Topband: Mystery 160 meter cw beacons.

Tom Rauch W8JI@contesting.com
Mon, 5 Apr 1999 08:25:29 -0400


> I also hear a continuous beacon on 1.810 MHZ that sends something similar
> to VIAIT and it sounds similar to cw sent with a bug.

NDB markers at airports operate below the AM BC band. One 
common transmitter style uses two carrier oscillators, one for the 
carrier and one for the tone.

You can sometimes hear the main oscillator disappear when the 
tone oscillator comes on. That causes an "image" of the actual 
CW.

As I translate VIAIT to an image, I get BCK (the T is really a long 
space before the ID repeats). BCK is listed as 362 kHz, so the 5th 
harmonic carrier would come out to 1810. The location is Black 
River Falls, WI. 

If you tune about 5 kHz higher, you might hear the actual ID and 
not the reverse image.   


73, Tom W8JI
w8ji@contesting.com


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