6M beacon experiment during eclipse
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John Ackermann N8UR
Mar 26, 2024, 3:46:47 PM3/26/24
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A 6M beacon will operate from central Ohio on April 8 as part of the
HamSci (https://hamsci.org) eclipse science program. The goal is to
detect propagation effects along the line of the total solar eclipse.
On eclipse day, N8GA will transmit a continuous carrier with CW ID every
ten minutes and UTC-aligned ticks during part of each minute. Power
will be about 100 watts into a horizontally polarized omnidirectional
antenna. The frequency is TBD but will be just below 50.080 MHz and
controlled by a cesium atomic reference with GPSDO as backup.
N8GA is located north of Urbana, Ohio in EN80. W8EDU (Case Western
Reserve University ARC, Cleveland, EN91) and N8UR (Dayton, EM79) will be
monitoring it to detect frequency and amplitude variations. All three
stations are in the path of totality.
We'd like reception reports from any others who hear the beacon.
Information showing changes in frequency or amplitude will be
particularly valuable. Please send reports, or any questions, to jra at
febo dot com.
73,
John N8UR
HamSci (https://hamsci.org) eclipse science program. The goal is to
detect propagation effects along the line of the total solar eclipse.
On eclipse day, N8GA will transmit a continuous carrier with CW ID every
ten minutes and UTC-aligned ticks during part of each minute. Power
will be about 100 watts into a horizontally polarized omnidirectional
antenna. The frequency is TBD but will be just below 50.080 MHz and
controlled by a cesium atomic reference with GPSDO as backup.
N8GA is located north of Urbana, Ohio in EN80. W8EDU (Case Western
Reserve University ARC, Cleveland, EN91) and N8UR (Dayton, EM79) will be
monitoring it to detect frequency and amplitude variations. All three
stations are in the path of totality.
We'd like reception reports from any others who hear the beacon.
Information showing changes in frequency or amplitude will be
particularly valuable. Please send reports, or any questions, to jra at
febo dot com.
73,
John N8UR
Lester Veenstra
Mar 27, 2024, 12:26:13 PM3/27/24
to ham...@googlegroups.com
Any chance of some advance transmissions just let me play with equipment configurations?
Lester B Veenstra K1YCM MØYCM W8YCM 6Y6Y W8YCM/6Y 6Y8LV (Reformed USNSG CTM1)
les...@veenstras.com
452 Stable Ln
Keyser WV 26726 USA
GPS: 39.336826 N 78.982287 W (Google)
GPS: 39.33682 N 78.9823741 W (GPSDO)
Telephones:
Home: +1-304-289-6057
US cell +1-304-790-9192
Jamaica cell: +1-876-456-8898
--
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Lester B Veenstra K1YCM MØYCM W8YCM 6Y6Y W8YCM/6Y 6Y8LV (Reformed USNSG CTM1)
les...@veenstras.com
452 Stable Ln
Keyser WV 26726 USA
GPS: 39.336826 N 78.982287 W (Google)
GPS: 39.33682 N 78.9823741 W (GPSDO)
Telephones:
Home: +1-304-289-6057
US cell +1-304-790-9192
Jamaica cell: +1-876-456-8898
Please follow the HamSCI Community Participation Guidelines at http://hamsci.org/hamsci-community-participation-guidelines.
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John Ackermann N8UR
Mar 27, 2024, 1:58:52 PM3/27/24
to ham...@googlegroups.com
The beacon is running now with about 10 watts using an old Ten-Tec 6/2
meter rig on nominally 50.080 MHz, but the frequency could well be a bit
off. It's sending the standard beacon format "DE N8GA/B EN80ee"
followed by 15 seconds of carrier, then 15 seconds off.
Our plan is to install the frequency-controlled transmitter on Saturday
or Sunday before the eclipse and run that at around 10 watts. Then
Monday morning we'll increase the power to 100 watts or so and hopefully
keep the amp going until the evening when we'll drop back down to low
power for at least a few more days.
meter rig on nominally 50.080 MHz, but the frequency could well be a bit
off. It's sending the standard beacon format "DE N8GA/B EN80ee"
followed by 15 seconds of carrier, then 15 seconds off.
Our plan is to install the frequency-controlled transmitter on Saturday
or Sunday before the eclipse and run that at around 10 watts. Then
Monday morning we'll increase the power to 100 watts or so and hopefully
keep the amp going until the evening when we'll drop back down to low
power for at least a few more days.
Lester Veenstra
Mar 27, 2024, 2:53:23 PM3/27/24
to ham...@googlegroups.com
Nothing right now 4 El Steppir/flex/argo
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John Ackermann N8UR
Mar 27, 2024, 3:35:10 PM3/27/24
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There is always hope. :-)
Lester Veenstra
Mar 27, 2024, 3:58:47 PM3/27/24
to ham...@googlegroups.com
Recording the ARGOS waterfall
Will see if anything shows up over night
366 mHz bin size
Will see if anything shows up over night
366 mHz bin size
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Lester Veenstra
Mar 28, 2024, 10:28:43 AM3/28/24
to Lester Veenstra, ham...@googlegroups.com
No trace of it in the overnight recordings.
Typical recording: If you are on 50.080, the waterfall should see you at 500Hz
Flex set up operating of of a Bodner GPSDO
I do see a stable CW carrier at 50.0077345 MHz but I think that it is some sort of local RFI as it does not change with beam heading.
BYW, Freqiency check with Flex at 24950 to follow
Lester B Veenstra K1YCM MØYCM W8YCM 6Y6Y W8YCM/6Y 6Y8LV (Reformed USNSG CTM1)
452 Stable Ln
Keyser WV 26726 USA
GPS: 39.336826 N 78.982287 W (Google)
GPS: 39.33682 N 78.9823741 W (GPSDO)
Telephones:
Home: +1-304-289-6057
US cell +1-304-790-9192
Jamaica cell: +1-876-456-8898
-----Original Message-----
From: Lester Veenstra [mailto:m0...@veenstras.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2024 3:58 PM
To: 'ham...@googlegroups.com'
Subject: RE: [HamSCI] 6M beacon experiment during eclipse
Recording the ARGOS waterfall
Will see if anything shows up over night
366 mHz bin size
Lester B Veenstra K1YCM MØYCM W8YCM 6Y6Y W8YCM/6Y 6Y8LV (Reformed USNSG CTM1)
452 Stable Ln
Keyser WV 26726 USA
GPS: 39.336826 N 78.982287 W (Google)
GPS: 39.33682 N 78.9823741 W (GPSDO)
Telephones:
Home: +1-304-289-6057
US cell +1-304-790-9192
Jamaica cell: +1-876-456-8898
-----Original Message-----
From: 'John Ackermann N8UR' via HamSCI [mailto:ham...@googlegroups.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2024 3:35 PM
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Please follow the HamSCI Community Participation Guidelines at http://hamsci.org/hamsci-community-participation-guidelines.
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John Ackermann N8UR
Mar 28, 2024, 11:11:01 AM3/28/24
to ham...@googlegroups.com
I'll stop cluttering the list after this, but thought it would be
interesting to describe the simple receiver system we're using and show
what it can do.
A small 6M beam feeds an Airspy R2 SDR connected to an Orange Pi 5
running ka9q-radio and wsprdaemon. Thanks to a huge amount of help from
Rob, we've twisted wsprdaemon's WWV/CHU record capability into something
that records IQ files of our 50.080 beacon frequency.
Attached is a waterfall of a few minutes captured at N8UR last night,
processed by a simple Gnuradio flowgraph. The fuzzy bits are the CW ID,
followed by 15 seconds of carrier, then 15 seconds of down time. I'm
about 50 miles from N8GA, so the signal level is modest.
A good preamp improves the signal-to-noise ratio by about 6 dB but it
wasn't used for this recording. Even without the preamp, it's helpful
to have filters in place to protect the Airspy from broadcast and other
strong transmitters.
You'll note that the signal is about 55 Hz off frequency. The Airspy
was locked to an atomic reference, so that's not the problem. But the
stand-in beacon is an older TenTec 621 transceiver and I'm surprised
it's as close as it is! The beacon transmitter during the eclipse
*will* be on frequency.
73,
John
On 3/28/24 10:28, 'Lester Veenstra' via HamSCI wrote:
> No trace of it in the overnight recordings.
>
> Typical recording: If you are on 50.080, the waterfall should see you at
> 500Hz
>
> <http://hamsci.org/hamsci-community-participation-guidelines>.
interesting to describe the simple receiver system we're using and show
what it can do.
A small 6M beam feeds an Airspy R2 SDR connected to an Orange Pi 5
running ka9q-radio and wsprdaemon. Thanks to a huge amount of help from
Rob, we've twisted wsprdaemon's WWV/CHU record capability into something
that records IQ files of our 50.080 beacon frequency.
Attached is a waterfall of a few minutes captured at N8UR last night,
processed by a simple Gnuradio flowgraph. The fuzzy bits are the CW ID,
followed by 15 seconds of carrier, then 15 seconds of down time. I'm
about 50 miles from N8GA, so the signal level is modest.
A good preamp improves the signal-to-noise ratio by about 6 dB but it
wasn't used for this recording. Even without the preamp, it's helpful
to have filters in place to protect the Airspy from broadcast and other
strong transmitters.
You'll note that the signal is about 55 Hz off frequency. The Airspy
was locked to an atomic reference, so that's not the problem. But the
stand-in beacon is an older TenTec 621 transceiver and I'm surprised
it's as close as it is! The beacon transmitter during the eclipse
*will* be on frequency.
73,
John
On 3/28/24 10:28, 'Lester Veenstra' via HamSCI wrote:
> No trace of it in the overnight recordings.
>
> Typical recording: If you are on 50.080, the waterfall should see you at
> 500Hz
>
> Flex set up operating of of a Bodner GPSDO
>
>
> I do see a stable CW carrier at 50.0077345 MHz but I think that it is
> some sort of local RFI as it does not change with beam heading.
>
> some sort of local RFI as it does not change with beam heading.
>
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "HamSCI" group.
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emuman100
Mar 28, 2024, 12:53:29 PM3/28/24
to HamSCI
I'd like to mention that this is a perfect example for a new reception method developed by the author of vlfrx-tools, an open-source software toolkit with a wide variety of applications that includes VLF applications. This method utilizes a RTLSDR along with a GPS-locked frequency reference and a pulse per second signal. The frequency reference is fed into the RF input of the RTLSDR, but it is gated by the PPS through a transistor, so a pulse per second at the frequency reference is fed into the RF input. Using vlfrx-tools software, the PPS frequency reference is used for frequency calibration with frequency stability performance on par to a frequency reference fed into the clock of the RTLSDR or other SDR. The PPS is also used for timestamping of the IQ data, producing GPS referenced IQ data with timestamping.
In this particular application, GPS referenced and timestamped IQ data of the VHF band is used to detect VHF scatter from incoming meteors using a VHF beacon, so this beacon would be extremely useful for detecting meteor scatter and GPS referenced and timestamped IQ data for further processing and study. The GPS interfacing circuit utilizing a uBlox M8T is available with a complete setup guide for something that can be run on an Orange Pi or similar running Linux. You can read more details about this method here and download the required software.
Having this setup running would be perfect during the eclipse using this beacon. I won't be able to get this running in time, but I will be working on getting this up and running.
Jonathan
KC3EEY
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