HFU HF Underground
Loggings => HF Beacons => Topic started by: ChrisSmolinski on January 02, 2013, 2108 UTC
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As it can be confusing to keep track of the various active unlicensed beacons by reading the various messages, I thought it would be useful to keep an up to date message as a "sticky" at the top of this forum. These are for unlicensed (read not legal) beacons. Ham, Part 15, and military beacons are not included.
As new beacons are discovered, or old ones disappear, this message will be updated. If you think a change is needed to a beacon status, or to suggest an additional beacon, post a message as a reply to the chat thread: https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,68701.0.html
Please DO NOT REPLY IN THIS THREAD.
Recently Reported Beacons updated 02/15/2025, frequencies in kilohertz:
4069.43 Dasher with a strong second harmonic at 8138.86 and it's night time only 3/10/2024
4086.7 dasher sends about 8.7 dashes / min, each about 1.7 sec long
4094.0 id's UFO TMP three times, after TMP two numbers are sent then back to dashes. On the air around Nov 2020
4094.8 SFI twice in slow Morse separated by a series of 8 dashes. Active in June, 2023
4095.03 Beacon L sends in slow Morse about 2 seconds apart
4095.170 MudDuck in Morse with ten 1 sec dashes. First heard 1/1/2022
4095.380 Common & Precious, CW AND RTTY (170HZ SHIFT 50 BAUD 2 STOP BITS), BASE LOADED 5M VERTICAL WITH CAPACITY HAT, 35M ABOVE GROUND. 50W
4095.700 "Desert Whooper". Discovered Nov. 16, 2020. Sends "DW" in Morse, then 30 upward frequency sweeps or "whoops" at 1/sec. Repeats five times. Next sends 5 slow whoops, BAT & 3 digit voltage, O TMP then 2 digit temperature, I TMP then 2 digit temperature, PV and solar panel current with values ranging from 0 to over 2000 in milliAmps.
4096.0 "Coxie" Slow dasher, about 4.5 seconds, 700 mW, Joshua Tree NP, daytime only with dead battery
4096.15 send L every 7 seconds. Strong in SoCal
4096.2 Slow dasher called Buddha, was "Phallaxy" was "Viking". About 30 mW, daytime only. On for 3 seconds, off for 3 seconds
4096.85 "Marin Dit", 24/7 5-10 mW, harmonic of 8193.77 radiates better
4097.08 Slow Dasher, 2secs on and 2 secs off. Discovered Nov. 2020, it does appear to be related to 7997.2 kHz. The two dashers appear to be in sync.
4097.1 Fast Ditter. New in 2021
4097.23 Fast Dasher called Madonna, 1/3 watt
4100.01 F
4100.05 H, repetition 3 seconds
4106.86 About a 2 sec dash followed by a 5 sec space
4109.50 "Central Coast Slider" slow whooping beacon, coastal mountains of central CA, 335mW, EFHW antenna, solar/battery power
4175 Z
5644 Y and 2 second dash
6626.2 "Rainy" - Mojave NP, CA - daytime ditter/chirper in Mojave NP, 1.5 watts, first on-air March 2003
6627.0 Gendarme - a whooping beacon, quick-falling in-freq. deliberately the result via a 100 uF cap. on the voltage rail from the 2w panel and the freq. falls during cap. discharges on key-on. 50% duty-cycle/0.5 watts. Somewhere in the southern Great Basin... sun-only
6700.5 "HexY2k" Joshua Tree NP, daytime only, 100 mW to inv. vee, 150 mW first on-air 29 Dec. 1999
7000.65 "Stumpy" Ditter, about 0.17 seconds long, sent every 22 seconds.
7039.4 "T" beacon OK0EPB sends a marker each second, a longer one at the minute, and callsign.
7956 kHz Cry Baby 1/second dasher with chirp, 10 mW solar powered daytime only. Located East of The Continental Divide somewhere high in the Rockies. On the air May 19, 2021
7997.0 kHz dasher appears to be a 2 second on, 2 second off, dash. may be related to 4997.08 dasher
7998.3 "Shorty" sends 18 dashes starting every minute.
7998.9 Ditter, dits about 0.15 secs long, about every 0.6 secs, or about 100 dits / min
7998.9 KHz, dashes of roughly two seconds long with about five seconds inbetween dashes
8000 KHz "S" sent at about 5 seconds. Heard on Nth Utah SDR. Reported on Sept 28th
8000.35 Very long period dasher, 40 or 50 seconds. Sometimes sends a broken dash that sounds more like an A or AE.
8001.2 New beacon as of Dec 20, 2015, 5 second period, frequency 8001.2 - 8001.6
8005 "Hiker", Dit rate is 60 per min. 500 mW into whip antenna.
8006.7 V5 sent 39 seconds apart
8138.86 Dasher with a primary signal at 4069.43 and it's night time only 3/10/2024
8191.9 second harmonic of Coxie on 4095.9
8193.7 "MarinDit" - 24/7 in Marin County, CA - about 80 dits/min. 10-15 mW only - on-air since spring 2000 (an "attic beacon"), this is the second harmonic
8200.15 D, repetition 3 seconds
8498.5 Fast Dasher dits are about 0.14 sec long, and about 0.6 sec apart, or about 100 dits / min
8500.3 Slow Dasher
13563.45 "T" sent every 2 seconds, 4 mW. Technically a 22m Part 15 beacon and should be logged here: https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/board,35.0.html
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As it can be confusing to keep track of the various inactive unlicensed beacons by sifting through numerous old messages, we thought it would be useful to keep an up to date listing as a "sticky" at the top of this forum. These are for unlicensed (read not legal) beacons. Ham, Part 15, and military beacons are not included.
As beacons go off the air, this message will be updated as best as possible. If you think a change is needed to a beacon status, or to suggest an additional beacon, post a message as a reply to the chat thread: https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,68701.0.html
Please DO NOT REPLY TO THIS POST.
Beacons No Longer In Operation
updated 02/15/2025, frequencies in kiloHertz:
2008.4 dasher sends about 17 dashes/min, each 1 sec long, cycles on and off
2018.3 dasher sends about 48 dashes / min, each 0.22 sec long, cycles on and off
2025.1 "Inyo Dark Ditter" 67 dits/minute. Night-only, about 2 watts output to inv. vee on granite rock-pile. (s.w. USA in Calif.) - QRT
2097.3 "A" Fairly high power, an easy target even out east. Back on air Nov 2021
3579.0 "KOK" night time only. Sends 22 dashes 4 second pause then Morse ID of KOK
4070.3 GT
4070.3 ZT
4079.6 "TMP" beacon
4089 Death Valley Ditter "Scotty Beacon" off the air Nov. 2011
4094 dash rate is 60 per second when it speeds up to the 100 per min that is a signal that a CW message will soon follow
4094.5 "X" beacon, about 6.8 sec between letters - reported still active January 2016
4096.15 Beacon "L”, sends temperature in Celsius and battery voltage every 45 seconds. Discovered 6/14/21, Off the air 6-17
4096.24 "Hexie" 24/7 1 second-long dashes, 24/7, Joshua Tree NP, 400 mW on since Dec. 1997
4096.35 Haystack 24/7, 3 second dash, new beacon as of Oct 2015, 200 mW Off air, may be relocated
4096.6 "Kelsie" Mojave NP
4097.25 "Inyo Whooper" daytime-only, about 90-chirping dashes/min. 3/4 watts. First on April 2007.
4098.3 ZN, repetition 4.4 seconds, drift to ~4103 kHz daytime
4102.85 Windy. On the air before 2009. Off the air since Dec. 2021. When it was functioning properly, Windy sent W followed by dits for the wind speed. Every so often it sent TMP and the temperature, then B and the battery voltage. Speculation: When the battery voltage was low (below 11.3v ?) it sent "H" and as the voltage trended lower it sent "S"
5205.3 "Sally" ditter beacon in the Saline Valley, CA - east-facing solar-panel so mainly morning only (a daytimer). 1/2 watt. First on-air Feb. 2006
6626.3 "Rocky" a "buzzer-beacon" located in Inyo, Co, CA with about 300 mW output, fast dasher, about 120~150 DPM - daytime only, first on-air Spring 2007, off air May 10, 2021 (See replacement, 6627 Gendarme in active beacon list)
6398.50 25W CW. Half Wave Dipole Antenna. Located in Germany. 24/7 operation. Sends its name "Common and Precious" and additional information (like a locator).
6668.0 "L" beacon, about 9.3 secs apart, or 6.5 times / min, hearing extra leading dit
6998.73 Archer Beacon 2W. 64' end fed 1/2 wave sloper antenna. Sends "ABK" once every ~55 seconds in slow CW. N/W U.S.
7000.0 "Itchy" Ditter, 0.21 seconds long, sent every 1.39 seconds.
10237.73 kHz, 5W CW. Half Wave Dipole Antenna. Located in Germany. 24/7 operation. Sends its name "Common and Precious" and additional information (like a locator). CURRENTLY OFF AIR
10238.18 "Hiker", Dit rate is 100 per min.
26510 kHz 8W CW. Located in Germany. 24/7 operation. Sends its name "Common and Precious" and additional information (like a locator). Currently there are no known versions of Common & Precious on the air on other frequencies.
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DO NOT POST REPLIES TO THIS THREAD
If you think a change is needed to a beacon status, or to suggest an additional beacon, post a message as a reply to the beacon chat thread: https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,68701.0.html