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Title: My 4 mW 22 Meter DX Post by: N4LTA on June 04, 2012, 08:20:35 PM My HIFER beacon USC was received in VK land last week and positively IDed. It was running 4 mW to a 20 meter dipole 18 feet high.
Normally it transmits with a 1/4 wave ground plane vertical up about 30 feet but I changed the keying style to FSK and also moved the frequency and built another board. I shut down the normal beacon and hooked the test board for the new one to the low 20 meter dipole and left town. While I was out of town, I checked the reports from Australia and saw that the new beacon had been received and positively ID. It uses FSK QRSS 3 but still that is a long haul for 4 MW through 40 feet of RG 58 to a low dipole. Below is a photo of the beacon as it is operating temporarily on the bench. I plane to put it in an oven for stability and roof mount it to the ground plane next week for a permanent installation. The beacon uses a PIC 509 8 pin processor and an Epson programmable oscillator. (http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt286/n4lta/007.jpg) Pat N4LTA Title: Re: My 4 mW 22 Meter DX Post by: VK7ZL on June 04, 2012, 09:57:59 PM Hi Pat
I have been monitoring QRSS on 30M for quite some time but local QRM has become a problem on that band so I can switch to the 22M and listen for you. What is your QRG? My grabber is at: http://www.users.on.net/~bobw/lf/ Bob Title: Re: My 4 mW 22 Meter DX Post by: N4LTA on June 04, 2012, 10:05:42 PM I am very close to 13,555,400 - my frequency counter reads 409 and 412 but it may be a 12 -15 Hz high.
Since is is not permanently mounted - I have not made a close measurement. I just got a surplus rubidium oscillator and had it checked out but have not calibrated my counters yet. I use a LM317L regulator to vary the Vcc on the Epson chip a few tenths of a volt to get the shift. I'll keep an eye on your grabber. Pat N4LTA Title: Re: My 4 mW 22 Meter DX Post by: KG4NEL on June 06, 2012, 03:52:28 PM Pretty darned cool! :) AMfone - Dedicated to Amplitude Modulation on the Amateur Radio Bands
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