[TransAtlantic] Infrastructure for Beacon Monitoring

[Stan, W1LE]

Hello Al, Mark and the Net:

Welcome all. 

Beacons have a special interest to me because somewhere,
on some frequency there is a beacon. Some local , some DX.

I am starting with an infrastructure that will support beacon monitoring.

Just cleared some more land in the back yard to support the additional 
antennas.
whether the antennas are wire or arrays of yagi you need room and a 
support structure
to point them.

In the shack you will certainly need a RX for the freq of concern,
but that is not hard to do with a modern transceiver.
For 2M beacon monitoring I use a ICOM IC-910H with optional ovenized 
reference osc.

But here are beacons on many other freqs, like NDB's, non direction 
beacons,
used as nav aides for airplanes. found below 500 KHz.
Folks are also perfecting their skills on AM/FM/TV commercial stations 
as beacons.

Part of your station infrastructure needs to consider a station 
reference oscillator,
like an accurate 10 MHz from a GPS Disciplined oscillator.

With accurate frequencies (better than 0.1 Hz) on RX and TX you can use 
the significant
processing gains of commonly available software like LinRad, Spectrum 
Lab, WinRad,
 or ARGO or other HPSDR/SDR programs.

The future of beacons includes implementation of PC programs like K1JT's 
WSPR program
and other modulation schemes like QRSS, very slow CW with up to 120 
second dot lengths.

These techniques have been demonstrated on the 137/85 KHz and HF bands.
Frequency accuracy and DSP allows processing in a less than 1.0 Hz 
bandwidth.

Ebay can be your friend. The big fleamarket in the ether has been a
invaluable resource to get a variety of commercial test equipment at 
less than
pennies to the dollar at original price.

Explore the FCC Part 15 and Part 5 beacon opportunities.

Perfecting our monitoring  skills on other freqs will get us all ready 
for the
"cross the pond" beacons and QSO's to come.

Beacon monitoring is fun.

Stan, W1LE     Cape Cod     FN41sr




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