5MHz beacon sounder experiment

摘要

In RadCom, June and July 2005, Andy Talbot, G4JNT, described the design and construction of the GB3RAL, GB3WES, and GB30RK beacons, which have been established on 5290kHz as part of the series of experiments run on the 5MHz spot-frequencies which have been allocated to amateurs until July 2006. These beacons each transmit for one minute every 15 minutes with a sequence of stepped-power signals for 30 seconds followed by a train of pulses for 30 seconds. This article describes the purpose of this pulse train and shows how, with a conventional SSB receiver and some software, reception of this pulse signal can be used to show many of the characteristics of HF propagation at this frequency.