This sounds like a really good idea. It should be much easier to establish
receivers in interesting locations than transmitting stations. One small
matter is access to the internet, but I think that could be handled.
If one does this I would suppose that having a 'standard' transmission that
contained location, time, power, emitting station, etc. would allow multiple
receivers to report multiple emitters in real time as well as logging the
reception in case someone wanted to use the data for some sort of
propagation study. There are a number of special modulation modes (WOLF,
etc.) that allow very weak signals to be detected and received. These are in
regular use by the LOWFER folks -- those are the guys that run 1 watt to
antennas that are 45 feet or less in height.
I think that Rick's idea of using the Internet to tell us 'how we are doing'
at the other end is really interesting. One might suppose that you would not
need to set up special 'beacon receiver sites'. We could start by using our
regular stations when we are not operating just to see if the concept is
feasible. I wonder if someone will be interested enough to become a 'project
manager' for something like this. Without some structure it will be just
another interesting idea.
Tod, KØTO
**************** Message from Rick **************************
Another possibility is what I call "reverse beacons":
Set up receivers in various locations to monitor 160
meters and connect them to the internet using a network
such as Echolink or IRLP in receive-only mode. Then
to test propagation, you would send your call and grid
square on the beacon receiver input frequency and see if you can
hear it via your sound card. Kind of like kerchunking
a repeater, or pinging an internet node :-).
Stations could also passively monitor the reverse beacon
and listen for other stations and note their grid squares.
This can provide propagation information. It
is even possible that the beacon could decode CW and
spot successful pings to the DX cluster.
The advantage of this is that it completely sidesteps
the regulatory issue of attended operation and also the
100w power limit. If you're a big gun, you can hit the
beacon with your best shot. It also gets around the problem of
"I'd rather be operating than beaconing".
I can imagine a receiver on the west coast of Europe
connected to several beverages pointed west, to check
for the annual :-) opening to the USA west coast.
Rick N6RK
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