[CQ-Contest] "Reverse Beacon" Progress Report

[Pete Smith]

In the last 48 hours, we have had 8 "reverse beacons" online, using various 
broadband SDR receivers and VE3NEA's CW Skimmer software to sample what 
stations are being heard on various bands at their QTHs.  Many people have 
reported sending CQ with their antennas pointed in the appropriate 
direction and seeing themselves "spotted" with seconds.  If you would like 
to see what spots are coming in now, go to http://skimmer.dxwatch.com .  If 
you would like to see which "reverse beacons" are active and which bands 
they are listening on, go to http://skimmer.dxwatch.com/skimmers.php

In the meantime, we are still looking actively for additional stations to 
fill in our geographic distribution.  The US east coast, western Europe and 
Brazil are all represented on one band or another, but we need additional 
bands covered everywhere, and additional sites in East Asia, the western 
United States, Australia/New Zealand, and Russia.  If you'd like to join 
us, or just try it out, all you need is a broadband SDR receiver of some 
sort (a US$13 SoftRock works just fine), a trial copy of the CW Skimmer 
software, and a small freeware application called "the aggregator", 
available for download at 
http://skimmer.dxwatch.com/downloads/skimmer_aggregator.zip

All you need to do is set up and run CW Skimmer, fill in your callsign and 
grid square, and then run the aggregator.  It will take care of the details 
of forwarding your spots to the hub server, at http://skimmer.dxwatch.com 
.  We are working on some additional tutorials and a FAQ for the site, but 
in the meantime, why not try it - it's fun!

73, Pete N4ZR