Chris Burger ZS6EZ/AA0VP and I were lamenting the fact that from our
respective QTH's that much 160 meter DX is hidden from us behind our
respective auroral donuts. Based on our past experience unusual openings
do occur however and probably more often than we are aware of because
either no one is listening/transmitting from the other end of the path.
One solution to guaging band conditions is a beacon system. 10 meter
enthusiasts figured this out years ago, and the 14.100 woldwide beacon
system has been useful to me personally in the past although I use it
infrequently now as I have very few countries left to work on 20 meters.
What I would like to start is a thread on how we as a 160M DX community
might go about putting in place just such a beacon system for 160
meters.
As a starting point I would propose a single frequency ( but what freq?)
system with each (where?) beacon transmitting for a proscribed 1 minute
interval similiar to the current 14.100 system. Unlike the 20 meter
beacon I'm not initially convinced that a multiple power appraoch is
useful on 160, I'm not even sure that a 100 watt beacon would be useful.
Maybe 250 watts or even 500 watts might be required to be really useful.
Also any beacon operators out there who can comment on the rules and
regulations in their repective countries as it relates to amateur radio
beacons I would like very much to hear from you DIRECT (we are gonna
have enough bandwidth on the above discusion without adding to it with
this very narrow piece of the topic!).
Constructive comments and suggestions appreciated ...flames will be
ignored save your energy ~8^).
Dave
N0DH (but not for long)
Spokane, WA
n0dh@comtch.iea.com
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