Gday everyone,
The last couple of mornings (around 5.30am) ive been hearing a very weak beacon on around 144.555mhz is there a beacon around here? (my call book doesnt list it) Or a spurious maybe?
The signal is weak and has a lot of QSB, the best i can make out (with my very poor cw skills) is ????AI (could be very wrong!!)
cheers, Graham VK3XDK
weak beacon??
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VK5AJL
Re: weak beacon??
Have you had a good look using a program like Spectrum Lab or Spectran. (both free) Beacons show a straight trace for their tone period then side traces during identification. Its pretty obvious when you know what to look for even when the signal is well below the noise level. Lock on to a local beacon and see what these traces look like.
2m beacons to your west are vk5rse SE of SA (144.550), vk5vf Adelaide (144.450), vk6rse Esperance (144.568), vk6rst Tambellup 100k north of Albany (144.564), vk6rbu Perth (144.560), vk6rph 100k north of Perth (144.460) and, at a pinch for west vk6rsx Karratha (144.576).
I can't find any on 144.555 anywhere either.
2m beacons to your west are vk5rse SE of SA (144.550), vk5vf Adelaide (144.450), vk6rse Esperance (144.568), vk6rst Tambellup 100k north of Albany (144.564), vk6rbu Perth (144.560), vk6rph 100k north of Perth (144.460) and, at a pinch for west vk6rsx Karratha (144.576).
I can't find any on 144.555 anywhere either.
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VK3XDK
Re: weak beacon??
Mystery solved,
this morning it was clear enough to use my highly tuned morse ear! (####GL)
seems im getting a spurious or image when propagation is good? or when temperature is down? (the beacon is maybe 20kms away)
cheers all, Graham VK3XDK
this morning it was clear enough to use my highly tuned morse ear! (####GL)
seems im getting a spurious or image when propagation is good? or when temperature is down? (the beacon is maybe 20kms away)
cheers all, Graham VK3XDK
Re: weak beacon??
Hi John,VK5AJL wrote:Have you had a good look using a program like Spectrum Lab or Spectran. (both free) Beacons show a straight trace for their tone period then side traces during identification. Its pretty obvious when you know what to look for even when the signal is well below the noise level. Lock on to a local beacon and see what these traces look like.
2m beacons to your west are vk5rse SE of SA (144.550), vk5vf Adelaide (144.450), vk6rse Esperance (144.568), vk6rst Tambellup 100k north of Albany (144.564), vk6rbu Perth (144.560), vk6rph 100k north of Perth (144.460) and, at a pinch for west vk6rsx Karratha (144.576).
I can't find any on 144.555 anywhere either.
VK6RBU (144.560) is located out of Bunbury, at the CSR site in Roelands.
VK6RPH (144.460) is located abt 20kms SE of the Perth CBD at the Channel 9 site in Walliston (Perth Hills)
Posted in the interests of allaying confusion.
73
Andy VK6OX
If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Albert Einstein
Andy VK6OX
If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Albert Einstein
Re: weak beacon??
Gotcha, Graham.
The "GL" is a bit of a giveaway. VK3RGL/144.530 Mt. Anakie must be a whacking huge signal at your QTH. Somehow an intermod or other overload response in your RX makes it audible on 144.555. That beacon is about the same distance from my QTH but I don't hear anything on 144.555 from its direction. Its two yagis are strategically directed away from my QTH, it must be said!
Chas
VK3PY
The "GL" is a bit of a giveaway. VK3RGL/144.530 Mt. Anakie must be a whacking huge signal at your QTH. Somehow an intermod or other overload response in your RX makes it audible on 144.555. That beacon is about the same distance from my QTH but I don't hear anything on 144.555 from its direction. Its two yagis are strategically directed away from my QTH, it must be said!
Chas
VK3PY
Re: weak beacon??
While we're on the topic of spurious sigs, etc. The amount of way-too-wide SSB transmissions on the bottom end of 2m is getting worse.
I was listening on the moon over Easter and had all sorts of problems with several stations taking out 20khz of the band, even though they were only S5 at my QTH! It's not my receiver, as I experience some big signals (S9++) from other "locals" and have no issues even a few khz away from them.
PLEASE back the drive off a bit fellas. And have a read of this: http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek/cleansig/no-splat.htm and this: viewtopic.php?f=45&t=9879&p=17990#p17990
I was listening on the moon over Easter and had all sorts of problems with several stations taking out 20khz of the band, even though they were only S5 at my QTH! It's not my receiver, as I experience some big signals (S9++) from other "locals" and have no issues even a few khz away from them.
PLEASE back the drive off a bit fellas. And have a read of this: http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek/cleansig/no-splat.htm and this: viewtopic.php?f=45&t=9879&p=17990#p17990
Alan VK3DXE
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