Topband: 160 Beacons?Resource?

[Tom Rauch]

> Any details re  the following beacons(?) : 1818.9 3ZCU 0445Z; 3ZDA 1829
0100Z and BHBEE  1831.1 0400Z? Any idea of QTH's or what they are for? Can
someone pass along a good resource for beacon or other 'authorized'
international  and domestic  signal sources for 160? I've tried most of the
net resources with little luck. Tnx, Don Durk,  ka1dwx/4

Don,

Beacons that repeat a "callsign" and then put out a carrier (generally in a
cycle of three repeats) with long pauses between repeats are fishing markers
for buoys either for long lines or illegal drift nets. You won't find
callsign Internet references because they are unlicensed. They are
meaningless for propagation because they get moved around and also run very
low power to small antennas.

If you hear a callsign repeating ( sometimes sending just nonsense code)
without the long pause before repeating it is most likely a harmonic of an
airport NDB (non-directional beacon) below the AM BC band. In this case you
could hear the identifier or a negative of the identifier.

There are some intentional digital signals on 160 from New Zealand, Europe
and Africa. Europe has digital transmitters on about 1851, and N. Africa has
one on 1803.5. The NZ digital signals are on about 1816.5 and 1818.5. The NZ
signals appear to have become much less reliable in predicting signals from
ZL than they were a few years ago.

There is also a Europe CW beacon OK1EV that is almost useless (because it is
low power) up around on 1841 or 1845, I forget where exactly. It is an
annoyance rather than useful for anything.

73 Tom