Beacon heard on 6m

[VK4WDM]

Last night at around 11.28z I was hearing a very weak beacon on 50.022MHZ that appeared to be peaking west north west. Very "choppy" - a bit like you hear on trans-polar signals but obviously the wrong direction for that. Impossible to get an ident (yes I do know the code ). CQ calls on 50.110 got no response from that direction but there were a huge number of JA's trying to work an XU7 and hearing a reply would have been difficult.

There had been very strong TEP to JA but it had started to fade at this time although the JA BCN on .027 was still strong. Suggest the better equipped stations keep a good ear out tonight

73

Wayne VK4WDM

[VK4WDM]

Nothing heard tonight but the database shows the following beacons around that frequency.

50021.2 9Q1D Congo. Possible but signal appeared to be coming from north of there.
50021.3 CN8IG Morocco. Correct direction.
50021.8 LX0SIX Luxembourg. Signal was to the south of my usual path to Europe. Also applies to Slovenia and Hungary.
50022 S55ZRS Slovenia.
50022 HG8BVB Hungary.
50022.5 FR5SIX Reunion. Possible, but signal appeared to becoming from north of there.
50022.5 PY9MM Brazil. Wrong for long or short path to Brazil but the signal did sound like a long path transpolar one - weird!

There again it could have been a back scatter from anywhere - this is the magic band

I never thought to check for Middle East TV or data sigs

73

Wayne VK4WDM

[ZS1II]

just an Info about 9Q1D/B always on air 24/7 that I have installed in July 2007 on my high site FM broadcast transmitters.
here: http://ve2ek-9q1ek.blogspot.com/2007/07 ... 9q1db.html
It works always since my departure of the RD Congo in Nov 2013. Maintained by my ex UN technicians.

[VK4WDM]

Hi Georges

Thank you for the interesting info. It is a real pity that the signal could not be identified. During the last sunspot cycle I heard signals from West Africa at about that time but I was beaming long path. Hopefully some VK ops with more African experience will make a comment.

73

Wayne VK4WDM