[Charles Penry]

There are two new propagation beacons on the air, one on 2 meters and one on 70 cm.

Wikipedia talks about Amateur Radio beacons here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio_propagation_beacon

The new beacons are at the Atlas site and are using the existing 2m/70cm dual band vertical omni antenna that is side mounted on the tower and is the antenna that the club VHF and UHF repeaters used to use. The beacons are on their own AC power supply and are not connected to the club repeaters backup battery system.

The beacon details are:
144.277 MHz
432.300 MHz
Both:
EM23en
Atlas, TX
75 Watts ERP
Omni-directional (mostly)
Vertical Polarization
Antenna Height 195 feet

Please excuse the warbles in the CW signals, they are using two-way radios and they drift a little on key-up. They weren’t made for CW use.

These beacons transmit for about 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off, with a 20 second constant key-up. If you are in range you should be able to hear them on any radio, even a FM portable or mobile. They should be helpful for antenna adjustments or comparisons but remember they are very low in frequency in each band and your upper FM part of the band antenna may not work as well down that low.

Let me know if you hear them!

Charles WA5VHU

[Phillip Beall]

Charles,

I tried them both from our home base station and while both showed up on the meter, neither broke through with any audio. I can give you a lat/long if you want to figure out the distance. Otherwise, red pin in the map at our location. LOL Cool idea, thank you for doing it.

Phillip

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