[AMRadio] 10 Meter AM Beacon?

[Mike Duke, K5XU]

If someone or some group were willing to do a little FCC paperwork, a 
case could be made for a special beacon to operate in the AM mode on a 
specific 10 meter frequency.

I looked into it a few years ago, but circumstances at the location 
where I was planning to house the beacon changed, so I never submitted 
the experimental license application, or a request for a waver to 
allow the un-attended beacon to operate under my call. At the time, 
the cost for that experimental license was $50.

I was going for propagation study as related to the mode during the 
years of minimum sun spots, thinking that hearing the beacon might 
generate more AM activity because people would know their signal had a 
chance of being heard at least in Mississippi.

While I am not aware of an AM beacon being authorized before, I 
suspect no one has applied for it.

I do know that there once was a CW beacon which operated on 28.887 for 
a number of years. It came on the air in the mid 1970's, long after 
the beacon sub-band had been established, and remained well beyond the 
peak of that solar cycle into the early 80's.

I believe the call used was W6IRT.

During that same period, there was a lot of 6 - 10 meter cross band 
activity between the U.S. and Europe. That group established a 
coordination frequency of 28.885. I would use that beacon as a 
frequency marker of sorts for locating the coordination frequency, 
since this was long before I had a rig with a frequency display that 
would talk to me. That use of the beacon went un-documented, but it 
worked quite well, and "wowed" more than one visitor to my shack who 
would scratch their head trying to figure out how I could find 28.885 
so quickly on a Swan 500CX.

Back to the notion of an AM beacon, remember that an automated CQ box 
is legal, as long as the operator is at the control point. So, stick a 
voice keyer, or a cd player in repeat mode in your audio chain, and go 
for it.

That sub-band at 28.2 - 28.3, was established specifically for 
un-attended beacons with no remote control.




Mike Duke, K5XU
American Council of Blind Radio Amateurs