[NLRS] Beacon chatter

Tue Apr 29 13:07:10 EDT 2014

Bill, I will be placing the 10ghz, 432, and an addition of a 902 beacon on 
Mt. Horace Greeley in EN57vi. This would be a clear shot across Lake 
Superior for you. I may even consider putting the 6 meter and 2 meter one 
there if they do not cause interference to the 2 meter repeater and APRS 
digi located there. Any thoughts? I am just waiting for all this snow to 
melt so I can get up there. 73' and hope to work everyone this year. de 
N8PUM Brandon EN66dl
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Davis via NLRS" <nlrs at mailman.qth.net>
To: "NLRS Reflector" <nlrs at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2014 12:21 PM
Subject: [NLRS] Beacon chatter

I haven't commented on the beacon discussion that was conducted here last 
week. I am very concerned over the declining the number of useful beacons. I 
had inquired about a month ago about the status of the K0KP 6m beacon. Rex 
has retired and he indicated that he was a bit uncomfortable with "imposing" 
a beacon on a location that he is no longer an employee of. (My messed up 
sentence, not his) So we may be loosing it too. I don't know what his latest 
thoughts are.

My use of beacons is usually a QUICK band system check. I have a weak sig 
source on a halo in the garage that I can verify 2m system operation with. 
Beyond that I must depend upon beacons. The KA0EWQ EN15 (even though it is 
in a HORRID direction for me) is very dependable here. Since the 
reactivation of the WD9BGA EN53 beacon, it is only heard under very good 
conditions .. not like average conditions of the past. Those are the only 
beacons I can hear with any ease. The VE4, PUM, NT0V, N4PZ beacons are only 
heard under extraordinary band conditions.

I in general like a quick peak at a beacon freq and then move on. I have not 
really thought much about doing long term observations on beacon 
frequencies. Given my observations using Aircraft Sharp on 10GHZ ... using 
some beacon monitoring that can be "automated" could be of great interest, 
especially toward Chicago. WSPR is a very easy mode to use for this kind of 
observation, I would think. Two home stations interested in looking at a 
path for a few min/hr/day could be up and running in no time. The software 
and internet "interface" is there and being utilized by 100s all the time, 
mostly HF.

If anyone is interested in trying WSPR for short term observations, get in 
contact with me and we can see what might work. The station is configured 
around only 2 radios now, so operations can get very tied up with WSPR -- It 
requires continuous PC support. The frequency shift for WSPR is very small. 
The modulation scheme is::continuous phase 4-FSK, tone separation 1.4648 Hz 
Freq control needs to be pretty darn good. I'm really not sure what VHF and 
above bands here are stable enough.

As per Glen's presentation Saturday, there are lots of other data modes out 
there to experiment with. Consider me as a possible 2nd station.

An aside ... In conversation with Doug AA0AW (EN36vq Duluth) on 75m this 
morning, he said that he has a group that have been playing with PSK31 on 
2m -- 144.060 if I recall correctly. They are using it to exchange FILEs ... 
thinking of emergency communications applications. Interesting

73 Bill K0AWU
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