26-06-2018, 04:07 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."
VK3PY Wrote : "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?"
Hi Chas & Brian, If they ran as a true WSPR system, you would not have them TXing all the time for the reason Chas mentioned, you would never hear anything else if you were close, and if there was a good opening it could also cause problems. They would have to run like WSPR does randomly with a predefined time percentage or set up to TX once every 10 mins or predefined TX time.
People looking for a constant carrier may not find this suitable.
If it was a predefined time frame, and people knew when to watch for it, say at the 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 00 min, that could take some guess work out. WSPR also looks like a key down CW signal to the untrained eye and if there was the CW ID at the end it would help to ID.
But if sites were set up GPS locked Geelong could be on 144.490530 for example, and Mt Gambier could be on 144.490550. So with an accurate set up, you can basically identify which site the signal is coming from by its position on the waterfall the moment it begins transmitting.
VK5VF would be on 144.490450, Toowoomba would be 144.490440, Perth 144.490460 etc.
In amongst this home stations can contribute also with their own transmissions and automatic reception reports to the database.
People already running WSPR would then not only have signals from other home stations, but would be able to monitor and report signals coming from the established, well positioned beacon sites like 3RGL 5RSE 5VF etc, 24 hours a day. Where as currently, these beacons are more than likely transmitting CW etc to no one a large % of the time which is a waste. Where as with the WSPR method described they would be useful and reported 24 hours a day by those able to leave rigs monitoring etc. People can then look up the data from anywhere in the world and see whats happening. Sounds a lot more useful to me and a better use of resources.
The good thing about having them all on the one dial frequency is that when there is an opening, your monitoring all the beacons all the time. Not just one beacon on one individual freq. Particularly useful for E openings.
I doubt that anything like this would ever happen, but this is the way that I see that it could work. There could be other ways of doing it too.
This is probably not really what Mike VK2FLR was trying to get from his original post, but its an interesting discussion.
VK3PY Wrote : "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?"
Hi Chas & Brian, If they ran as a true WSPR system, you would not have them TXing all the time for the reason Chas mentioned, you would never hear anything else if you were close, and if there was a good opening it could also cause problems. They would have to run like WSPR does randomly with a predefined time percentage or set up to TX once every 10 mins or predefined TX time.
People looking for a constant carrier may not find this suitable.
If it was a predefined time frame, and people knew when to watch for it, say at the 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 00 min, that could take some guess work out. WSPR also looks like a key down CW signal to the untrained eye and if there was the CW ID at the end it would help to ID.
But if sites were set up GPS locked Geelong could be on 144.490530 for example, and Mt Gambier could be on 144.490550. So with an accurate set up, you can basically identify which site the signal is coming from by its position on the waterfall the moment it begins transmitting.
VK5VF would be on 144.490450, Toowoomba would be 144.490440, Perth 144.490460 etc.
In amongst this home stations can contribute also with their own transmissions and automatic reception reports to the database.
People already running WSPR would then not only have signals from other home stations, but would be able to monitor and report signals coming from the established, well positioned beacon sites like 3RGL 5RSE 5VF etc, 24 hours a day. Where as currently, these beacons are more than likely transmitting CW etc to no one a large % of the time which is a waste. Where as with the WSPR method described they would be useful and reported 24 hours a day by those able to leave rigs monitoring etc. People can then look up the data from anywhere in the world and see whats happening. Sounds a lot more useful to me and a better use of resources.
The good thing about having them all on the one dial frequency is that when there is an opening, your monitoring all the beacons all the time. Not just one beacon on one individual freq. Particularly useful for E openings.
I doubt that anything like this would ever happen, but this is the way that I see that it could work. There could be other ways of doing it too.
This is probably not really what Mike VK2FLR was trying to get from his original post, but its an interesting discussion.