High Frequency Beacon

From HFUnderground

Revision as of 19:25, 22 March 2011 by Strange Attractor 2 (Talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search
A QSL card from a High Frequency beacon

High Frequency Beacon is a colloquial term for an unlicensed radio beacon that does not follow government regulations for operation (such as Part 15), and is technically illegal. HF beacons which operate legally, according to rules for low power transmissions are classified as HiFERs.

Contents

Description

There are many of these beacons, quite a few are run as propagation experiments. Due to their nature, the exact location of these stations is generally not known, although many are believed to operate from remote locations in the deserts of the southwest USA. Likewise, these stations tend to suddenly appear and disappear from the air. Most run with very low power levels of just hundreds or even tens of milliwatts of power, and are often solar powered, so they can be hidden in open areas. Some are switched via a photocell, so they only operate at night, running off of a battery that is charged during the daytime by a solar panel.

There is a message board where listeners can report reception of beacons, it is also useful to see what other folks are presently hearing: HF Beacon Loggings


Reported High Frequency Beacons

Freq (kHz) Station ID Location Operation Notes
2097 A Arizona (15 watts) - 'A' ident or malfunctions as series of dits - 15 watts max., 24/7 (back on the air, recently reported on 6 April 2009)
3450 OK OK (Youtube video)
3810 SV1TEST presumably in Greece no further info. (Source: UDXF)
4056 dasher Reported on March 11, 2011 by bryan24230
4062 C SW, probably CA Very drifty, but slow drift, logged form 4052 to 4063. Its morse is not timed correcctly, it is probably sending a C with a short first dah (longer than dit, shorter than dah), but it could be an ER with a long dit, or a TR with a short dah. 24/7
4078.14 WW Colorado 300-400 mW Inverted L night time only
4077.27 MO Oklahoma Solar 200 mW 118ft end fed wire 24/7 (Youtube video)
4079 TMPnnn SW Arizona The TEMPERATURE BEACON - Temperature in deg. F. - sends 'TMP' then 2 - 3 digit temp. in CW every 10 seconds. 1 watt
4089 . Death Valley N.P. About 80 dits/minute, 24/7, 500 mW to inv. vee. dipole
4094.2 PA Arkansas Solar power 200 mW Dipole 24/7
4094.8 Dasher WV Sputnick - 60 dash/min, night only Reported off air September 2009 due to lack of QSLs
4096 ......_ VA 6 dots 1 dash
4096.1 Dasher Joshua Tree N.P. 4.5 sec long dashes (about 13 dashes per min.) - big signal - north-facing dipole ('Coxie') 24/7
4096.25 Dasher Joshua Tree N.P. 1 sec dash (about 30 per min.), 400 mW to inverted vee, 24/7 ('Hexie')
4096.6 Dasher Mojave Nat. Preserve 2 sec. dash (about 16 per minute) 400 mW to inverted vee, 24/7 ('Kelsie')
4097.2 Dasher Inyo County, CA
near DVNP
55 dashes per minute with chirp when sun is low; day-only, at 5300 ft. elevation ('Inyo-whooper'), inv. vee., 0.5w
4097.4 KX "KX" ten times, then "TEMP IN F", then the temp (three times) inside the enclosure, then "TEMP OUT F", and the outside temp, again three times.
4102.3 W... s.e. California desert The WIND BEACON - sends 'W' ident and series of dits - each dit correlating to a turn of its anenometer, so if it is windy in the , it sends lots of dits; and no wind, no dits.
4194 MX Europe Xtal controlled milliwatt beacon operated occasionally in europe. Sometimes sends straight carrier instead of ID.
4608 MXC Europe Xtal controlled milliwatt beacon operated occasionally in europe. Sometimes sends straight carrier instead of ID. Sister beacon to MX.
5157.6 Dasher Florida BLINKY 200 mW Dipole 24/7
5484 SD San Diego, CA
5499.13 WA Dasher
5678.4 Dasher Colorado PIKE solar/battery 100 mW Dipole 24/7 "Honker"
6549.3 FL Florida 300 mW Dipole 24/7
6626.2 S Inyo County, CA,
near DVNP
About 60-200 dashes per min., sun-only, ~200 mW ('Rocky')
6626.4 Dits Mojave N.P. Fast 'drippy' sounding dits about 100/min., sun-only, 1.5 watts ('Rainy')
6700.4 Dasher Joshua N.P. About 62 dashes per min., 24/7 (Hexy2k)
6815 SV1TEST presumably in Greece Active, no further info. (Source: UDXF) (Youtube video)
6852 PRV Preveza, Greece 15 W Op: SW2HMU (Source: UDXF) [1]. Defunct?
6994.8 - Norfolk, UK "RRR RRR RRR UK BEACON PROJECT 0.8E 52.8N 0.1 WATTS
RRR RRR RRR REPORTS TO UKBEACON _ GMAIL.COM" (Source: UDXF)
8001.5 S S.W. Arizona sun-only, 1 watt. strong signal daytimes. Recently reported on 8000.6 kHz (Source: UDXF).
8003 Dasher Colorado Solar/battery dipole 24/7 "Pike 78" 78 dashes/min
8188.7 W Colorado Solar/battery 100 mW dipole daylight /7 Location: Colorado
8211.7 OR
8261 F Western Canada 250mW into a 1/2 wave inverted vee, 1400-0500
8350 Dasher North Carolina
8497.7 Dasher Pike 26 26 dashes/min
10236.7 FL Dasher
11002.7 CO Colorado Solar battery 300 mW dipole 24/7
14400.3 UFO Colorado
26600 Dasher Obliterated by lightning in June 2010. Replacement is in the works.

See also

27 MHz beacon 69BY in Costa Rica

External Links



This site is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Some links may be affiliate links. We may get paid if you buy something or take an action after clicking one of these.