SM5HUA/B voodoo beacons

20081027: The beacons are shut down for now, might start them again at a later date dont know. Was fun playing around +1 year and thanks to all who reported hearing them.... 73s Peter

RN6BN beacon 10m 30m My WSPR spots DL8WX beacon list WJ5O ten-ten beacon list DJ7KG beacon Guru

This is my beacon project on 10m started 2007-09-28. I am using a rugged Kenwood TS-850SAT to get a clean and soft keyed signal out. The antenna system consists of a Sirio 827 5/8 wave vertical and a horizontal inv-v dipole, remotely mounted 150m away using 7/8" hardline. Cable loss is -1db and is compensated by driving the rig with 60W to get a resulting 50W at the feed points. The logic used is the Freakin Beacon FB1 and BA1 attenuator, great kits and well constructed.

During the beacon cycle, continuous switching between horizontal/vertical polarization is done using a MFJ-4712 remote antenna switch and a external relay keyed by the Freakin Beacon PTT output. Different power levels is transmitted in the 4 long 1.5 second dashes: 0db,-10db,-20db,-30db (50W/5W/500mW/50mW). In the high speed section, I now also state the power levels in cw and tx 5 second long carriers for each. Quite interesting to see how much a change in power and polarization can do to the readability.

Here is a nice recording I got from from Ruud PE1BTV a while back SOUNDFILE. Also look at Georg DJ7KG's web page were he made sonagrams of my beacon. Got a nice SWL report from Matthias Zwoch in Arndsorf, Dresden with a picture of the beacon spectrum on his Perseus SDR receiver. Look below at Enrico IW3FZQ who made a video on YouTube hearing my beacon with his little hand held Mizuho MX-28S in Italy! Amazing... :)

If you hear the beacon, please drop me a email and tell. Especially the difference between polarizations and power levels. Its always nice knowing its heard - tnx!
73's de Peter / SM5HUA <email> (5.5Mb recording of the full 6 min beacon cycle)