On 7.036khz
For the last few hours I’ve been listening to a continious sort of morse beacon, sending very poor morse which appears to be “M 0 L F U K”, repeatedly at around 10 - 14wpm.
Any thoughts?
David
Russian naval beacon ?
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Let’s all commandeer frequencies and send bad mechanical Morse running 25 Watts to a dipole at 55 ft. Great idea.
There are Russian beacons around that frequency. Each one sends one letter. I am listening now (14:49 UTC) and hear “F” on 7039.2 in
CW mode. That one as I recall is around Sakhalin Island. There
are several others, I can’t remember . There are some rag-chewers
on 7038.5 right now covering everything up.
73,
John, K6YK
In California
I hope not. I understand that the IARU Region 1 discourages beacon operation on 7 MHz. Haven’t read my licence conditions cover-to-cover recently so don’t know it that constitutes a breach of them.
There was some discussion on another forum about tx on 80m, although it took some sleuthing to determine exactly what was being sent.
It doesn’t.
Reading Schedule 2 it appears a beacon may only be used for the purpose of direction finding competitions on certain HF bands and not at all on 40m.
That’s w.r.t unattended beacons. Clause 14, 2.105 says “unsupervised general-use repeaters, gateways, data nodes and beacons etc are not permitted by the standard licence terms and conditions and require a specific licence variation to authorise their ‘keeper’ to install and use them”
I take this to mean general-purpose beacons are not permitted under the standard licence.
Anything you like as long as
a) you checked the frequency was clear before you started transmission
b) you are in attendance (reasonably taken as on the property where the station is located)
c) you identify the station at a now undefined but reasonable rate (time between idents, mode of ident)
You can run a key down TX 24/7 at full UK power if you want as long as you meet the above.
I think many of us have done on-air tests where we set up the rig to send a CW ID including the callsign repeatedly on an unused frequency whilst we conduct an attended investigation temporarily. I wouldn’t have considered the transmission as a beacon. Depends on your definition of a beacon.
If what David M6GYU heard on 40m was a UK amateur doing the above, I think that’s fine and allowed. If it was intended as a general-purpose propagation beacon, Clause 14 says you need a license variation and no doubt Ofcom would not grant that for 40m.
I’m not sure how “14 Recorded or retransmitted Messages” applies here.
You’ve not actually checked that M1EDF QRZ page yet have you? And I guess you don’t listen to or read the RSGB news, specifically the RSGB news for September 18, 2020. They’d put your concerns that this is not legal to bed. Whether it’s wanted, useful, desirable etc. is a different question!
Andy, If you’re talking to me … then yes I did look at it but it’s so long I don’t feel obliged to read every word. I read his reference to propagation beacon but it’s not been proved to my satisfaction that the CW transmission if it’s as badly sent as reported, is definitely this particular amateur. That’s why, rather than point the finger, I’ve kept my remarks general.
Third line of description in capitals.
The similarity between badly sent M0LFUK and M1EDFUK is uncanny, write them out on paper.
You need to refer first to Clause 10 Unattended and remote control operation in the main license conditions which covers it.
A defence lawyer would shoot that down in flames. The point remains, better not to personalise the discussion
It’s not unattended nor remote controlled.
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Puzzling.
I have read his (M1EDF) qrz page. I can see the similarity between the callsign I heard and M1EDF, if the UK bit was to indicate the UK . One of the characters, the Zero, could have been written down as figure 1, as the first dash was a little bit short and there was a tiny pause between it and the next four dashes - which in my book could have been a 1, but on balance I thought it was a Ø, but I listened to it a few times over the hour or so I hear it. I’m not going to say I could not make a mistake, but I wouldn’t have thought I’d have mistaken the L F U & K.
Just incase the final K was for K as in a normal CQ, I also checked M1LFU, GØLFU and MØLFU, and non appear on QRZ.com.
However the poor but regular morse could be explained by someone trying to make a disk with hand cut(?) dots, dashes and spaces in the manner he describes making a beacon.
I’ll try and listen for it again tomorrow morning.
Thanks for the replies gentlemen. (and those who are not sure). 
David
M6GYU
Now 599 here in North Yorkshire, on 7.036khz. (1124 local time or 1024 UTC )
Unless its my poor receiving skills, I now read it as N 1 E D F B N But as I said before the length ratio of dots to dashes and the spacing is rather fine!
I now have a short video of it which I’ll post this evening
David
I can hear it 579 on 7035. The CW is rubbish and a bit of guesswork as what is being sent. I thinks its M1EDFBM.
Fair enough he has built a mechanical beacon keyer, but no value in putting it on the air. Hopefully he gets bored and qsy’s it to the junk box!
73 Gavin
GM0GAV
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