Tag: OpenBeacon

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.

40m OpenBeacon

The 40m Etherkit OpenBeacon I ordered arrived yesterday and made for a nice fun evening at the workbench. It will go along nicely with the other 30m OpenBeacon I received from Matthew/W2MDW. There are a few differences in the production version versus the 30m beta version.

Spent a couple hours at the workbench assembling it and it worked as soon as I connected it to the computer. The only snafu I had was accidentally mixing up two resistors, making me unsolder the first one to switch it out with the correct one. I also got to experiment with using a drill to twist the wires together for the bifilar transformer. Worked amazingly well.

Etherkit 40m OpenBeacon
Etherkit 40m OpenBeacon

Looking forward to getting this on the air and seeing how far it gets heard. One of these days I’ll have to make up an enclosure and 30m and 40m antennas to put both of the OpenBeacons on the air full time.

Next on the air

Now that the HF radio is on the air, the next things I need to get set up are the VHF radio, the OpenBeacon and the Softrock receiver.

I’ll need to get/make suitable antennas and get coax for each of them.

The OpenBeacon needs to be reprogrammed, but it works. I can plug in a USB cable and watch it blink out slow Morse code (which is still almost too fast for me to copy). I can also hear it on the HF radio at 10.130 MHz. I’ll need to make up a suitable antenna for it.

The VHF radio should be all set to go once I get an antenna set up and hooked up to it.

Just need to get around to putting the last transformer on the Softrock receiver and make up the external connections to get it on the air.

I’ll need to make up a shopping list for the hamfest next week.

An OpenBeacon to play with

Thanks to Matthew/W2MDW, I now have an Etherkit OpenBeacon to play with.

Etherkit Openbeacon
Etherkit Openbeacon

It’s a kit that I’ve been thinking of getting to play with in the near future. The one Matthew sent me was one of the early beta models and has had some modifications done to it, but it works. He didn’t have much time to mess with it anymore and thought I could put it to good use.

I’ll need to get an antenna for it and figure out how to program it, but it shouldn’t be hard to get on the air.

It looks like a pretty easy kit to build, so I’ll probably pick up one of my own to assemble and get up and running. Looking forward to getting this one going and seeing who picks up the signal.

I wonder how hard it would be to modify to broadcast on 6m.