26-06-2018, 02:04 PM
VK5BC wrote: "With the number of VHF/UHF beacons in VK they could all easily fit into a 200Hz slot in our VHF/UHF band allocations."
Yes, they could, but how would you cope if such a beacon was installed near your QTH and happened to be within your antenna's beam width in a direction of interest? That's a serious issue in our patch of VK3, with the Mt. Anakie 2 & 70 beacons being pretty close to Geelong and Melbourne. Fortunately, they are very clean transmitters and they have directional beams pointing away from much of the local populations. There are those among us who would advocate spreading out the beacons over a much greater part of each band, well away from the weak-signal operating segments.
Also, something every beacon operator soon learns is that it's impossible to please everyone. Some people want keyed carrier. Others want CW and lots of it. Still others want as long a key-down period as possible. Then there's the digital mode brigade. Me, I'm just happy there are those who have the wherewithal to construct, install and maintain beacons.
Chas
VK3PY
Yes, they could, but how would you cope if such a beacon was installed near your QTH and happened to be within your antenna's beam width in a direction of interest? That's a serious issue in our patch of VK3, with the Mt. Anakie 2 & 70 beacons being pretty close to Geelong and Melbourne. Fortunately, they are very clean transmitters and they have directional beams pointing away from much of the local populations. There are those among us who would advocate spreading out the beacons over a much greater part of each band, well away from the weak-signal operating segments.
Also, something every beacon operator soon learns is that it's impossible to please everyone. Some people want keyed carrier. Others want CW and lots of it. Still others want as long a key-down period as possible. Then there's the digital mode brigade. Me, I'm just happy there are those who have the wherewithal to construct, install and maintain beacons.
Chas
VK3PY