Thanks for the update Dennis. No worries from a purely coordination
perspective. My rule of thumb as coordinator is to not even investigate if a
coordinated beacon is showing up in the longest available RBN (Reverse Beacon
Network) search which is currently 10 months. In other words if RBN has heard
a beacon the last time 9 months and 29 days ago I still consider it to be
active. If it hasn't been heard by RBN in 10 months, then I start looking at
other ways to verify activity or at least verify that the beacon owner intends
to get it back on the air eventually. If there is intention but the beacon has
been inactive for at least 10 months then I may list it as Temporarily Down
until I receive notice that it is back on the air. Quite a few people are
deliberately running low power for experimental purposes and are not heard
often because of that alone. Probably the most common reason for beacons to
not be heard for long periods of time is interference by the beacon to the
beacon-owner's other ham radio activities. They basically unplug it for a
contest and then never get around to plugging it back in again. There is one
in Antarctica VP8ADE that has been active since 1980 but is rarely heard due to
access difficulties to improve the antenna system. If it is heard once every
year or two it's active. But I encourage anyone to investigate the operation
of their own beacon that is running over 1 watt into a minimal antenna and
hasn't been heard by an RBN skimmer in months, given current propagation
conditions. I literally stood out in my backyard recently and made an SSB
contact using an FT-817 running on AA batteries and 2.5 watts into a telescopic
whip antenna, to a POTA activation station about 700 miles away who was running
a portable at 20 watts and a simple whip antenna. You almost have to try to
not be heard.
73,Jerry AC5JM
On Saturday, February 10, 2024 at 09:16:18 PM CST, Dennis Ashworth
<dennis@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The beacon stopped transmitting a few days ago. I am overseas for 3 more
months, but I’ll have someone drop by the beacon QTH and look for anything
obvious. If the outage will be prolonged, I’ll notify the beacon coordinator,
cc list.
Dennis, K7FLLas Vegas, NVLacoste, France
