SEND ME AN E-MAIL ( ) IF YOU WANT TO DO SOME TESTS. WE CAN ARRANGE DATES AND TIMES FOR THE BEACON TO BE ACTIVE. THIS WILL BE POSSIBLE FOR STATIONS FROM ALL CONTINENTS.
(19 February 2009)
Hi,
This is kind of a tribute to Eric K3NA who first brought this idea to the topband community, tnx Eric. I had fun testing my equipment and doing experiments, so why not return the favor?
I plan having a Skype beacon on for the next 10 days or so. Skype username
is: on4ww160m
Below are the mails on this topic from almost three years ago. Please go through them to refresh your memory, or in case you are new to topband reflector, to get acquainted with this experiment from the past.
I altered the original suggested 1832.10 (and later 1839.39) frequency to 1836.36 kHz. In short, log in to the above Skype username ('add' this username to your list), send your call a couple of times on 1836.36 kHz (first check if 1836.36 is not in use! Do not just listen, but actually ask 'QRL?' as well, thanks), and if you are able to copy your signal, you can start reducing power and see with how little Watts/small power you get across the big pond.
Only one station can log in at a time, so pse don't occupy the beacon for long periods of time. A couple of minutes at maximum, pse.
The beacon will be activated on 19 February 2009 starting between 20-22utc
(depending on how much and when I need this computer before bedtime) until around
0700utc. This scheme will continue for about 10 days.
The receiver is an FT-1000MP, uCW, 500 Hz filter; antenna is a one wavelength
Beverage towards North America. You may hear the annoying ticks of an electric
fence (horses, not mine), I learned and got used to listen 'through' the ticks
(the noise blanker is not activated).
If something does not work out technically (Skype), send me an e-mail: on4ww@on4ww.be. If things work out well, great. If the username on4ww160m is not active during the indicated time frame, there is either a technical problem or I am using the pc for something else. I will inform topband reflector when the beacon will eventually be deactivated.
Please first read below e-mails. There has been controversy in the past, I feel there is no need to bring it up again. If you do, pse send your comments to me and not to the topband reflector, tnx.
HAVE FUN! 73 - Mark - on4ww.
ps: if stations from other continents are interested to do tests on a certain
date, contact me.
Subject: Topband: receiving beacon on 1832.10 kHz
From: Eric Scace K3NA <eric@k3na.org>
Date: Wed, 01 Mar 2006 02:19:34 -0500
Here is a little experiment for the next couple of days (at least until the ARRL contest): a receiving beacon on 160m.
What's a receiving beacon?
Conventional beacons transmit, of course. On 160m that concept has a few disadvantages:
-- It is expensive to maintain a full-time, transmitting beacon.
-- To study the more interesting openings, high power is often needed.
-- Frequencies are scarce on 160m. Even with a shared frequency like the NCDXF
beacon network on other bands, only a handful of locations can provide a signal
for study.
So I thought: "Why not have a receiving beacon?" A receiving beacon
parks on a frequency and just listens. You can listen to the K3NA receiving
beacon by placing a Skype call to: K3NA160m
The call is automatically answered. You will be listening to an Orion receiver
on 1832.10 kHz, uCW, 1000 kHz bandwidth. The antenna is a 4-square in the "northeast"
position, which favors Europe, North Africa, east and central Asia.
This receiver is located at: 41° 37’ 31.377”N 70° 51’ 57.378”W, about 100 km south of Boston near New Bedford, Massachusetts USA. This is the contesting site owned by Greg W1KM, and maintained & operated together with Al W1FJ, Paul K1XM, Dennis NB1B and me.
I chose 1832.10 kHz because:
-- most countries allow transmission on this frequency. (Sorry, Japan!)
-- it's easy to remember: three two one zero...
You can test propagation from your location. Place a Skype call to the beacon. After being connected, just transmit your call on 1832.10 kHz ... and listen for your signal on the beacon's receiver. You can see how when and how well the band opens, or compare transmitting antennas, or compare your signal with someone else.
Please keep your call short. This is an experiment to examine "proof of utility", and I used a quick and simple solution. The beacon can only accept one call at a time... so when you are listening, no one else can get in. (Of course, since this is the gentlemen's band, this shouldn't be a problem!)
Of course we can imagine a more capable solution with multi-casting over the internet, selection of various antennas, or even stereo reception with a beverage in one ear and the 4-square in the other. But let's start with something simple.
And I encourage anyone else to park an unused receiver on 1832.10 and connect it to Skype. The frequency can hold an unlimited number of receivers.
Let me know if this experiment was useful to you.
73,
-- Eric K3NA
P.S.: I apologize that the QTH has a bit of local QRN which I haven't tracked down yet, so reception is not always as good as it should be. But, even so, many European signals can be heard begining 1-2 hours before local sunset.
----------------------------------------------------
Subject: Topband: receiving beacon - What is "Skype"?
From: Eric Scace K3NA <eric@k3na.org>
Date: Wed, 01 Mar 2006 07:43:21 -0500
I received a good question about the receiving beacon system: "What is 'Skype'?"
Skype is a software tool for making the equivalent of telephone calls over the Internet between two computer users who have Skype software installed on their computer. The service and software are free and available at: www.skype.com
Transmitted audio originates from the mic input on the computer soundcard, and received audio is delivered to the line output.
Additionally Skype service provides:
-- video calls between Skype users (free).
-- on-line chat and on-line file transfer between Skype users (free).
-- for a tiny fee (about $0.02/minute to almost everywhere in the industrial
world), a Skype user on a computer can call any normal telephone/cell phone.
-- other fee-based services allow a Skype user to receive phone calls from the
conventional telephone network (picking his phone number from any place he wants
a 'local number'), and for voicemail.
Skype software is configured for the receiving beacon as follows:
-- The Orion receiver line output signal is connected to the soundcard mic input.
-- The soundcard mic level is adjusted for about 80% use of the A/D converter
in the soundcard, but static crashes may take it a bit higher.
-- The Skype software is configured to automatically answer an incoming call.
-- At present, the Skype software is configured to allow calls from any Skpe
user.
I hope this helps clarify the situation.
73,
-- Eric K3NA
----------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Topband: receiving beacon on 1832.10 kHz
From: Eric Scace K3NA <eric@k3na.org>
Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2006 06:43:10 -0500
Hi everyone --
Thanks for all the interest in the receiving beacon!
Unfortunately it seems the "accept calls from anyone" setting in Skype did not stick properly. If you tried connecting to the beacon, you received a message that the beacon only accepts calls from people on the Contact List.
I will be back at the site during the day today (Thursday) and should have this restriction removed and tested by 1700z.
Yesterday afternoon I checked the beacon around 2030-2100z and heard A45XR briefly, and ZS1REC, both working around the receiver's frequency. So there was propagation during the 1 hour+ period before sunset here.
73,
-- Eric K3NA
----------------------------------------------------
Subject: Topband: receiving beacon access corrected
From: Eric Scace K3NA <eric@k3na.org>
Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2006 17:25:05 -0500
The K3NA receiving beacon is now accessible by all without prior arrangements.
Skype address: K3NA160m
The beacon access will be disabled during the ARRL CW DX contest and for a day or two thereafter.
73,
-- Eric
----------------------------------------------------
Subject: Topband: how to set up a Skype receiving beacon
From: Eric Scace K3NA <eric@k3na.org>
Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2006 09:51:21 -0500
The K3NA receiving beacon seems pretty popular. Many people have written encouragin email (thanks) and the history file at the station shows connections from all over Europe, North America, Australia, and Africa.
When I have been working at the station, it's been interesting to suddenly hear a couple of dashes and a callsign appear out of the receiver's speaker, and look over at the computer to see someone listening to my receiver from another continent!
This was a very easy project, and I would like to encourage other topband operators to create a receiving beacon at their location. Step-by-step instructions are listed below: 12 steps only!
A receiving beacon doesn't require fantastic antennas or an exotic location. Many times people want to understand how their signal sounds at a typical, average topband QTH.
And a receiving beacon doesn't interfere with chasing DX. When it's time to chase DX, simply grab the receiver and go work the DX. I usually leave the Skype software running, so someone who connects to "K3NA160m" at that time will be listening in to my operating. But you can just close the Skype application while operating. When you have finished operating for the moment, just return the receiver to the beacon frequency, start Skype, and walk away.
73,
-- Eric K3NA
=================
How to create a Skype receiving beacon:
1. Skype configuration:
a. Install Skype on the station computer.
b. Create a Skype username. Perhaps we could agree to use a common format for beacons of the form "callsign+160m"; e.g., K3NA160m, ON4UN160m, or S9SS160m. (The last two don't exist.)
c. Under the Tools menu, click Options.
d. In the Options dialog, select "Sound devices". For Audio In, choose the soundcard to which you will connect your receiver. Uncheck the box "Let Skype adjust my sound device settings". (Skype has an automatic gain control function and a soundcard level control function. That second function, designed for human speech in microphones, appears to distort CW signals and noise from receivers. Unchecking this box turns off the Skype adjustment of the soundcard levels.)
e. In the Options dialog, select "Privacy". Selection the option "Allow calls from anyone". This option allows people to listen to your receiver without pre-registering as a member of your Skype contact list.
f. At the very top of the Skype main display, your beacon user name is displayed.
Click on this name to reveal a gray box that says "Enter a mesasge here
for all your friends to see in their Contact list". Click in this gray
box and provide some description about your beacon. A useful example:
"(callsign) 1832.10 kHz (latitude longitude) (antenna description)"
K3NA 1832.10 kHz 41° 37’ 31.377”N 70° 51’ 57.378”W
NE beverage
2. Receiver configuration:
a. Tune to 1832.10 kHz. WA6CDR has suggested using 1812.30 kHz for beacons which could be used by a station transmitting in the JA window. Both frequencies are somewhat arbitrary, but located in the two areas of the band accessible to many topband operators for transmission... and both frequencies are easy to remember: 18 three two one... and one two three.
b. Set for CW mode. On my Orion radio I use 1000 Hz bandwidth so that people can hear nearby band activity, but you may wish to use something smaller... but still wide enough for another operator to hit with his transmitter. Just set the receiver for normal CW reception at your location (e.g., with a noise blanker if you need it). Be sure to set the CW pitch to 500 Hz or even higher. Very low frequencies are not necessarily transported well by Skype, which is designed to carry human speech.
c. Connect the receiver output to the soundcard microphone input. Skype only transmits from the mic input -- and only mono! I use the receiver's line ouput signal from the back panel -- the line output does not change with the front panel AF gain control, so there is one less adjustment to worry about.
3. Soundcard adjustment:
The goal is to set the soundcard mic input level so that the normal antenna
noise on a quiet frequency is just above the noise floor of the microphone input
jack. Skype's internal AGC will take care of the rest. Too high a setting results
in a great deal of distortion on the Skype connection. I used this approach:
a. Start a sound display, recording or editting program that allows you to see the sound levels, relative to the encoding range of the sound card. I use Goldwave, but there are lots of options. What you want is a graphical display of the mic input's signal level vs time. Begin recording or display...
b. To use the Windows volume control to set the soundcard level, open the
volume control application. On a WinXP system, this is found on the Start menu
under Programs\Accessories\Entertainment\Volume Control.
Choose Options from the menu, and select properties. The properties dialog will
open. In the Properties dialog, select "Adjust volume for recording".
Now make sure the "Mic" box is checked. Close the dialog by clicking
"OK". Back in the volume control, make sure the Mute box under the
mic volume control is unchecked. Click the Advanced button and turn off the
mic boost. (If you do not see the Advanced button, click the Options menu and
select "advanced controls".)
With the receiver on a quiet frequency, adjust the mic volume level until the
band noise is just visible. When the mic volume is too low, you will see a flat
signal that represents the floor of the mic input (probably with some DC bias).
The receiver noise needs to be above this level.
4. Finished! Don't forget to tell us that your beacon exists!
-- end --
----------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Topband: how to set up a Skype receiving beacon
From: "Tom Rauch" <w8ji@contesting.com>
Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2006 11:00:49 -0500
> This was a very easy project, and I would like to
> encourage other topband operators to create a receiving
> beacon at their location.
I'm a little concerned about this. I'm not so sure it is a good idea.
When we start having multiple receivers without time delay stationed all over the world, the potential for abuse is huge. Anyone anywhere can use the Internet to receive signals they would normally not copy. What would happen if 160 ops everywhere created what really amounts to a single frequency DXTuner connection? We might as well toss DXCC and everything else the rest of the way down the sewer. Already we can move from coast to coast and keep scores, and we already have chat rooms and DX clusters that allow people who can't hear but transmit well to work DX they would never work through radio alone.
A second lesser concern would be QRM. With multiple people attempting to access a receiver with multiple transmitters, we will have random transmissions on the "beacon" frequency. Certainly any DX receiver should be placed outside traditionally active areas of the bands.
This might be an unpopular statement, but I think multiple beacon receivers are an exceptionally bad thing long term.
What we really need are coordinated medium power transmitting beacons shoved off to one edge of the band, occupying only one spot. People can't use them to cheat the system and they would encourage random QRM.
Of course on a positive note a series of well-placed DX receivers would allow EA3JE to QSX on 160 instead of 40 meters. ;-)
73 Tom
----------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Topband: how to set up a Skype receiving beacon
From: Eric Scace K3NA <eric@k3na.org>
Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2006 12:38:39 -0500
Tom W8JI brings up some interesting points.
I thought about the case of people using distant receivers to work DX that
they would not otherwise be able to work. That's one reason why the receiving
beacon does not allow any control of the radio. The Skype connection allows
listening to one frequency only; the chances of finding the DX on that frequency
are smaller. I used Skype "as is", but Skype has an API that can be
exercised by programmers.
Potentially a bit of software could be created, using this API, so as to limit
a connection to 1-2 minutes... thus further reducing the utility for someone
intent on cheating at DXCC. Another alteration that would eliminate the utility
of a receiving beacon for cheating at DXCC, but preserve most of its utility
for propagation/antenna testing, would be to add a delay of 5 seconds or so.
These two additions would make the beacon concept a bit more complex to implement...
but, if folks feels the ethical concerns are great, these are ideas that can
mitigate the ethics issues.
The choice of frequency is a balance of many factors. I picked 1832.10 for
the proof of concept phase, considering that:
-- most topband operators can transmit here (with the notable exception of Japan).
-- initial beacon use was anticipated to be light.
-- operators are unlikely to make a test transmission on the beacon's receive
frequency if the frequency is occupied by an ongoing QSO/pileup copiable at
the receiving location, since the test transmission would be impaired ... and
we are gentlemen on the gentlemen's band.
But I'm open to other choices that allow wide usage.
I feel medium-power transmitting beacons, wherever located, are less useful for some applications. These will always be few in number and, at medium power levels, can't give much insight to the more marginal (but intriguing!) openings.
Of course others may feel differently.
If, after consideration, the concept is widely considered to be unethical by the topband community, that's important to me and I'll shut it down.
If the concept has little utility beyond a novelty factor, it will die a natural death.
But, if receiving beacons have utility, can be located at a suitable spot in the band acceptable to the community, and don't raise serious ethical issues, then why not encourage them?
-- Eric K3NA
----------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Topband: how to set up a Skype receiving beacon
From: "Tom Rauch" <w8ji@contesting.com>
Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2006 14:49:48 -0500
> A second lesser concern would be QRM. With multiple people attempting
> to access a receiver with multiple transmitters, we will have random
> transmissions on the "beacon" frequency. Certainly any DX receiver
should be placed outside traditionally active areas of the bands.
There may be a point of concern here. However, if one were to limit the number of simultaneous users (one or maybe two), then the QRM would be reduced. If the number of simultaneous users were not limited, then I would agree with Tom that the reverse beacon should moved to less often used band segments.>>
I very strongly disagree. This is a terrible idea.
There is no less QRM caused by a receiving beacon then there would be by a transmitting beacon on the same frequency. Making matters worse, the suggestion is these things be placed in primary shared areas of the band. They have absolutely no place on any frequency people commonly use. None.
I'm really perplexed by what DX'ers on 160 are thinking these days. We get rid of the DX Window because we want DX to be everywhere. There is a big effort to move W1AW off 1817.5 and move it below 1810 where it can bother PSK, with no thought as to how it would affect others below 1810 as long as the DX area is clear.
We don't want anyone else bothering us, we fight for clear frequencies, and at the same time we are willing to place receivers for people to "ping" on primary frequencies just so one transmitting station at a time can learn if one receiver on one antenna at one location can hear his signal? Then we want to do this serially?
Imagine five of these things, one each on 1831, 32, 33, 34, and 35, with only 25 people pinging away serially trying to see if the band is open. A steady stream of callers pinging the beacons with everyone setting their transmitter dials somewhat close to the beacon frequency would be a real mess. The worse thing about it is only ONE person at a time learns anything from the QRM caused by the ping!
With a transmitting beacon, every single person using 160 could listen. The payback for QRM of one reasonable power transmitter with a reasonable antenna transmitter taking up only one frequency would be thousands of people could know what conditions are like. Multiple transmitters could be placed on one frequency.
Why worry about W1AW when we are designing a system that will cause even more problems if it becomes even remotely popular? Multiple transmitters operated in serial on primary frequencies just so one person at a time can check conditions does not seem to be sensible.
73 Tom
----------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Topband: how to set up a Skype receiving beacon
From: Eric Scace K3NA <eric@k3na.org>
Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2006 12:48:22 -0500
Hi Paul --
Thanks for the tip on line input. Will it transmit stereo from the line input? If so, that would allow me to hook two antennas, one each to the main and sub receiver.
Auto-answer: Opps... I forgot to cover this. In the options dialog, on the advanced page, there is an option to "automatically answer incoming calls".
-- Eric K3NA
----------------------------------------------------
Subject: Topband: how to set up a Skype receiving beacon
From: Bill Tippett <btippett@alum.mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2006 21:15:53 -0500
K3NA:
>A receiving beacon doesn't require fantastic antennas or an exotic location.
Here's a really novel ultra high-tech idea...try a CQ. Saturday morning I thought the band was dead but decided to CQ. In the next 15 minutes I worked 5 JA's (including JH1GVY running 50W to his mobile setup) plus VK6ABL on what I thought was a dead band.
73, Bill W4ZV
----------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Topband: how to set up a Skype receiving beacon
From: "peter.voelpel" <df3kv@t-online.de>
Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2006 21:55:27 +0100
I think I should give up ham radio...What is going on here? DX-Cluster, Echolink,
Skype beacons?
The next step will be contesting with remote controlled receivers and $ generators
on remote rocks by remote transceivers
73
Peter, DF3KV
-----Original Message-----
From: topband-bounces@contesting.com [mailto:topband-bounces@contesting.com]
>On Behalf Of Eric Scace K3NA
>This was a very easy project, and I would like to encourage other topband
operators to create a receiving
>beacon at their location. Step-by-step instructions are listed below: 12
steps only!
----------------------------------------------------
Subject: Topband: skype remote rx 'beacons'
From: "Jim Jarvis" <jimjarvis@verizon.net>
Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2006 23:25:43 +0000
Three things would appear to be true:
1) They will either have utility or they won't.
2) Standing in the face of technology won't improve the state of amateur radio.
3) They all ought to be on ONE frequency. How about 1900.1? or 1800.1?
I suspect that modest receiving sites won't prove very interesting, and the bloom will fall from this rose rather quickly. Serious receiving sites will be otherwise occupied, and unavailable.
The interesting notion is not the beacon at all. It's the ability to listen
to the other end of your qso via an alternate channel.
i.e. you can hear what w8ji or k3na hears when you're working them.
>From what I can see, circuit latency could make skype useless as a qso augmenter...but you'll be able to get an idea of the receiving conditions at a remote site.
As for DXCC or contest results... it's a game, kiddies, just a game. I race sailboats. You know what? The water level seems just the same after we've finished rounding the buoys as it was beforehand. Skype beacons or no skype beacons, the earth will spin at the same rate.
Not trying it would be the crime, in my view.
n2ea
----------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Topband: how to set up a Skype receiving beacon
From: "Michael Tope" <W4EF@dellroy.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2006 07:29:31 -0800
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Rauch" <w8ji@contesting.com>
> When we start having multiple receivers without time delay
> stationed all over the world, the potential for abuse is
> huge. Anyone anywhere can use the Internet to receive
> signals they would normally not copy. What would happen if
> 160 ops everywhere created what really amounts to a single
> frequency DXTuner connection? We might as well toss DXCC and
> everything else the rest of the way down the sewer. Already
> we can move from coast to coast and keep scores, and we
> already have chat rooms and DX clusters that allow people
> who can't hear but transmit well to work DX they would never
> work through radio alone.
>
Yes, I agree, this is almost as bad as people who move to the country where there is no QRN. What challenge is there in that? I understand that some of these guys can actually hear the DX they are calling all of the time and not just on brief QSB peaks. If we allow this "cheating" to continue, who knows, these rural renegades may be emboldened to the point where they feel no shame in putting up directional receive antennas. We can't allow this to happen.
Mike, W4EF (disgruntled city dweller)
----------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Topband: how to set up a Skype receiving beacon
From: "Raoul Coetzee" <raoulc@smmcape.co.za>
Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2006 15:27:13 +0200
At first I thought this Skype reverse beacon was a wonderful idea and told Eric so. Then the demons started, multiple receivers all over the world? And what if somebody is just sending his call without explanation to the Skype receiver, one could think that the station is working a split dx station.
The thought that the system could be abused by lids never even crossed my mind;
Tom and others pointed the problems out and in general I share their concerns.
It is a sad day that we have to think how to stay ahead of people that obviously
have no integrity.Yes, radio is about radio and yes, I would like to hear my
sigs over Skype for the sake of of just knowing that the band is open. I can
easily forget about your crowded bands over there, I am currently the only 160m
operator for about 1300km!
The other two or three are not currently active and after them it's the rest
of Africa and you all know how active that is on 160m.But it is a different
ball game on your side of the pond with many ops and apparently many "wannahave-dxcc-on-topband-dont-mind-using-internet-to-get-it"
attitudes. Sad.
I have now worked 45 countries in a years time (dont laugh,I know some do it over a weekend!) from my suburban city lot (20m x 40m) and I feel mighty proud everytime I make a contact with a 16m high down sloping T antenna for tx and a 3 turn co-ax loop.
kind regards
Raoul Coetzee
ZS1REC
----------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Topband: how to set up a Skype receiving beacon
From: "Tom Rauch" <w8ji@contesting.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2006 12:52:53 -0500
> It is a sad day that we have to think how to stay ahead of people that
> obviously have no integrity. Yes, radio is about radio and yes, I would
like
> to hear my sigs over Skype
> for the sake of of just knowing that the band is open.
Whenever anyone places a receiver in a primary part of the band and allows remote access to that receiver, two things can occur.
First, people can use it to hear something they normally would not hear.
Second, people will ping that receiver. The mere presence of the receiver, if people use it, will create unnecessary QRM by encouraging people to make one-way transmissions to that receiver. This is something that should never be encouraged. We don't need people pinging receivers with one-way transmissions in crowded areas of the band. (I'm not even sure it is legal. One-way transmissions are allowed to establish communications (CQ) or adjust equipment, but the FCC rules don't indicate one-way transmissions are legal to just to find out how we sound at a distance. The fact we would be communicating with ourselves appears to be a violation of the part 97 rules against one-way transmissions.)
73 Tom
----------------------------------------------------
Subject: Topband: fixed freq receiving beacons, remote radios, and awards
From: Eric Scace K3NA <eric@k3na.org>
Date: Thu, 09 Mar 2006 13:24:21 -0500
May I point out that the Skype receiving beacon is NOT a remote-controlled receiver. You can do just one thing: listen to it, on the frequency to which it has been tuned, and on its current antenna. There is no provision for changing the frequency, changing the antenna, adjusting the bandwidth, etc.
To work DX with this Skype receiving beacon would require your target DX to show up on the beacon frequency, and to be in a location that can be heard by the beacon and its antenna. The chances of someone working much DX this way seems rather remote to me...
=============
A whole different area of discussion is the use of remote-controlled radios (receivers or transmitters) for awards or competition. This has nothing in particular to do with a Skype receiving beacon. But it is clear that the technology has progressed to the point where it is practical and affordable for more people to build and/or use remote-controlled stations. The time has arrived to consider its implications for our awards programs, such as DXCC.
There is a spectrum of technical arrangements for a station. Where does one draw the line between acceptable, and unacceptable, operations for award or contesting purposes?
1. An owner/operator places all his antennas, radios and receivers on his property (owned or rented). He is physically at the site when he makes the QSO.
2. Same as (1), except the owner/operator is not physically at the site when the QSO is made. He has used some form of remote control (UHF, internet, etc).
3. The operator visits another station, owned by someone else, with all of its antennas, radios and receivers in one spot. The station is nearby; e.g., within the same Field of the grid square program and the same DXCC country. The operator makes a QSO under his callsign.
4. The operator does the same as (3), except that he is not at the site and uses some form of remote control.
5. The owner/operator places all of his transmitters and antennas at one location, and his receivers and those antennas at another nearby location that he owns. He is physically present at one of these two sites when he makes the QSO.
6. Same as (4), except the owner isn't at either of the sites.
Etcetera... I won't enumerate all the permutations. My point is that there
are several parameters at play here:
A. Must the transmitters, receivers, and their antennas be at the same location?
(This is required for most contests.) If not, what is the permitted spacing?
B. Must the operator be physically present at the transmitting and/or receiving
location?
C. Must the operator own the station? If not, what restrictions (if any) exist
on making QSOs for awards purposes from another person's station?
There may be other parameters, or other ways to slice the problem into manageable pieces.
After decomposing the issue, awards administrators can make some choices (hopefully
with input from the community). For example, the following might be considered
acceptable for DXCC: QSOs made with a remotely-controlled station under the
following conditions:
-- the transmitter, receiver and antennas used in the QSO are located within
a 500m circle; AND
-- the station is in the same Grid Field (e.g., JO or FN) as the operator's
current licensed location at the time of the QSO; AND
-- if the remote-controlled station is not owned by the operator, the operator
has written permission from the owner for its use at the time of the QSO.
In my opinion, QSOs made under these circumstances would be of similar operating difficulty (propagation, etc) to those made by traditional means. Such an approach allows for a certain degree of technical prowess (as pioneered by folks such as K9DX), so that hams who live in impaired locations (like my apartment in the city of Boston) can chase DX awards.
And this approach encourages such hams to master the technology for building,
maintaining, and operating stations in good locations for HF. The more good
HF stations exist, the better off we are in the next communications emergency.
A good HF station can be staffed on site, if remote access is not available...
and remote access to well-placed HF stations near (but just outside) a disaster
area can be a valuable asset to those working on relief.
73,
-- Eric K3NA
----------------------------------------------------
Subject: Topband: how to set up a Skype receiving beacon
From: Bill Tippett <btippett@alum.mit.edu>
Date: Thu, 09 Mar 2006 13:33:29 -0500
W8JI:
>We don't need people pinging receivers with one-way transmissions in crowded areas of the band.
This may have already been stated but W3GH reported 9M2AX on 1831.5 around 2320z when the band was wide open to Europe. I was listening at the time and Ross was no better than 559 here. I wonder how Bob would have felt if EU big guns were holding a pinging contest on 1832.1 at the same time Ross replied? ;-)
These things should be away from popular DX areas, but of necessity must be in the 1810-1850 window for Region 1 (the primary users) to be legal. Therefore 1800.1 is NOT an option. I would also stay at least 1 kHz away from 1810.0 which is the QRP calling frequency. My feeling is that near the 1840 buffer between SSB and CW would be best (if they are necessary at all).
I have yet to hear why a simple CQ will not serve the purpose of determining if the band is open. I'll also add that Orion's excellent AGC will make it difficult to compare (audio only) signal strengths that are within 10 dB of each other. If both are well above the noise floor, the AGC works quite well to equalize audio levels.
73, Bill W4ZV
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Subject: Re: Topband: fixed freq receiving beacons, remote radios, and awards
From: Tree <tree@kkn.net>
Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2006 18:17:16 -0800
On Thu, Mar 09, 2006 at 01:24:21PM -0500, Eric Scace K3NA wrote:
> To work DX with this Skype receiving beacon would
> require your target DX to show up on the beacon frequency,
> and to be in a location that can be heard by the beacon and
> its antenna. The chances of someone working much DX this
> way seems rather remote to me...
If one calls CQ on the frequency, they might get DX calling them that they would otherwise not hear.
There are technical solutions to this problem - like limiting the connection time to a minute or two and not allowing reconnection for 15 minutes. This would make it a lot harder to use for actual QSOs.
> A whole different area of discussion is the use of
> remote-controlled radios (receivers or transmitters) for
> awards or competition. This has nothing in particular to do
> with a Skype receiving beacon. But it is clear that the
> technology has progressed to the point where it is practical
> and affordable for more people to build and/or use
> remote-controlled stations. The time has arrived to
> consider its implications for our awards programs, such as DXCC.
The Boring ARC had a request from one station who had a remote receiving QTH and wanted to use it in the Stew Perry. The old rules would not allow this. We decided that a distance up to 100 km would be sufficient to allow most of this type of operation - without going so far as to allowing you to experience significantly different propagation.
For purposes of DXCC - where I could move to the east coast and still count my cards, I guess the limitation would be more lax.
Tree N6TR
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Subject: Re: Topband: how to set up a Skype receiving beacon
From: "PA5MW" <pa5mw@home.nl>
Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2006 22:12:33 +0100
> Second, people will ping that receiver. The mere presence of
> the receiver, if people use it, will create unnecessary QRM
> by encouraging people to make one-way transmissions to that
> receiver. This is something that should never be encouraged.
Not presenting an opinion here, but a mere fact: Skype does not provide multicasting
at automatic answering.
In other words; only 1 listener can automatically connect the RX experiment
of K3NA at a time. As such, in practise the amount of "pingers" is
limited to 1. And it takes a while before you have the remote RX audio online.
Next there will be a latency of min 1 sec.
On a personal note:
I can see the picture Tom is drawing. It is certainly not unrealistic and not
welcome in my view.
To "test" your low-band performance you can do 2 other things:
- make qso's
- enter a dedicated chat session, like www.on4kst.com , telnet converse for
making your sked etc..etc..
73 Mark, PA5MW
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Subject: Topband: K3NA receiving beacon moved to 1839.39 kHz
From: Eric Scace K3NA <eric@k3na.org>
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 23:27:05 -0500
Taking into consideration some of the points made this week during discussions of receiving beacons, I moved my Skype beacon to 1839.39 kHz.
At this location near the usual border for phone operations, there seems less likelihood that short transmissions will interfere with other users.
73,
-- Eric K3NA
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Subject: Topband: K3NA receiving beacon off-air until Apr 10
From: Eric Scace K3NA <eric@k3na.org>
Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2006 12:29:41 -0500
Hi --
The K3NA receiving beacon on 1839.39 kHz will be off until Apr 10. Sorry...
-- Eric
--end of quotes--