Most of us are familiar with CW beacons such as the ones that transmit 24/7 on 14.1, 18.110, 21.150, 24.930 and 28.200 Mhz. It’s a great tool for spotting band openings. But what if you could send your signal and know within seconds where it’s being heard around the world? Well, believe it or not you can now do that right now, thanks to The Reverse Beacon Network. A growing worldwide network of several dozen stations has married CW skimmer receivers with amateur radio and the Internet. The result is a wonderful new DX tool. You can learn the details at http://www.reversebeacon.net/.
Here’s a quickstart guide to help you send out your first reverse beacon:
1. Go to http://www.reversebeacon.net/dxsd1.php
2. Type your callsign in the “search callsign:” box.
3. Check the band you wish to transmit on and click-on “proceed.”
4. Find a clear spot in the CW band and send “Test de (your call)” for 30 seconds to a minute.
5. About 20 or so seconds into your transmission, a list of stations receiving your signal will start popping up on your computer monitor, complete with signal reports.
In addition to spotting your own signal in near real time, there is also a database of past spots. You can instantly find out what stations, from a given country or zone, have been heard, at what times and on what frequencies. You can also see when you've been spotted, who spotted you, and how loud you were.
But wait, there’s more! In addition to checking out your own signal, you can see what stations any skimmer is receiving in near real time. This is a great propagation tool. For example let’s assume you want check out the current propagation in your part of the world. Here’s what you do:
1. Go to reversebeacon.net and click-on “main.”
2. Click-on “options show/hide” in the right hand margin and mark “show map.”
3. A map will come up and below it is a list of reverse beacon stations online in the left hand column. Click-on the station nearest to you and you will be directed to a list of stations recently heard by that reverse beacon.
For example, CADXA’s own Jack Reed, WA7LNW, has a reverse beacon online from near Zion National Park, UT at an elevation of 5300 feet. Follow the instructions above and Jack’s beacon will show you what’s being heard in our part of the world. For those who want a shortcut worth bookmarking, you can go directly to Jack’s reverse beacon: cwskimmer.wa7lnw.com.
If you’ll pardon the pun, this short description barely skims the surface. Mega congratulations and thank you, Jack for being one of the pioneers of this great new DX tool. The intelligence and creativity of the amateur radio community is a wonderful thing to behold.