COMMON AND PRECIOUS on 6398.5 kHz

The beacon on the waterfall on my Perseus SDR

The COMMON AND PRECIOUS propagation beacon, which used to operate on various frequencies like 10237.6 kHz, recently recently moved to 6398.5 kHz. 

The beacon operates in CW and transmits the message: "JO62SK 52W DIPOLE JO62SK COMMON AND PRECIOUS". Yesterday evening it was received on my Perseus SDR with very good signal.

The string JO62SK is a Maidenhead locator centered at Aldershof, a German town southeast of Berlin.

See related previous posts on this blog:
COMMON AND PRECIOUS (2015-08-09) 
COMMON AND PRECIOUS update (TNX QSL) (2015-09-10)

For background information about the beacon, read article "Common and Precious 4" on the HF Underground wiki.
 

Thessaloniki NDB

Most radio hobbyists ignore that a Non-Directional Beacon (NDB) operates near former Alatini works in Thessaloniki. Its Morse code id is THS and it transmits continuously on 345 kHz.

Last week I visited the site of the beacon and shot a few photos.

Panoramic view from the North	No tresspassing sign
The eastern mast	Transmitter shed
Detail of insulators and pulleys	View from the East

This nice NDB has been in operation for decades. Although it is located on the approach to RWY 16 of Makedonia Airport (LGTS), nowdays is not used much by aviators. 

It is easily accessible from public spaces and roads, just south of Thessaloniki Music Hall, at 40.593600 N - 22.948100 E, so if you are in the area you may visit the site. 

SV1SIX beacon active again

After a few months of inactivity, 50 MHz beacon SV1SIX is back on the air. 

It transmits on 50040 kHz in F1A (frequency shift Morse code), sending the following message: SV1SIX LOCATOR KM17UX ATHENS 30W ERP.

MX beacon K on 7039.3 kHz

Tonight I heard again after a long time the Letter Beacon (MX) "K" on 7039.3 kHz. This beacon is located in he Russian Far East, possibly near Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky according to the IARU Region 1 Monistoring System and the HF underground wiki. While other beacons of this cluster moved out of the 40 m amateur radio band to 7509 kHz, this one remained on its old frequency.

 

LPD RTTY beacon

Today I received a Radiometrix NTX2-434.650-10 LPD transmitter module which I ordered on eBay from mallinson-electrical. I integrated it with an Arduino Uno, a female SMA socket and a 3λ/4 antenna to build a small RTTY beacon. Output power is about 10 mW, consistent with the LPD specification CEPT/ERC Recommendation 70-03.

I programmed the Arduino with a modified version of M0UPU arduino code, which is published on the site of UKHAS. 

Reception of the LPD beacon using fl-digi

I hope some time within the next weeks to make a test transmission from a high location so anybody interested can get some hands-on experience with dl-fldigi reception of balloon signals.

The interesting news is that Radiometrix produces a new version of the transmitter, called NTX2B-FA, which is frequency programmable, so it can be tuned to more appropriate amateur radio frequencies near 432.8 MHz.

COMMON AND PRECIOUS update (TNX QSL)

Yesterday I visted the post office, where I found a QSL card from german beacon Common and Precious, which operates on 10237.6 kHz CW from a location near Aldershof in Germany. Many thanks and 73 to the operator!

 

COMMON AND PRECIOUS

A strange HF propagation beacon operates in the last few months on 10237.6 kHz CW. It repeats the message: "JO62SK 5W DIPOLE JO62SK COMMON AND PRECIOUS". The string JO62SK is probably a Maidenhead locator centered at Aldershof, a German town southeast of Berlin.

Listen to a sound recording of the beacon: COMMON AND PRECIOUS








 

Beacon V on 7091.5 kHz

A SPECTRAN screenshot of beacon V on 7091.5 kHz. This 40 m intruder is a russian military operation and, according to DK2OM of IARU R1, is located in Almaty, Kazakhstan. I failed to locate the spurii at +/- 750 Hz, possibly due to the high level of electrical noise at my location.