[Lowfer] Beacon DIR on the air...

[Jim]

Finally. :-)

About a year of messing around. My o'scope broke during some of my original 
testing and there's about a 6 month period of total addiction to tinkering 
with Tektronix test gear in there. And there is still more that I need to do.

Right now I'm using a PIC based keyer to send QRSS-30. The oscillator is a 
crystal controlled VXO set to 172.945 kHz (as close as I can measure with the 
gear I have). Actually the VXO is set to twice that and then it's divided by 
two in a line driver to make sure I've got a clean square wave going out on 
the coax. The final is a slightly modified LEK design. It's operating at 11 
volts and pulling 9 mA (measured at the xmitter).

Antenna is a 30 foot high T configuration with the upper portion also being 30 
feet. For now it's held in place with a pair of fence t-posts I've driven and 
lashed army surplus tent poles to to get it up in the air.

With my receiver, I can't see any evidence of any second or third harmonics 
outside the shack. (Or even inside the shack where the oscillator is located 
and is actually running at 2x the frequency. But everything is decently 
shielded.)

Location is Bowdon Junction, GA (lat/long below). If anyone receives it, I'd 
love to see screen shots and I will QSL.

On the to-do list is to build an interface that will divide down my DSS which 
will only move in 1 kHz steps so I can get my signal closer to the watering 
hole and also a better "top hat" for the antenna.

Installation is pretty much a lash-up at this point. If it seems to be getting 
out, I'll make it more permanent. If not, I'll go back to the drawing 
board. :-)

73 de
Jim W4JBM

Receiver - Ten Tec RX320D
Antenna - Butternut Vertical (SW) and mini-whip (LF)
Location - Bowdon Junction, GA  USA (33.6581,-85.1249 EM73)

http://www.hamuniverse.com/w4jbm/

"With a soldering iron in one hand, a schematic in the other, and a puzzled 
look on his face..."