High Frequency Beacon

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Revision as of 23:53, 27 August 2021

A QSL card from a High Frequency beacon

High Frequency Beacon is a colloquial term for an unlicensed radio beacon that does not follow government regulations for operation (such as Part 15), and is technically illegal. Unlicensed HF beacons which operate legally, according to rules for low power transmissions are classified as HiFERs. See also: data link networks and RC systems in the 26-28 MHz or 11 meter band region that operate as de facto beacons. These systems may be found primarily on 26995, 27045, 27095, 27145, 27195 and 27255 kHz but numerous other frequencies are used worldwide.

There is a separate list of Part 15 Beacons

Description

PRV (6852 kHz) under test

There are many of these beacons, quite a few are run as propagation experiments. Due to their nature, the exact location of these stations is generally not published, although many are believed to operate from remote locations in the deserts of the southwest USA. Likewise, these stations tend to suddenly appear and disappear from the air. Most run with very low power levels of just hundreds or even tens of milliwatts of power, and are often solar powered, so they can be hidden in open areas. Some are switched via a photocell, so they only operate at night, running off of a battery that is charged during the daytime by a solar panel.

There is a message board where listeners can report reception of beacons, it is also useful to see what other folks are presently hearing:

• HF Beacon Loggings

North American High Frequency Beacons

European High Frequency Beacons

Telemetry Pirate Beacon

A telemetry pirate beacon may transmit some type of brief information about its surroundings, usually along with its identification symbol or some other identifying characteristic. Its transmission may have more content than the common dasher, ditter, or Morse code CW beacon, but the content can be mysterious or undocumented.

Windy Beacon

A good example of a telemetry pirate beacon is the Windy beacon which has been widely logged on approximately 4102.8 kHz CW. It is believed by some beacon listeners to be a solar powered wild beacon, located somewhere in the rough back-country of southwestern USA.

Windy transmits Morse code telemetry of ambient Temperature TMPfff (where fff is degrees Fahrenheit), Battery Voltage Bvvv (where vvv is decivolts), and 5 intervals of "W" followed by wind velocity dit pulses corresponding to revolutions of its ambient wind sensor. The typical timing of the Windy beacon telemetry is as follows: A 26 second temperature and battery interval; followed by 5 intervals of 13 seconds each for wind telemetry; with a total cycle time of approximately 135 seconds, repeating 24/7/365.

Desert Whooper

Another telemetry beacon that broadcasts on 4095.65 and has been logged widely on the West Coast up into Canada and as far east as Maryland. CW ID of "DW", sends thirty upward 150 Hz sweeps (whoops), repeats 6 times then sends telemetry: BAT is in volts DC. oTMP is in degrees F with a calibrated outdoors thermistor, iTMP is in degrees F using a digital two wire sensor within the weather tight box, PV is in milliAmps to monitor solar panel performance

The antenna is a 1/2 wave dipole oriented North/South but .15 wavelength above the desert soil to create a more vertical but omni-like pattern. The 1:1 balun is home made and measured VSWR is close to 1.1 to 1 for 1 Watt of transmit power.

See also

27 MHz beacon 69BY in Costa Rica on 27.610 MHz 27610 kHz

• Pictures of high frequency beacons
• HiFER
• PHFER Beacon Madness - A glimpse into the Pathology and Symptoms of this Disease
• Radio propagation beacon - beacons with an official license

References

1. Ary Boender: "Numbers and Oddities", issue 162, March 2011, pp. 17
2. Ary Boender: "Numbers and Oddities", issue 156, September 2010, pp. 15-16
3. "PRV" was often reported during the past few months and was unid until Linkz submitted a link to websites about this station. Linkz writes: I have no idea if this station is legit or a pirate. It's operator is Eystathios Karastathis (SW6HMU) from Preveza, Greece. He writes on his blog "PRV - 6852 kHz 15w cw BEACON with Dipole Ant on the air 17.30 pm- 8.00 am". According to his blog there is also a MF beacon "PRV beacon 500-531 khz am/cw 400 Watt" and a local AM broadcasting station "Studio 421" on 1655 kHz”. This beacon was last reported to UDXF on December 31, 2011.
4. Ary Boender: "Numbers and Oddities", issue 159, December 2010, pp. 23.
5. Ary Boender: "Numbers and Oddities", issue 173, February 2012, pp. 29.