XPost: rec.radio.amateur.moderated

EI7GL....A diary of amateur radio activity

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Video: South African 144 MHz Next Generation Beacon Project

Posted: 05 Sep 2021 12:00 AM PDT https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2021/09/video-south-african-144-mhz-next.html



At the South African Radio League workshop in March of 2021, Brian ZS6YZ
gave a presentation about the 144 MHz Next Generation Project. This
involves moving away from the traditional CW only beacons and combining
them instead with digital modes to investigate propagation on the 144 MHz
band.
While the initial project seems primarily be for internal use in South
Africa, ZS6YZ also raises the possibility of testing other very long
distance paths as well.




In the past when only CW and SSB was used on the 2-metre band, beacons on
CW would often appear first during a tropo opening. The beacon was then
spotted on the cluster and stations were alerted about the opening.
Now, CW only beacons are of limited use with weak digital signals like FT8 making an appearance long before the CW signals can be heard. In todays
world where computers can just sit and listen for signals 24 hours a day, a modern mixed mode beacon using CW and a digital mode like PI4 makes a lot
more sense.
The video is just over 40 minutes long and it can be seen below...


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Life still on 28 MHz - 4th Sept 2021

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 03:02 PM PDT https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2021/09/life-still-on-28-mhz-4th-sept-2021.html


Now that have moved into September, the Sporadic-E season is really
beginning to wind down and I have changed from monitoring for 10m WSPR
signals back to monitoring FT8 signals on 10m instead. The problem with
WSPR is that it starts to get less useful once the number of stations fall
away and that happens at the end of the Summer.

On Saturday the 4th of September, there was a small Sporadic-E opening to central Europe as well as a small opening to South America.
I kind of prefer listening for WSPR signals but at the end of the day, all
I'm really interested in is knowing what the propagation on the 28 MHz band
is like.
The solar flux today was 84.

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