OpenBeacons on the air

With the help of the M3 frequency counter Jason/NT7S sent me, I was able to set the transmit frequency for my two OpenBeacons. The 40m OpenBeacon I built is tuned to 7.0403 MHz while the 30m OpenBeacon from W2MDW is set for 10.139 MHz. Both of them transmit “AB4UG/B FM02AS” using QRSS with a 6 second dit.

I’ve had the 40m OpenBeacon on the air all night, but I’m not sure if anybody saw it. Most of the QRSS grabbers seem to be listening on 30m. There’s one grabber listed that’s on 40m, but it’s listening around 7.0008 MHz. I’d have to replace the crystal in the OpenBeacon to get down that low. I should put some pin headers in the crystal spot so I can change frequencies by replacing the crystal.

I think I’ll try the 30m OpenBeacon running today and see if it gets grabbed anywhere.

(Looks like I’ll have to tweak the frequency of the 30m beacon…most of the grabbers seem to be listening on a fairly narrow 100-500 Hz band around 10.140).

Update: Tweaked the 30m OpenBeacon to transmit at 10.1399 MHz. If you happen to see it, let me know.