Dear David, Dave, Alan, LF Group,
My experience is that some stations are restricted to frequencies around
502kHz due to crystal control being used - there is relatively little going
on nearer the band edges. Most of the beacon-type signals I have heard (or
been responsible for...) were within the range 503 - 504kHz, and have not
received much flak. I usually put in a CW identifier in case anyone is
wondering who is "tuning up", but I have never yet had any enquiries from
people not already active on the band. There is some QRM near the top of
the band from harmonics of the the EI 252kHz broadcast signal that may
affect stations further west, but it is pretty weak at my QTH
Personally I would be happy to see more beacon signals, especially from
further afield. It is very useful to have beacons if you want to investigate
propagation, especially on 500kHz where there are few utility-type signals
that can serve as ad-hoc beacons, and few amateurs actually equipped to
operate on the band. We don't know much about propagation on 500kHz yet -
The DI beacons and SM6BHZ give us some targets, but leave a lot of empty
gaps in coverage.
At the moment, there are few 500kHz stations, and so a lot of the time,
there just are no signals on the band. Maybe one day it will be like a small
part of 40m, but I think it will be a while before we have to worry that
there are too many signals on the band. A beacon means there is some sort of
an amateur radio presence, without making excessive demands on the
operator's time. If you are just starting out on 500k and struggling to set
up a receiving system, it is invaluable to actually have a real signal to
listen for. For those who are not familiiar with QRSS, it is something
potentially new and interesting, and not that hard to find out about.
BTW - reading the "conditions and limitations" part of the new "lifetime"
licence, it says in the section on station identification that the station
must be identified by its callsign, but makes no reference to a CW
identifier, or Morse code at all. So it looks like this requirement has
dissapeared along with mandatory Morse.
Cheers, Jim Moritz
73 de M0BMU
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