I was involved in various marine law enforcement duties for 10 years,
while in the U.S.Coast Guard and have limited knowledge of the beacons.
They are in fact drift net radio location beacons. They come in
several output power levels; 100 milliwatts, 1 watt and 10 watts, are
powered by batteries and solar panels, use a 10 ft loaded whip antenna
and a strobe light attached for visual observation, as they get mowed
down by commercial shipping on a regular basis.
The 1 and 10 watts power output models must be licensed. Of course some
fisherman bother with the licensing procedure and some don't, just like
VHF marine transciever operation. They have primary operations status
between 1900 and 2000 KC's and coprimary with amateurs between 1800 and
1900 KC's.
Basically Uncle Sam slipped these beacons into our spectrum, right
under our noses, after LORAN A was decommissioned.
In reality most of the driftnet beacons are probably unlicensed and
illegal, once again like VHF and 2 MC marine operations. Like T.I.S.
stations, the driftnet buoys can have a suprisingly long transmission
range, wish I had their grounplane!
73, Thom
P.S. One thing I forgot to mention in my message above...
Beacons operating in international waters don't require licensing and
many of the beacons belong to foreign commercial fishing interests. I do
find these beacons annoying, especially below 1840KC's.
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