I am now for everones sake qrt the Beacon I am truly getting fed up with being lectured to by email that it is bringing bad manners out of me…Allow me once and for all to say … The Beacon project has been "“QSY’D to the junk box” as suggested by a subscriber from Scotland and will satisfy all…
All the criteria for operating the Beacon was followed and it was on the RSGB news… It has annoyed the purist of CW op which I respect but the quality of the CW to none specialised CW operators I agree have been ambiguous … Maybe because they only operate sideband… Let this be the end of it … THE BEACON IS DEAD…END OF!!! Geoffrey…M1EDF
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I read the page about it linked to early on and thought it was quite clear what it was all about from that. Perhaps it would have prevented the stream of ‘what is this’ posts later in the thread if people had checked that before posting. (For others who struggle with reading black text on a dark blue background a quick fix is to highlight the text.)
I thought the idea of a CW disc was quite neat, so I can definitely see why someone would want to try to make one. Seeing how far away you can be heard seems to be a staple of amateur radio, so that aspect shouldn’t come as a surprise, really.
If the choice of frequency or schedule caused problems for anyone, it’s a shame that couldn’t be resolved amicably to everyone’s benefit.
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This is how to spoil something … Bravo 
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I got the impression, quite early on after getting into CW, that beacons were often an annoyance to other ham operators. Indeed, a quick Google of the term ‘30m CW beacon annoyance’ shows that even beacons sending legibly are generally seen in a negative light. Ham radio sometimes requires good antennae for the mood of the community, not just RF. Whilst this project did seem to have some historical interest, anyone going into beacons needs to go in with their eyes open: rightly or wrongly, there are going to be plenty of naysayers; sorry, but that’s the way the world is.
I think Richard’s suggestion, to reduce power and add more info, is a good one and would make the project much more acceptable to most people. It’s a shame M1EDF doesn’t see it that way.
73 OE6FEG/M0FEU
Matt
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I think that M1EDF is actually quite a reasonable person and would be quite prepared to take on board positive suggestions. I would be happy to see this beacon project on ten metres as a sporadic E indicator, since Es openings can be very local.
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In addition to the over 500 beacons already on 10m? G0LGS: World-Wide 28MHz Beacons (by Beacon Callsign)
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It was a common method of automating CW sending until the 1960s. There was a display of several such code wheels at the Friedrichshafen rally a few years back. A particularly common example was the SOS wheel used in crashed aircraft emergency distress transmitters starting with the German Notsendser NS1 and NS2, copied by the British as the T1333 and taken further with the US SCR578 “Gibson Girl”
The IARU advice for beacons is as this
“Except for short-term experiments such as observation of the effects of solar eclipses the IARU does not support the operation of amateur beacons below 14 MHz because of congestion in these bands.”
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Hi Matt,
I’ve not had that impression. As a CW operator I use [unattended] HF beacons as a quick check of propagation conditions particularly on 30m (e.g. DK0WCY) and 60m (e.g. DRA5, OV1BCN, GB3ORK). So, I was surprised that there might be amateurs who find these beacons annoying.
Neither of these bands are crowded to the point one would resent a beacon occupying a frequency you might want to use.
The point about propagation beacons on busy bands like 80m and 40m has been well made several times and one can listen a while to callsigns to judge band conditions.
Using Matthew’s suggested search term: 30m CW “beacon” “annoyance” Google returns “It looks like there aren’t many great matches for your search”
If I change the search term to 30m CW “beacon” “annoying”
… most are not talking about the beacon itself as annoying – though one said it’s annoying the beacon ID is not sent as often as he would like.
You may have found ones that contradict this view since I checked only the top ones in the 44,100 results.
I’ld be interested to hear from SOTA operators if anyone has objections against these permanent or semi-permanent unattended propagation beacons.
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Hello again readers,
Apart from the site I have received personal emails telling me to bin the Beacon bog off !! and put it under a steamroller and other nasty remarks telling me it is a" vanity project" , I have and never will seek notoriety of any kind and also people lecturing me in a way that I was from the “Sir Barnes Wallace school” (My fault for using his name) i/e looked upon like somone demented and look what he achieved … I question if these terse and not abusive remarks which I am guilty of on todays occasion being put on a short fuse ,Would come from the crew of a downed aircraft in the sea and the crew of a sinking ship in a lifeboat, It is a nostalgic venture and educational but a generation gap exists I suspect rejecting such a venture…I wish now I had not raised the subject…
These emails put me on a short fuse and I have for the benefit of M1YEP written /emailed Richard and apologised profusely , for my reply which was terse and to the point but not meant to be offensive but has been interpreted as abusive, not so… but indeed I was told by my father to tell it how it is as long as it is the truth. and I did , Again at the disappointment of other interested amateurs the Beacon shut down will keep peace in the camp Geoffrey M1EDF… ,
IMHO I see no need for LF beacons when there are so many commercial signals to use. I have RAF Volmet (5450/11253) Shannon Volmet (5505/8957) and DWD 10100.8 in the SOTA 817. They’re all QRO big signals and 14 years of SOTA listening means I know if they are up or down on “normal”. For 40m a quick tune shows the G-State of the band, all G stations or all German stations! i.e. short or longer skip.
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You may think that 500+ is an excessive number, but the point of beacons for sporadic E is that they don’t tell you that the band is open, they tell you that the path is open. You may be hearing one at good strength and somebody just a few miles away can hear nothing. Identifying which beacons can be heard tells you what areas you might hear, down to areas as small as a city. On other occasions you might have widespread openings, you just never know what to expect.
The EYP M.O. is to select a single band antenna without research as to propagation, call CQ, and whatever comes back is a nice surprise.
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I also have those three QRO stations programmed into my rigs. But in my experience [I hear them almost every day - albeit for a second - as I flick through my 857/817 memories to get to my operating frequencies] they are usually too QRO to be useful - band condx have to be very poor for them to be noisy.
Maybe you are far enough away from them in the Edinburgh area. I find GB3ORK in Orkney useful but GB3WES in Cumbria [before it stopped tx] was useless to me.
Beacons have become less useful over the last 2 years or so as an indicator of propagation. If you have the facility to tune to any of the FT8 favoured frequencies from 2m down to 160m you get a good flavour of what can be heard and worked using that mode or AN other mode at that time in a minute or so on every band you check - there is so much activity on that mode now and a lack of spectrum in many cases - currently under discussion by the IARU. Or if the band is dead and you think it may be open you can call CQ using FT8 and try your luck. Us experienced hands know all the country prefixes off by heart so its easy to see on screen what is coming out of the ether, making beacons less useful, but not completely useless. I still use the UK beacons in Kent, Northern Ireland and Scotland on 2m on a fairly regular basis to see how good things are on the band.
This experiment by M1EDF was not meant as a beacon for propagation research it seems to me, it should be seen as an amateur radio engineering project which could be likened to someone gettin ghold of an old Creed teleprinter say, and trying to operate RTTY with it, albeit that would not be a beacon, but it would be of historical interest and practice by amateurs who may wish to invest time into such a historical project for themselves.
73 Phil
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I wasn’t actually refering to propagation beacons, which are an issue in their own right, see comments above. I meant, for example, amateurs setting up a portable beacon during a ham festival and driving round the state just sending their call sign. I definitely read about some instance like this in the US, and most commentators were not appreciative of the intrusion on 30m. This is probably where the term ‘Vanity Project’ comes from, although I do not necessarily wish to apply that term to M1EDF.
73 Matt
Funny you should mention that Phil, because some months ago I programmed the FT8 frequencies from 160m to 10m into my base station rig (Ft857) for that very purpose. I was and am amazed at how popular that mode is, for, as you say, you can hear them virtually 24/7 even on 10m which otherwise sounds dead most of the time.
But here’s the rub, I’m personally not interested in FT8 mode so I listen to them in CW mode - and hearing multiple FT8 signals from different locations - and without knowing their callsigns or location. So, for me, the beacons still have their value.
Okay - thanks for the clarification on that, Matt.
Hello and good morning readers, Lovley morning with a walk with my beautiful Labrador Monty… I hope now the Beacon project has been put to bed that the kitchen can cool down and I get on with my Eggs and bacon Hi
Please allow me Dear Moderator to submit a few lines about the site and this will cover the Beacon project too I don’t wish to sound like a clergyman but I congratulate all involved running the site. being a new member myself I have been impressed with the diversity of comments opinions and of course strong opinions, a learning curve that has affected me and brought to the surface something I have never really had to express losing my temper and for those that have been affected by my comments I sincerely apologise…, I am very interested in Nostalgia, I suppose one at 80 yrs old it is difficult to marry the wonderful times of construction improvisation make do in the 1950s, I have experienced in my radio interest for some 75 yrs when I started as a trainee Telegraph clerk on the railway…to the black box that one buys today over the counter plug in and switch on … The magic of those times have gone and it is difficult to accept the changes we have today and I am sure readers will be compassionate to me for thinking this way, in all fairness the modern day amateur too will look back and think of what HE / SHE did today when he or she reaches advancing years , I can see the tears flowing Hi, the same nostalgic / romantic feeling inspired me to build the beacon that has caused so much controversy.I m so sorry for the discord but that is what the site is for I have learnt to exchange views and opinions …
What inspired meto build / construct the beacon was when I entered into medical practice I used to pass the NDB ground station at Lichfield (None Directional Beacon,) carrying out home vists, One day I saw a gentleman go towards the building armed with an oil can, I approached him and explained who I was and he said come in but shut the door quickly, Later I found out why, I saw a number of grey boxes on the walls and some free standing transmitters I suppose back up systems powerwise too with a Di-Pole over the top of the building and when inside he went over to a beautiful mahogony box , it was beautiful and so clean, It had a brass disc revolving with cut outs the side 180 degres one side and the otherside and a pressure switch rising and falling clicking away ,it was beautifully engraved disc I was astonished and fascinated … He said to me a, wonderful gentleman he was ,I have to oil the spindle in a dry black country dialect…( I love.). and just take a look around and the reason you were asked to close the door I did not wish to have the Temp drop as the spring loaded rising and falling switch (for those interested in physics) will contract or expand the spring and send out ambiguous signals to aircraft tuning into it… I will always be grateful to him as this is what inspired me to replicate one…because of the Codiv outbreak and something to do , I put my heart and soul into it…Because of the disquite I have taken it off my qrz site…
Finally I can say this before I went into this project I read a great deal about Lindburg and also Amelia earheart and if they had got such a life saving beacon things could have been different or indeed Amy Johnson… It was these stories that inspired me to construct it over many months with the help in research of a dear friend 2e0lpl Mike Thank you Mike .
Finally I wish to apologise for anything in my submissions that may have upset other amateures and I quite understand but I think also to be fare there is a diverse number nowadays of radio amateurs that now exist as we older ones fade ,there is a generation gap that us older ones find difficult to accept, but the essence and interest although highly technical now wil not lose the spirit of the amateur radio family… Thank you all Geoff M1EDF
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Incidentally ,I know I am a bit thick can someone tell me as a new comer what is FT8…Thank you Geoff…M1EDF
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FT8 is a data mode. https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/FT4_FT8_QEX.pdf It’s very similar to your wheel sender except there is no wheel.
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