International Beacon Project

The first beacon was put into operation in 1979 using the call sign {{sc|WB6ZNL}}. It transmitted a 1 minute-long beacon every 10 minutes on 14.1 MHz using custom built transmitter and controller hardware. The signal consisted of the beacon's call sign transmitted in Morse code at 100 watts, four 9 second long dashes, each at 100 watts, 10 watts, 1 watt, and 0.1 watt, followed by sign-out at 100 watts.{{cite web |last=Jennings |first=Peter ({{sc|VE3SUN}}) |title=Early history |series=International Beacon Project |website=Northern California DX Foundation (ncdxf.org) |lang=en |url=http://www.ncdxf.org/beacon/earlyhistory.html |access-date=2017-03-17}}

Northern California DX Foundation and seven partnering organizations from the United States, Finland, Portugal, Israel, Japan, and Argentina operated the first iteration of the beacon network. Due to difficulties encountered in building beacon hardware, each site used a Kenwood TS-120 transceiver keyed and controlled by a custom built beacon controller. The network operated on 14.1 MHz and the beacon format remained unchanged.

In 1995, work began to improve the existing beacon network, so it could operate on 5 designated frequencies on the high frequency band. The new beacon network used Kenwood TS-50 transceivers keyed and controlled by an upgraded beacon controller unit. The number of partner organizations were expanded to 18 and the new 10 second beacon format was adopted.

Beyond helping amateur radio operators better understand HF radio propagation the project has aided scientists in better understanding the earths ionosphere,

{{cite journal

|last1=Frissell |first1=N.A. |last2=Miller |first2=E.S.

|last3=Kaeppler |first3=S.R. |last4=Ceglia |first4=F.

|last5=Pascoe |first5=D. |last6=Sinanis |first6=N.

|last7=Smith |first7=P. |last8=Williams |first8=R.

|last9=Shovkoplyas |first9=A. |display-authors=6

|year=2014

|title=Ionospheric sounding using real-time amateur radio reporting networks

|journal=Space Weather

|volume=12 |issue=12 |pages=651–656

|doi=10.1002/2014SW001132 |s2cid=53355527

|lang=en

}}

improved prediction models,

{{cite journal

|last1=Tshisaphungo |first1=Mpho |last2=McKinnell |first2=Lee-Anne

|last3=Magnus |first3=Lindsay |last4=Habarulema |first4=John Bosco

|year=2011

|title=An attempt to validate HF propagation prediction conditions over sub-Saharan Africa

|journal=Space Weather

|volume=9 |issue=8 |at=000643

|doi=10.1029/2010SW000643 |doi-access=free

|s2cid=118626040

|quote=HF propagation over Africa

|lang=en

}}

and aided in radio direction finding.

{{cite thesis

|first=Petrus Johannes |last=Coetzee

|year=2018

|title=Determining the electromagnetic constants of ground and analyzing HF propagation with the aid of a modern interferometric direction finder

|degree=Ph.D.

|place=Pretoria, South Africa

|publisher=University of Pretoria

|hdl=2263/70554

|url=https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/70554

|lang=en

}}

The beacons transmit around the clock on the frequencies{{cite web |last=Jennings |first=Peter ({{sc|VE3SUN}}) |title=Transmission schedule |series=International Beacon Project |website=Northern California DX Foundation (ncdxf.org) |lang=en |url=http://www.ncdxf.org/beacon/ |access-date=2017-03-17}}

{{div col begin|colwidth=8em|small=no}}

: 14.100 MHz

: 18.110 MHz

: 21.150 MHz

: 24.930 MHz

: 28.200 MHz

{{div col end}}

Each beacon transmits its signal once on each frequency, in sequence from low (14.100 MHz) to high (28.200 MHz), followed by a 130 second pause during which beacons at other sites transmit in turn on the same frequencies, after which the cycle repeats. Each transmission is 10 second-long, and consists of the call sign of the beacon transmitted at 22 words per minute ({{sc|WPM}}) followed by four dashes. The call sign and the first dash is transmitted at 100 watts of power. Subsequent three dashes are transmitted at 10 watts, 1 watt, and 0.1 watt respectively.

All beacon transmissions are coordinated using GPS time. As such, at a given frequency, all 18 beacons transmit in succession once every 3 minutes.

Beacons transmit using commercial HF transceivers (Kenwood TS-50 or Icom IC-7200) keyed and coordinated by a purpose-built, hardware beacon controller.

The International Beacon Project operates the following beacons as of January 2024.{{cite web |last=Jennings |first=Peter ({{sc|VE3SUN}}) |title=Locations and information |url=http://www.ncdxf.org/beacon/beaconlocations.html |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=Northern California DX Foundation (ncdxf.org) |series=International Beacon Project |lang=en}}

:

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Category:Radio frequency propagation

Category:Beacons