HERE and HERE I described the build of my ZS1I 80 Meter Beacon and Morse Code Continuous Wave (CW) beacon keyer. As can be seen from the articles the design is fairly old. This set me thinking and I decided to build the next generation propagation beacon consisting of various integrated modules. Will it be a LF, MF, HF, VHF, UHF, or microwave beacon? Well it might be a 3 in 1 beacon. Possibly HF, VHF and UHF. For now this is not important and I will make a decision in this regard later.
I am going to use a Arduino Nano as the "brain" of the beacon. I programmed the Nano today and tested it on the work bench. So far so good! Here is a video of the "brain" in action.
I am still looking at various options and types of beacons. In my opinion a beacon is used to check propagation on the amateur radio bands so that operators can assess whether a frequency band is usable at that moment to the part of the world where the beacon is situated. But there is also WSPR (pronounced "whisper") which stands for "Weak Signal Propagation Reporter". It is a protocol, implemented in a computer program, used for weak-signal radio communication between amateur radio operators. The protocol was designed, and a program written initially, by Joe Taylor, K1JT. The software code is now open source and is developed by a small team. The program is designed for sending and receiving low-power transmissions to test propagation paths on the MF and HF bands.
WSPR implements a protocol designed for probing potential propagation paths with low-power transmissions. Transmissions carry a station's callsign, Maidenhead grid locator, and transmitter power in dBm. The program can decode signals with a signal-to-noise ratio as low as −28 dB in a 2500 Hz bandwidth. Stations with internet access can automatically upload their reception reports to a central database called WSPRnet, which includes a mapping facility.
Enough for now. Hopefully in Part 2 I will be able to reveal more about the beacon(s) that I intend to put on the air. Watch this space!
