Building Beacons for 23 cm, 13 cm, and 6 cm

摘要

The heart of the beacons is the Kuhne Electronics of Germany "Bakensenders" for each band. Each was ordered with the frequency specified . Each uses F1 FSK keying by classic "make and brake" keying which promotes better short term stability. The frequency will change a few KHzs over time as the crystal ages. W3MMV volunteered to fabricate the horizontally polarized Alfred Slot antenna for 23 cm from "scratch" then the 6 cm 8 slot antenna for 5.76 GHz as did K3VDB for the 13 cm circularly polarized Lindenblad antenna. The 10 GHz experience told us that we wanted to use a WW2R keyer with telemetryrnso we could remotely monitor the health of each beacon which is keyed by the same keyer for 23 and 13 cm and another keyer for 5.76 GHz as that give us more telemetry positions. We use two blowers both for air flow and dependability turned on and off by a thermostat set to about 80 degrees. All is mounted in a waterproof box designed for the electrical trade to house the 3 beacons. A single coax cable feeds 12 VDC to the beacons. The 23 cm beacon has an output power of 1.5 watts, the 2401 MHz beacon has 1100 mw and the 6 cm (5.76 GHz) has 210 mw.