CBLA: A CALL TO ARMS!

Dave AA7EE alerted us to this attack.  Please follow-up by posting reception reports (and triangulations!) in the comments below.  Dave writes:  

Recently, an unlicensed beacon (for which read pirate) has turned up on 3579 KHz. It seems to be located somewhere in the Western US, in the tradition of unlicensed HF beacons dating back to the late 80's that were solar-powered, and located in remote areas of the Southwestern deserts. The very first ones were a cluster of beacons around 4096 KHz (a frequency for which crystals were cheaply and easily available).

Anyway, I am equal parts intrigued and miffed by this latest clandestine operation. Intrigued because of the mystery surrounding all such clandestine operations. Where is it? What does it look like? Who built it, and why? I'm also miffed because, well, dagnabbit - it's on our turf!

It can be heard nightly after dark in the West, on both the KFS and KPH SDR's, in Half Moon Bay and Point Reyes respectively. It sends a series of 22 dits, then the call letters KOK, then more dits.

This is an outrage, a travesty, and a direct assault on the sovereignty of all self-respecting CBLA recruits! I call on all denizens of colorburst land to dust off their Michigan Mighty Mites and other plucky little transmitters, and launch the loud, raucous battle cries of  CQ, CQ, CQ into the ether. We shall fight them on the airwaves, we shall fight them in our radio shacks while drinking hot chocolate, winding toroids, and reading QST. We shall go on to the end. We shall never surrender!

I'm telling you Bill, when the very foundations of our existence are threatened, there is nothing that a colorburst crystal and half a watt from a 2N3053 transistor can't achieve. By golly, we can do this.

Your obedient colorburst servant,

Dave

AA7EE

More Inspiring Mail! Another "First Ever Receiver was Homebrew"

Frank's Lowfer Beacon Receiver

It was great to hear from someone else who, like Scott KQ4AOP, heard his very first signals on a homebrew receiver.  That is a really wonderful way to start.  Frank's first receiver was built around the NE602 chip.  I had trouble understanding this IC but I finally cracked the code: 

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2021/11/how-to-understand-ne-602-and-gilbert.html 

The picture that Frank sent is of a more recent project, this one a Lowfer receiver that picks up signals from beacons. 

-------------------------

Hello Bill, 

I just wanted to message you and tell you I really enjoyed your book Soldersmoke. I've been listening to the podcast as well.  On the latest one you mentioned a fellow who heard his first ham radio signals on a homebrew receiver, and that's how it was for me as well! There were lots of articles about using  the NE602 in the electronics magazines back in the day. I put one of the circuits together and it worked pretty smoothly... I eventually got my ham radio licence (KC8JJL) sometime in the 90's. The first time I met a ham was when I showed up to take the test!  

I don't do much transmitting these days but I still love to listen and tinker.  Here's a picture of a direct conversion LF receiver I put together... It uses an NE602 and is varactor tuned. It only covers from around 300Khz to just over 400khz  but there are still a few beacons I can hear in MI and WI. 

Frank James

The NCDXF/IARU Beacons (very useful website)

 

So there I was, innocently checking the lower end of the tuning range on my now 17 meter SSB Barebones Barbados W4OP receiver.  I had it tuned to the bottom of the 17 meter phone band.  All of a sudden I hear YV5B in CW.  It was obviously a beacon transmission. 

I had forgotten about these beacons.  Some quick Googling brought me to a very up-dated web site: 

https://www.ncdxf.org/beacon/

The site shows exactly which station is transmitting at any given moment.  There is also a very handy map display giving beam headings and distance from your location.  

So far, I'm only hearing YV5B and VE8AT.  I hope to hear more once the Coronal Mass Ejection is behind us. 

Check it out.  Leave your receiver on 18.110 MHz.  Let us know what you are hearing.  

Three cheers for the NCDXF and the IARU! 

Please Listen for Dave AA7EE's New "Boris Beacon"

https://aa7ee.wordpress.com/2019/01/03/putting-the-hifer-brs-boris-beacon-on-the-air-finally/

From Dave's blog: 

The beacon sends the letters “BRS” at 10wpm, with a break of 3 or 4 seconds between the end of one transmission and the beginning of the next, with a mighty power to the dipole of about 1mW. The frequency is a nominal 13556.9KHz (13.5569MHz), which varies either way by a few tens of Hz, depending on the outside ambient temperature. I will be overjoyed if anyone, anywhere hears it! There is no battery, so it transmits during daylight hours only. It comes on about half an hour after local sunrise, and goes off about half an hour before local sunset. I’ll update this with more accurate information, as I observe the on and off times over the next few days.
---------------
AA7EE is in Oakland California.  His cat is named SPRAT.  Please send him a report (and if possible a recording) if you hear his beacon. 

Swedish Michigan Mighty Mite Beacon Project

sTef DL1FDF/VY1QRP alerted us to this multi-band Michigan Mighty Mite beacon project out of Sweden. They certainly have some fine looking rigs! 

Check out the reports:
http://www.radiorud.se/fyren.php

Message in a Bottle -- Beacon in a Bottle

Wow.  Very cool.  Don't get hung up on the legalities or the environmental consequences.  Just enjoy the simplicity and the technique.   All the details are on this very nice Italian site.  Google will translate it for you, but the pictures and the schematic tell most of the story.  Bravi!   

http://air-radiorama.blogspot.it/

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

SolderSmoke Podcast #154

SolderSmoke Podcast 154 is available for download!

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke154.mp3

August 11, 2013

-- Alligators!  Real Alligators! (see picture below -- look closely)

-- Ten meter beacon project (with Arduino and Reverse Beacon Network)

-- Telescope repair:  Chap Stick as lubricant, and the perils of macular pucker!
 
-- HW-101 saved from cannibalism!
 
-- The Wonders of WSPR and our need for instant feedback and gratification.

-- QST Review of SolderSmoke, The Book.
 
-- MAILBAG

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

A Visit to the Arduino Factory (video)

Named for an Italian bar, produced by cool people in Ivrea who wield soldering irons and wear T-shirts that say "Make it Simple."  You gotta love Arduino! 

Today I will finish connecting my Arduino Uno to my Doug Demaw Lil' Slugger 10 Beacon rig.  Code (computer code!) by K6HX. 

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Paddle Output Arduino Keyer Kludge (video)

Ooops -- I got my keyer terminology wrong in this video.   The K1EL keyer just needs a "paddle keyer" input, not an iambic keyer.   One line is brought to ground for dots, another for dashes. (With an iambic keyer, if you make both contacts at the same time you get a string of alternating dots and dashes.)  My homebrew cootie keyer did the job, but I wasn't very proficient, hence the need for this digital kludge. I also got the name of the Arduino guru wrong: he is Massimo Banzi.  Mi dispiace Massimo.   


Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Adventures with Small Computers

 
I've succumbed to the lure of the tiny computers and microprocessors.  This weekend I was playing with the Arduino that I bought (supposedly) for Billy.   You see, I have a little microprocessor-based keyer in my ten meter beacon rig (Demaw's "Lil'Slugger") .   It works fine once you get the desired Morse sequence into it, but getting that done is difficult and frustrating for someone (like me) unaccustomed to an iambic keyer.   So I was thinking that this would be easier just to replace the keyer with  an Arduino.  I was right.    With some help and advice from Billy, I got the Arduino going, and got the little LED blinking.   Then I took some code from Mark K6HX, modified it for my call-sign, and loaded it into the Arduino.  No problem at all.  Kind of fun.  And it opens your eyes to all the possible applications of this little board. 
 
Unfortunately, in the course of fooling around with the interface between the board and my rig I think I did damage to my Arduino.  I managed to blow out the blinking (pin 13) LED on the board.  I could live without that, but now the ICs get very hot (especially the little surface mount chip just below the 16 MHz crystal).   Anyone hope of fixing this?  (I've already ordered a replacement board,  but I feel guilty about this.)
 
Here's a good article describing the pros and cons of Arduino, Raspberry Pi and Beagle Bone:
 
http://blog.makezine.com/2013/04/15/arduino-uno-vs-beaglebone-vs-raspberry-pi/ 

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

The Raspberry e-Bay Multi-Mode Beacon of M0XPD

From: Paul Darlington 
Subject: Multi-mode QRSS beacon on the Raspberry Pi
To: "Bill Meara" 
Date: Sunday, January 20, 2013, 8:32 AM

Hi Bill

Inspired by recent comment on your SolderSmoke blog, I got myself a DDS module from eBay.

Today I lashed it up to my new Raspberry Pi and now have CW and Hellschreiber pumping out on 40m.

I hope others will forgive my greedy use of the spectrum in transmitting "m0xpd :- Raspberry Pi" in Hellschreiber.

The story is here: http://m0xpd.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/multi-mode-beacon-on-rpi.html

73 de Paul, m0xpd

http://m0xpd.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/multi-mode-beacon-on-rpi.html

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Messaging ET (METI), and Silicon-based Life Forms

My fellow beacon fans will like this one. The ultimate (REALLY ultimate) beacon! http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21236-lets-build-a-beacon-to-tell-aliens-who-we-were.html?page=1

And then there is this article about silicon-based life forms. (At first I thought they were talking about us!) http://www.universetoday.com/91449/why-silicon-based-aliens-would-rather-eat-our-cities-than-us-thoughts-on-non-carbon-astrobiology/

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

A confession

Well, I didn't actually do it, but I thought about it. As the date of our departure from Italy approached, I was -- as readers and listeners will remember -- getting deeper and deeper into minimalist QRSS beacons. During the final weeks I was running my 15 mW Hans Summers-inspired varactor-modulated FSK transmitter from our country location up in the Sabine Hills. I had it running off one of my Volkswagen solar panels. I knew that the owner of the olive grove wouldn't mind if I left my nearly-invisible doublet antenna in the trees... You guys see where I was going with this. I came close to leaving that thing on the air. Sometimes I kind of wish I had. It would have been fun. But the QRSS beacons already seemed to be pushing the regulatory envelope a bit, so the solar panel and the beacon board went into the shipping container. I hope they will soon be radiating from Northern Virginia...

All OK here. We are getting settled. Our stuff should be arriving in the USA next week. We may have a new podcast out by early September.

We are still in a temporary apartment. This week Billy and I visited the local hardware store and got some very thin magnet wire. I have about 50 feet of it going from the balcony to a tree. As I type I'm listening to SSB net activity on 40 meters with my little Sony portable receiver. Man, that recent Coronal Mass Ejection really seems to have messed up propagation. But hopefully it is an indication that Ole' Sol is coming back to life.

OH NO! UVB-76 Goes Off the Air! Duck and Cover!

From Wikipedia:

UVB-76 is the callsign of a shortwave radio station that usually broadcasts on the frequency 4625 kHz (AM full carrier). It's known among radio listeners by the nickname The Buzzer. It features a short, monotonous buzz tone (help·info), repeating at a rate of approximately 25 tones per minute, for 24 hours per day. The station has been observed since around 1982.^[1] On rare occasions, the buzzer signal is interrupted and a voice transmission in Russian takes place. Only three to four such events have been noted. Despite much speculation, the actual purpose of this station remains unknown. On June 5, 2010, UVB-76 stopped transmission suddenly, the first time there is no signal received from UVB-76 since 1982. ^[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UVB-76

WANTED: MEPT Grabbers in S. America, Africa, Asia

Dear Bill,

It Hurts!!.... You have abandoned us visual Beacon Anarchists for the Instant gratification of the WSPR crowd.

Hey, To refresh your memory, Your the one that got me started in this Visual MEPT World. I listened to your podcast and ordered some 10.140 Mhz Crystals and built my Model 1 MEPT transmitter. After that I was hooked. It has gone on to a model 2 and Now started on a DDS driven Model 3 which is all band and right now is crying out for someone to see it at 160 mW. It has made it last week to VK7ZL in Tasmania 8455 miles and ZL2IK in New Zealand 6917 miles. So, as you can see, I have been busy. One of the really extarodinary things is that we are doing this on 40 meters at 7,104,800 Hz. What would really help is to enlist some more monitoring stations with ARGO Spectrum Analyzers on their computers LISTENING. They are sorely needed in South America, Africa, India and the Far East. I have the belief that my signal at 160mW on 7,104,800Hz can be copied in all of those areas at different times of the day, almost every day. The reason it isn't is there is nobody listening and my little FSKCW signal
just keeps looking for a receiver to hear it.

My model 3 transmitter is a thing of beauty. It can work all bands from 160 to 10 meters. It is completely under the control of an Ardunio processor (A great product of Italy). It controls the frequency, the amount of frequency shift, and the CW keying. It is not quite ready for prime time yet. But work is being done on the controlling software and one of these days, It will be done. Then the visual guys will not be chained by a crystal to determine their frequency. They will merely command their Ardunio to control their Direct Digital Synthesizer to the desired frequency, select the desired mode of transmission and hook up the antenna.

So, Please Mr Bill, Don't abandon us visual MEPT beacon guys. We really need your voice and talents to keep the airways of our 100 Hz of spectrum alive and vibrant. You could hang an extra wire out the window and do both!

73 Dave
David R. Hassall WA5DJJ
Website: http://www.zianet.com/dhassall/

Tech Details on ET's "Phone Home" Beacon Rig

Mark "MOJ" Johnson, W8MOJ, sent me a really amazing 73 Magazine article. It is from the APRIL 1983 issue. (The month of publication set off my April-fool alert alarm, but this is for real.) When Steven Spielberg was making ET, the producers contacted Bell Labs and asked for help in designing the rig that ET would use to phone home. A ham, Henry Feinberg, K2SSQ, got the job. In the article, Henry wrote: "What Spielberg wanted was a beacon transmitter, something to say, 'Here I am, Come and get me!' I reasoned that three main parts wee needed for a basic beacon: a means of producing a message, a programmer to repeat the message, and a way of transmitting the signal into outer space."

Later, in describing the keying device, Henry wrote: " The surface of the saw blade was coated with several layers of spray paint, which served as insulation, preventing the bobby pins from contacting the metal blade. The message was programmed on the blade by carefully etching through the paint. "

OK, that does it. Time for me to go back to the Trastevere flea market to pick up some more cheap clock drives... and maybe some circular saw blades. I need to get going on my mechanical QRSS one-transistor becaon project.

Balloon! Project Blue Horizon Reaches Mid-Atlantic

Wow, that's an exciting track. The intrepid radio amateurs at Cornell University have a balloon up over the mid-Atlantic. It is approaching my old stomping grounds in the Azores. Beacons are onboard and reports are requested. Here are some more details:

Balloon Launch - Assist in Tracking

The NS3 group of Cornell University engineering graduate students will launch PBH-9 (Project Blue Horizon) from Lockheed Martin in Owego NY on Sunday evening, 19 Apr 09, at approximately 21:00 EDT (Monday, 20 Apr 09, 01:00UT)

This ARHAB flight (Amateur Radio High Altitude Ballooning) will ascend and then float for up to 50-hours while drifting to the east.

The payload will include a KC2TUA-8 144.390 APRS beacon
(track via (http://findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=KC2TUA-8)
and HF CW position report and telemetry downlinks on 7.104MHz and 10.148MHz.

The NS3 PBH-9 team requests distant ground stations receive and report HF telemetry via N2XE@arrl.net including reception UT date and time.

Distant receiving stations are welcome to also submit HF
reception reports to W0RPK@amsat.org for the ARHAB <50mhz href="http://showcase.netins.net/web/wallio/ARHABrecords.htm" target="_blank">http://showcase.netins.net/web/wallio/ARHABrecords.htm.

Additional PBH-9 information including HF telemetry transmit schedule and format is available via
http://showcase.netins.net/web/wallio/ARHABlaunchannouncements.htm.

Flight updates are available from the NS3 PBH-9 team
via http://twitter.com/pbh3.

The QRSS Calibration Problem: A Proposal

Eldon's effort to be seen by the 30 meter online grabbers (see below) reminded me of the big problem I faced when I first built my QRSS beacon: getting my signal into the very narrow (100 Hz wide) QRSS frequency band. If you think crystal control will solve this problem, think again: Almost all of us are using crystal-controlled transmitters, but circuit and component variations can easily put your signal far outside the freq range that the grabbers are watching.

I was able to get into the band because I was able to find a conventional CW beacon fairly close in frequency to the QRSS band. I used IK3NWX on 10.141800 MHz. Knowing the frequency of this beacon (it was avalable on the web), I used the ARGO and Spectran soundcard programs to put my sigs where I wanted them to be. IK3NWX was useful because it was so close (within 2 Khz) to the QRSS band -- I was able to put both the NWX signal, and my target freq on the screen. Later, I built my "DaVinci Code" reference oscillator -- it serves as a freq reference that I can use (again, with Spectran) to get back in the band after working on my transmitter (for those times in which I can't hear IK3NWX).

It seems like a lot of guys in the US and Canada are now getting into QRSS. Many may face the same frequency calibration problem. Are the frequency readouts of the ubiquitous Kenwood/Icom/Yaesu rigs accurate enough to help? Do they go down to the tens of hertz range? I suspect they do not.

What new QRSS ops in the U.S. and Canada might need is the North American equivalent of IK3NWX's beacon. It should probably be fairly high powered (but 5 watts would probably do the trick). Conventional CW would be better than QRSS (it needs to be heard). The frequency should be outside but within 1-2 kHz of the upper or lower QRSS band edge. A station out in the Great Plains would probably be able to serve the large ham populations of both coasts. Perhaps we could arrange for the calibration beacon to be on at certain times (daytime on the weekends?). Of course, the key would be to employ a station with very accurate frequency measurement ability (down to 1 Hz) and a highly stable signal.

What do you guys think?

N1VF's MIT Balloon Beacon Transmitter

1.5 watts out on 30 meters with total cost of 25 dollars. Here is the transmitter that Ben, N1VF, and friends are using for balloon operations.
For more details see: http://web.mit.edu/bgelb/www/balloon/hfbeacon/

Beacon Rig I0/N2CQR 28.240 MHz 1 Watt

Just a few shots of my new beacon rig. The first shows the Beacon Box on the shelf above the HW-8, attached to the battery. I've been running the beacon on solar power, using my two Volkswagen panels.

Here's a look under the hood: The larger board is a crystal controlled 1 watt transmitter (Dour DeMaw's ("Lil' Slugger"). The smaller board is K1EL's amazing keyer. I've left space for a 30 meter QRPp QRSS transmitter.

Finally, here is the "Sideswiper" aka "Cootie Keyer" I threw together in order to get my beacon message into the keyer. I discovered that I need a lot of practice on horizontal CW!