[Spooks] Letter beacon in Florida?

[Utility World (Hugh Stegman)]

> I've seen mention of them on the web before. They're a watertight beacon
> that transmits on an antenna wire that floats along with the top of a
> drift net. These are used by fishermen to track down their nets when
> ocean currents move them.

They seem mostly to be made in Asia, and in a watertight bouy weighted by
the battery pack at the bottom.  Some use the MF band but most of the ones I
know anything about tend to turn up in or around 10 meters.  Those do just
fine with a bottom loaded whip which points straight up from the bouy and
gets a nice ground plane from the salt water.  The cheap old-fashioned ones
just beacon their ID, but that makes it too easy for other boats to pirate
the equipment and catch, so the fancy expensive new ones squawk their
encrypted GPS coordinates when the boat transmits the right key.

> They've been referred to as phantom or mutant fishnet beacons. I saw a
> photograph of one on the web somewhere, but I have yet to find it again.

Sometimes nets and long-lines get lost, and the beacons (not to mention the
marine life in the net or on the hooks) drift all over the high seas,
chirping away for months until the batteries finally go.  These are referred
to as "ghost nets."

> We have a peculiar art installation on Miami Beach. It's apparently a
> religious sculpture or *something*. It consists of a long wire (several
> miles!) supported by poles, at the edge of the sand dunes.

Interesting.  Similar wires are found in cities where they are used by
orthodox Jews to define the areas they can visit on the Sabbath.  They are
considered virtual fences and the area thus enclosed becomes a compound for
religious purposes.  The wires run for miles atop lamp posts.  I always
wondered about their antenna possibilities, but unfortunately I think they
use monofilament.

-hugh