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Tuesday, September 07 2010 @ 08:51 PM EDT

WA4FC/B 10 meter Beacon Reception Reports

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WA4FC/B 10 meter beacon

Friday, October 10 2008 @ 12:05 PM EDT

Contributed by: Jay

Please click here to submit your reception report. We appreciate each report that is sent along. Please be sure to include date, time, QTH, and your station details.

The beacon consists of the following hardware:

Radio Shack HTX-100 (5 watt output) - operating 28.231 mhz
Picokeyer (embedded inside of radio)
Custom rack mount enclosure (click link for more details) Ringo AR-10 at 200 feet AGL
LMR-400 apx 100 foot run
The beacon is located at:

FM17HD in Prince George, Virginia

The beacon is operational 24 hours a day). The message sent is VVV de WA4FC/B WA4FC/B WA4FC/B FM17 FM17. This is sent at 12wpm over a 46 second time period, followed by a 20 second pause to allow for reception of other beacons that may possibly be on the frequency.

The WA4FC 10 meter beacon officially became operational on October 9, 2008, and was operated from two other locations until coming to the current spot in February 2010.

We had thought for several years about putting beacons on the air to help with the study of propagation, and things just started falling into place. Those responsible for building the actual transmitter include KD4BPZ and KG4SNN. Thanks go to KD4GIE, KI4BWJ and KG4YJB for helping with the location and antenna arrangements. More pictures can be found in the photo gallery about this project and this article about constructing this beacon.. Don't forget to listen for our 6 meter beacon as well.

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28.231MHz beacon receives new antenna

Tuesday, June 08 2010 @ 02:03 PM EDT

Contributed by: Jay

The WA4FC/B 10 meter beacon on 28.231 MHz upgraded to a new antenna last week. Brad, KI4BWJ is shown here placing the antenna in the mounts after tuning. Antenna tuning revealed a nice 1:1 SWR. The beacon station had been operating with a temporary magnet mount antenna since February. The new antenna is a Ringo AR-10 antenna that was obtained through an estate sale, and we are proud to use it in this installation to allow for better study of propagation conditions on 10 meters from the central Virginia area. The power level is still set at 5 watts. Reports have been received from Memphis to Florida, as well as Oregon, Washington and California since the hardware change.

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WA4FC/B 10 meter beacon moves to new home

Saturday, February 13 2010 @ 10:44 PM EST

Contributed by: Jay

The beacon station on 28.231 MHz has moved to a new home and has a new antenna. The station is still located in Prince George, Virginia in FM17, but is in a secure location where it can operate without causing interference to other HF gear (it can be hard to operate HF with a beacon in your shack!).

The best part about the move is that the antenna is now approximately 200 feet AGL, and is still operating at the 5 watt power level. It will be great to see reports of increased propagation on 10 meters in the near future! Receptions reports via the DX cluster or via this link are appreciated. Don't forget to listen for our six meter station as well on 50.079.5 MHz.

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Sounds clip of 10 meter beacon

Sunday, September 06 2009 @ 09:02 AM EDT

Contributed by: Jay

Terry Rogers WA4BVY who is located in Chapel Hill, NC sent along a recent audio file of the 10 meter beacon as he copied it there. He heard it across a 132 mile path on 2 Sep 2009 at noon local time and makes a pretty routine sweep of the beacon subband looking for activity indicators for 10 and 6 meters.

Of course, not the most exciting DX report, but nice to know that people are listening and are able to copy via groundwave. Thanks again for the clip and we look forward to hearing from you again. You can listen to the sound file at this link.

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Beacon frequency coordination

Wednesday, September 17 2008 @ 04:00 AM EDT

Contributed by: Jay

It's pretty common knowledge to know about frequency coordination for repeater operations, but have you ever thought about coordination for beacon freqs? It sure makes sense. Here is a little detail on how to keep everyone happy.

Building the 10 meter beacon

Thursday, September 11 2008 @ 04:00 AM EDT

Contributed by: Jay

It's a neat thing to be able to study propagation, and to assist others in this process as well. Building the 6 meter beacon was a lot of fun, and seeing some of the reports come in are very interesting. As 10 meters continues to climb, now seems like a good time to place one on the air for 28 MHz. Here is the construction details on how I used the Radio Shack HTX-100 as a beacon transmitter. Please look at the photo gallery for close up pics, and read the picture descriptions for further construction details.