I have a wire dipole antenna mounted between two maple trees in my
yard.

This allows me to pick up The BBC World Service on 5975 VERY loud,
along with the Atomic Clock on 10000, and 5000.

However I can't seem to pick up any of the NCDXF/IARU Beacons.

http://www.ncdxf.org/beacons.html

I don't know if it is my antenna, interference, the atmosphere, or a
combination that is giving me trouble.

Can anybody else pick these up?

Thanks.

Walter wrote:
I have a wire dipole antenna mounted between two maple trees in my
This allows me to pick up The BBC World Service on 5975 VERY loud,
along with the Atomic Clock on 10000, and 5000.
However I can't seem to pick up any of the NCDXF/IARU Beacons.

The last time I noticed, a couple of days ago, all the beacons
seemed to be working OK. Of course, propagation has been pretty
bad lately. You probably know this, but these are CW beacons,
so you'll need to tune a little differently than you do for an
AM station--say, set your receiver to USB mode and tune 700Hz
below the listed frequency. It's rare that I can't hear at least
a few of the beacons on 20 and 17 meters, if I camp on the frequency
and listen for two or three cycles (I think that's 3 minutes to
each cycle.) HTH!

_______________________________________________
Ken Kuzenski AC4RD kuzen001 at acpub .duke .edu
_______________________________________________
All disclaimers apply, see? www.duke.edu/~kuzen001

Walter wrote:
I have a wire dipole antenna mounted between two maple trees in my
This allows me to pick up The BBC World Service on 5975 VERY loud,
along with the Atomic Clock on 10000, and 5000.
However I can't seem to pick up any of the NCDXF/IARU Beacons.

The last time I noticed, a couple of days ago, all the beacons
seemed to be working OK. Of course, propagation has been pretty
bad lately. You probably know this, but these are CW beacons,
so you'll need to tune a little differently than you do for an
AM station--say, set your receiver to USB mode and tune 700Hz
below the listed frequency. It's rare that I can't hear at least
a few of the beacons on 20 and 17 meters, if I camp on the frequency
and listen for two or three cycles (I think that's 3 minutes to
each cycle.) HTH!

_______________________________________________
Ken Kuzenski AC4RD kuzen001 at acpub .duke .edu
_______________________________________________
All disclaimers apply, see? www.duke.edu/~kuzen001

In So Cal on a vertical antenna --- 14.100 -- some beacons heard all OK.
A few on 18.110, but nothing on frequencies above that at the moment.

Wirh solar coditions of SFI: 126 A-index: 16 K-Index: 4

NOT SURPRISING

Signal In The Noise
--------------------------------------------
"Walter" wrote in message
om...
I have a wire dipole antenna mounted between two maple trees in my
yard.

This allows me to pick up The BBC World Service on 5975 VERY loud,
along with the Atomic Clock on 10000, and 5000.

However I can't seem to pick up any of the NCDXF/IARU Beacons.

http://www.ncdxf.org/beacons.html

I don't know if it is my antenna, interference, the atmosphere, or a
combination that is giving me trouble.

Can anybody else pick these up?

Thanks.

In So Cal on a vertical antenna --- 14.100 -- some beacons heard all OK.
A few on 18.110, but nothing on frequencies above that at the moment.

Wirh solar coditions of SFI: 126 A-index: 16 K-Index: 4

NOT SURPRISING

Signal In The Noise
--------------------------------------------
"Walter" wrote in message
om...
I have a wire dipole antenna mounted between two maple trees in my
yard.

This allows me to pick up The BBC World Service on 5975 VERY loud,
along with the Atomic Clock on 10000, and 5000.

However I can't seem to pick up any of the NCDXF/IARU Beacons.

http://www.ncdxf.org/beacons.html

I don't know if it is my antenna, interference, the atmosphere, or a
combination that is giving me trouble.

Can anybody else pick these up?

Thanks.

Hi,

I have a Radio shack Dx-394, it has AM, LSB,USB,CW1, CW2.

I've been using AM, because I didn't see anything on the NCDXF/IARU
website about it being anything but AM. I may have missed it.

So I should use USB, and if it claims 14100, I should tune to 13400?

thanks.


wrote in message ...
Walter wrote:
I have a wire dipole antenna mounted between two maple trees in my
This allows me to pick up The BBC World Service on 5975 VERY loud,
along with the Atomic Clock on 10000, and 5000.
However I can't seem to pick up any of the NCDXF/IARU Beacons.

The last time I noticed, a couple of days ago, all the beacons
seemed to be working OK. Of course, propagation has been pretty
bad lately. You probably know this, but these are CW beacons,
so you'll need to tune a little differently than you do for an
AM station--say, set your receiver to USB mode and tune 700Hz
below the listed frequency. It's rare that I can't hear at least
a few of the beacons on 20 and 17 meters, if I camp on the frequency
and listen for two or three cycles (I think that's 3 minutes to
each cycle.) HTH!

_______________________________________________
Ken Kuzenski AC4RD kuzen001 at acpub .duke .edu
_______________________________________________
All disclaimers apply, see? www.duke.edu/~kuzen001

Hi,

I have a Radio shack Dx-394, it has AM, LSB,USB,CW1, CW2.

I've been using AM, because I didn't see anything on the NCDXF/IARU
website about it being anything but AM. I may have missed it.

So I should use USB, and if it claims 14100, I should tune to 13400?

thanks.


wrote in message ...
Walter wrote:
I have a wire dipole antenna mounted between two maple trees in my
This allows me to pick up The BBC World Service on 5975 VERY loud,
along with the Atomic Clock on 10000, and 5000.
However I can't seem to pick up any of the NCDXF/IARU Beacons.

The last time I noticed, a couple of days ago, all the beacons
seemed to be working OK. Of course, propagation has been pretty
bad lately. You probably know this, but these are CW beacons,
so you'll need to tune a little differently than you do for an
AM station--say, set your receiver to USB mode and tune 700Hz
below the listed frequency. It's rare that I can't hear at least
a few of the beacons on 20 and 17 meters, if I camp on the frequency
and listen for two or three cycles (I think that's 3 minutes to
each cycle.) HTH!

_______________________________________________
Ken Kuzenski AC4RD kuzen001 at acpub .duke .edu
_______________________________________________
All disclaimers apply, see? www.duke.edu/~kuzen001

The beacons ID's are sent in morse code. The entire format is:
The beacons transmit every three minutes, day and night. This table gives
the minute and second of the start of the first transmission within the hour
for each beacon on each frequency. A transmission consists of the callsign
of the beacon sent at 22 words per minute followed by four one-second
dashes. The callsign and the first dash are sent at 100 watts. The remaining
dashes are sent at 10 watts, 1 watt and 100 milliwatts.

See URL:
http://www.ncdxf.org/Beacon/BeaconSchedule.html

Tune to 14.100 MHz

If you can't copy 22 wpm, use BeaconSee Program
http://sapp.telepac.pt/coaa/

And make sure your computer clock is accurate to within a second or less

Programs for setting ur computer clock
http://ac6v.com/opaids.htm#CLOCK
--------------------------------

"Walter" wrote in message
om...
Hi,

I have a Radio shack Dx-394, it has AM, LSB,USB,CW1, CW2.

I've been using AM, because I didn't see anything on the NCDXF/IARU
website about it being anything but AM. I may have missed it.

So I should use USB, and if it claims 14100, I should tune to 13400?

thanks.


wrote in message
...
Walter wrote:
I have a wire dipole antenna mounted between two maple trees in my
This allows me to pick up The BBC World Service on 5975 VERY loud,
along with the Atomic Clock on 10000, and 5000.
However I can't seem to pick up any of the NCDXF/IARU Beacons.

The last time I noticed, a couple of days ago, all the beacons
seemed to be working OK. Of course, propagation has been pretty
bad lately. You probably know this, but these are CW beacons,
so you'll need to tune a little differently than you do for an
AM station--say, set your receiver to USB mode and tune 700Hz
below the listed frequency. It's rare that I can't hear at least
a few of the beacons on 20 and 17 meters, if I camp on the frequency
and listen for two or three cycles (I think that's 3 minutes to
each cycle.) HTH!

_______________________________________________
Ken Kuzenski AC4RD kuzen001 at acpub .duke .edu
_______________________________________________
All disclaimers apply, see? www.duke.edu/~kuzen001

The beacons ID's are sent in morse code. The entire format is:
The beacons transmit every three minutes, day and night. This table gives
the minute and second of the start of the first transmission within the hour
for each beacon on each frequency. A transmission consists of the callsign
of the beacon sent at 22 words per minute followed by four one-second
dashes. The callsign and the first dash are sent at 100 watts. The remaining
dashes are sent at 10 watts, 1 watt and 100 milliwatts.

See URL:
http://www.ncdxf.org/Beacon/BeaconSchedule.html

Tune to 14.100 MHz

If you can't copy 22 wpm, use BeaconSee Program
http://sapp.telepac.pt/coaa/

And make sure your computer clock is accurate to within a second or less

Programs for setting ur computer clock
http://ac6v.com/opaids.htm#CLOCK
--------------------------------

"Walter" wrote in message
om...
Hi,

I have a Radio shack Dx-394, it has AM, LSB,USB,CW1, CW2.

I've been using AM, because I didn't see anything on the NCDXF/IARU
website about it being anything but AM. I may have missed it.

So I should use USB, and if it claims 14100, I should tune to 13400?

thanks.


wrote in message
...
Walter wrote:
I have a wire dipole antenna mounted between two maple trees in my
This allows me to pick up The BBC World Service on 5975 VERY loud,
along with the Atomic Clock on 10000, and 5000.
However I can't seem to pick up any of the NCDXF/IARU Beacons.

The last time I noticed, a couple of days ago, all the beacons
seemed to be working OK. Of course, propagation has been pretty
bad lately. You probably know this, but these are CW beacons,
so you'll need to tune a little differently than you do for an
AM station--say, set your receiver to USB mode and tune 700Hz
below the listed frequency. It's rare that I can't hear at least
a few of the beacons on 20 and 17 meters, if I camp on the frequency
and listen for two or three cycles (I think that's 3 minutes to
each cycle.) HTH!

_______________________________________________
Ken Kuzenski AC4RD kuzen001 at acpub .duke .edu
_______________________________________________
All disclaimers apply, see? www.duke.edu/~kuzen001

Walter wrote:
I have a Radio shack Dx-394, it has AM, LSB,USB,CW1, CW2.
So I should use USB, and if it claims 14100, I should tune to 13400?

It would be (in USB mode) 14099.3 KHz -- but if your receiver
has CW mode, just enable that and tune to 14100 direct! I'm
listening right now and can hear a couple of the 20-meter
beacons weakly in North Carolina, so propagation is not very
good, as has been the case lately. Good luck!
_______________________________________________
Ken Kuzenski AC4RD kuzen001 at acpub .duke .edu
_______________________________________________
All disclaimers apply, see? www.duke.edu/~kuzen001