[Elecraft] Changes from 100 watts to 10 watts

Sat Dec 28 21:45:00 2002

Beacons are an excellent tool to determine it it's worth the bother...

I use a nice lil simple/effective ($10) program called 'Beacon Tracker' from
W6NEK:

http://www.w6nek.com/hfbt804_001.htm

CommCat (a $50 integrated rig control/DXspot manager/logger for K2's) also
has a nice beacon utility in the tuner window. Just click on a beacon marker
on the Commcat 'bandspread dial' to tune the rig to the proper freq and
observe the call ID/location of the beacon in the tuner window. It also
automatically displays the current beacon location on the great circle map.

http://www.commcat.com/

However if you use such software it is vital that your computer is sync'd to
the correct time. I use 'Dimension 4 (formerly 'Timetick'),  a freebee by
Thinkman to sync my 'puter to the US Naval Observatory.

http://www.thinkman.com/dimension4/index.html

No affiliation with the above mentioned companies... I just use em and like
em ;)

73
Mike K5PU

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron D'Eau Claire" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2002 6:07 PM
Subject: RE: [Elecraft] Changes from 100 watts to 10 watts

>
> Frank, W6NEK, added some very useful facts about the propagation
> beacons. It's worthwhile checking those beacons across  the 20-10 meter
> bands to see how conditions are. The beacons all use identical vertical
> antennas too, so their signals are omni directional and have the same
> effective radiated power.  If you missed Frank's post, go to:
> http://www.ncdxf.org/beacon.htm for all the dope!
>
> Software is available that will run on your computer and show you a
> world map with the daylight and night areas indicated and which will
> identify the location of the beacon transmitting at any moment. You can
> sit back on one band, listen and watch the beacons come on and off
> around the world on the map. At least one version is shareware that you
> can try for free at http://www.taborsoft.com/abw/.
>