW sustained some damage from possibly a close but not direct lightning strike. The micro controller, battery charge controller and solar current sensor were all damaged.
A "zap trapper" is now installed in the coax path.

DW is now back on the air. 

We are hoping to see the Coast Slider back ASAP!

[stendec]

Here in N. Cal, I have been copying this long dasher on 4069.4 for the past 3 nights. It starts coming in late evening and hits S5-6 with a clean tone before fading out at sunrise. ~1 second dash and a ~2 second period.

Did I see in another thread that this is MojaveBeaconeer's "Coxie"?

[Teotwaki]

-snip-

Did I see in another thread that this is MojaveBeaconeer's "Coxie"?

4096.0  "Coxie" Slow dasher, about 4.5 seconds, 700 mW, Joshua Tree NP, daytime only with dead battery

[Teotwaki]

On the KFS omni kiwi the dasher is very strong on 4069.43

There appears to be a small amount of upward frequency shift after keydown. I’d vote for it being a Pirate beacon!

[zeak]

579 at this location at 0547

[stendec]

 It turns out that the 4069.4 long dasher may be a night-time only beacon, starting up at approx 1945 PDT (at dusk here on the west coast) and is gone by sunrise. At night time, it has a good signal using the home RX and also the west coast SDRs. I hear it in the evenings and night, but never during the day.

For the past three evenings, I have observed it starting up with a series of short chirps for ~30 seconds before settling into the usual long dashes. It could be on a timer or maybe it waits until dusk. It'll be interesting to observe the start times as the days get longer.

[Teotwaki]

It turns out that the 4069.4 long dasher may be a night-time only beacon, starting up at approx 1945 PDT (at dusk here on the west coast) and is gone by sunrise. At night time, it has a good signal using the home RX and also the west coast SDRs. I hear it in the evenings and night, but never during the day.

For the past three evenings, I have observed it starting up with a series of short chirps for ~30 seconds before settling into the usual long dashes. It could be on a timer or maybe it waits until dusk. It'll be interesting to observe the start times as the days get longer.

Great observations!

 I could not hear it at home but the KFS kiwi Omni has a great signal.

[syfr]

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 ....

[stendec]

Tuned to 4069.4 and waited for the dasher to start up this evening. At 0225Z (7:25pm local - a few minutes past sunset), it started up with a series short chirps (previously mentioned above) before settling down to the usual dashes. S2-S3 on the KFS Omni SDR.

Also copied the 2nd harmonic on 8138.9 -- much weaker and just above the noise.

[syfr]

That is a great report, and the details interesting.

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

[Teotwaki]

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