Topband: 160 Beacons

[Tom Rauch]

As a thought....to be useful a beacon really has to run at least a few
hundred watts to a reasonable antenna. It needs to be reasonably comparable
to average stations, otherwise DX stations can't really use it to monitor
conditions.

The OK1EV beacon, for example, is largely useless here. The only time I hear
it is when all the Europeans are just booming in. If the band isn't totally
wide open even for weak signals, I can't hear it. That makes it useless over
here.

160 and other low bands really need a worldwide system of timed beacons with
reasonable antennas and power. I think low bands need this far more than 20
meters does!

73 Tom