Update the beacon list

[ChrisSmolinski]

Considering all the new beacons and other changes recently... would someone like to update the wiki beacon page at http://www.hfunderground.com/wiki/High_Frequency_Beacon ?

[Greenfroggy]

MO and then CO were busted by the F.C.C..  Putting the location on this
chart only aides the F.C.C. in DFing these little beacons.  Of course the location could be miss information.
GF

I had a brain fart and initially wrote OK was busted, I meant to type MO.

[Token]

Putting a location like "California" or "Arizona" on such a chart is not going to help the FCC.  You can get that information from just reading this forum, the forum reports are just as "dangerous" to the beacons as the published list.  Putting "Inyo County, CA" or "Joshua Tree N.P." might seem like a risky thing to do, but look at the region, it will take a serious effort to cover such an area.  The other issue is that once the FCC decides to enforce on one of these beacons there is little that can be done to disguise it or misdirect, even if only the frequency is known or on a list.  If it can be received it can be DFed, if it has ever been reported here then it has been proven capable of being received.  If the FCC ever decided to go after "A", for example, they could narrow it down to a general area (within a few miles) in just a few hours coordinated effort.  Getting closer than that might involve more footwork, but once you get within a few miles the 24 hour beacons are toast.

The occasional beacons that switch freqs, like the "TR" beacon, are probably very safe.  Night time only beacons in remote locations are probably pretty safe.  Low power 24 hour beacons in very remote locations are probably pretty safe.  The less remote the location, the higher the power, and the more hours a day a beacon transmits the more likely a beacon is to be busted.

But, the FCC still have to want to go after it and it has to be high enough on the priority list to dedicate the manpower/resources to the effort.  Despite some of these beacons having been on the air for years, been well documented, and despite "official" (at various levels)  (edit: by "official" I mean I have spoken with an FCC field engineer who was aware of the existance of some specific pirate beacons, this was brought up by him as part of another, unrelated to pirates or beacons, conversation, I think most of the conversation was about microbrews) knowledge of several of them, the remote nature of some of them ensures that they will almost certainly never be pursued.  They are simply too small a fish in a mighty big pond.

When you put up a 24 hour beacon you have to assume it will eventually be busted.  Don't put it on your property if it is not legal.


T!

[Tom S]

When was OK busted?  That explains why I can't hear it any more.

[cmradio]

"F" will return in the next few weeks. Antenna is here, so is the tuner, I just have to assemble and raise the darn thing.

Peace!

[cwguy]

Good points, Token.  I know the FCC has had their share of cuts, and with more RF users in our world than ever, and less agents to do their thing, unless a beacon is really causing trouble or generating complaints, I suspect they are nothing more than harmless, incidental background noise to them.  I would think that a pirate operating in the FM Radio band would be at a much greater risk for being busted than someone running an unmanned remote low power HF beacon.

Having said that, I'm getting ready to install my 100W, 10.000 MHz beacon.  Reports would be appreciated!  (I'm KIDDING of course!!)   

On the other hand, GF makes a valid point that there are NO guarantees - just ask those who have been busted!

It's probably like they told me before entering boot camp - you don't want to stand out.  Don't be first in line, don't be last, and don't draw attention to yourself.

[cwguy]

And, on an unrelated note, it's great to see the activity on the forum ramp up - it seems to have been a pretty quiet summer - too quiet! 

Thanks to all of the beacon ops and other contributors!  I hope when I'm an old guy I'll still be listening to these pirate beacons...

[ChrisSmolinski]

I've tried listening the last few days, but conditions here have not been the best. I hope as we heard further into autumn and then winter, conditions will improve. There seem to be quite a few new beacons to try for (hence my interest in an updated list, I find it very useful when tuning around, so I know what to look for).

[vlfradio]

Token and cwguy both have very valid points - but indeed, don't put a 24 hour blaster on your own property, unless very temporary.

I tend to consider all of my beacons (the 13 out there beeping and dashing in the desert boonies), as fairly safe, but esetially, they are all "disposable beacons" and if one is taken down or "busted either by feds or the mil or not-nice radio people, another can be implanted in another even more "impossible" area to get to.

Most FCC agents drive bulky SUV;s and are loath the get out of their Chevy gas-guzzlers to hike way out in the desert wilderness where they might get bitten by snakes or get a cholla catci in their ankle, so they stay away and "bust" esaier targets like HF broadcast pir8s or FM pirates which can be tracked to their "operator" and thus, money/fines can be "conjured" from the poor op., so I have no fear of implanting beacons hither and yon - but it is good to rig up a circuit that has the beacon shut off during periods of the day where prop. is poor (like the increasing amount of lower-HF/high-MF night-only beacons - just try to DF one of those in a remote location at night... 10 x more tough than in broad daylight...

So beacon-on and don't sweat the Fed. Freaks...

-v-

[vlfradio]

Oh, and another thing - a far-worse "threat" to legit HF operations, besides our beacons that we try to have on non-QRMed freqs., are all of those obnoxious switching power-supplies, dimmers, touch-lamps, TVs, etc. etc. that radiate crud all over MF and HF (and beyond) that the USA-Feds. have allowed to swamp the "market" out there, so to get all fussy over a beacon on a coherent frequency, then allow all of those crud-producing devices to be plugged into the grid is preposterous and very hypocritical.

73 - -v-

[cmradio]

Oh, and another thing - a far-worse "threat" to legit HF operations, besides our beacons that we try to have on non-QRMed freqs., are all of those obnoxious switching power-supplies, dimmers, touch-lamps, TVs, etc. etc. that radiate crud all over MF and HF (and beyond) that the USA-Feds. have allowed to swamp the "market" out there, so to get all fussy over a beacon on a coherent frequency, then allow all of those crud-producing devices to be plugged into the grid is preposterous and very hypocritical.

That's been a peeve of mine for decades. Not just the USA.... Even when the appliance is WAY over limits and wiping out local emergency comms, taxi's and the like, Industry Canada flat out refuses to even write a letter to the manufacturer.

But a broadcaster that's a whopping 2dB over the RSS210 (our Part 15) limits, they bring in the mounties!

It's all politics. They want headlines of, "Feds Bring Down Pirate!" and not, "Luddite Feds Bring Down an Industry!"

Peace!

[vlfradio]

Updated (partial) Desert PHifer Beacon List - October 2012

2025.16 kHz "Inyo Dark Ditter" 67 dits/minute.  Night-only, about 2 watts output
  to inv. vee on granite rock-pile. (s.w. USA in Calif.)

4096.24 "Hexie" 1 second-long dashes, 24/7, Joshua Tree NP, 400 mW

4097.25 "Inyo Whooper" daytime-only, about 90-chirping dashes/min.
  on since Dec. 1997! 3/4 watts.

5205.3 "Sally" diter beacon in the Saline Valley, CA - east-facing
  solar-panel so mainly morning only (a daytimer). 1/2 watt.

6626.3 "Rainy" - Mojave NP, CA - daytime ditter/chirper in
  Mojave NP, 1.5 watts

6626.2 "Rocky" a "buzzer-beacon" located in Inyo, Co, CA
 with about 300 mW output - daytime only

8193.75 MarinDit - 24/7 in Marin County, CA - about 80 dits/min.
  10 mW only

----------------

DOA beacons due to battery failure in need of battery replacement

4096.1 Coxie - Joshua Tree NP - battery dead...
4096.6 "Kelsie" Mojave NP - battery dead...

Mysterious sudden dissappearance:

4089 Death Valley Ditter "Scotty Beacon" suddenly QRT Nov. 2011

-----------------

[vlfradio]

Version two (corrected beacon listing) is on a new topic posted at 1040 UT / 17 Oct. 2012 - 73, -v-

[zackers]

I wonder what happened to the OK beacon? When it was on, it was generally quite copyable in Illinois. I know these things can develop technical difficulties and I figured it just developed a power supply or circuitry problem of some sort.