Beacon Activity on 30m?

Well, I decided to try again to record some of the beacons that are on 30m. I recorded 1 hour of what sounds like white noise starting on July 5 around 18:30 UTC, and then ran it through an FFT and mapped out the frequency ranges that represent 10.14000 to 10.140200 Mhz. Here’s a processed version of the spectrogram:

July 5, 2008, 18:30-19:30 UTC

Strictly speaking, only the lower half of the image is within the beacon band, but I haven’t actually calibrated my FT-817, so it might be off a few Hertz. The signals aren’t strong enough for me to identify any of them, but I might actually be getting something.

Here is the naked, unprocessed spectrogram.

Most people who do this kind of listening use Argo, written by I2PHD, and indeed I would except for one thing: no boxes run Microsoft Windows in my house. Well, that and I am kind of interested in the kind of DSP algorithms that enable us to do this kind of stuff. So, I tinker this stuff together for the Mac/Linux.

Addendum: I left the recorder going when I went out today. Around 0:00 UTC, I recorded the following near hour of the band between 10.140 and 10.140100 Hz. Whoohoo! My first real beacon. Not sure who it is yet though.


First real grab of 30m beacon activity!

Addendum2: Hmmm. Figured it out! It’s WB3ANQ I think. His grid in FM19rc is almost 2450 miles away, using a power level of only 200mw!

Hello Knights,

I have joined in on 30 meters 10.140.095 to 10.140.100 Mhz QPS ref.
200 mW with my SNAKE format
/\/\/\/\ 30 second period as of 1900 UTC

-- 
Larry Putman WB3ANQ
Pasadena, Maryland FM19rc

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