In December 2004 / January 2005 I scheduled several beacon tests on 30 meters with David, VK6DI, in West Australia near Perth (OF88cc). The distance between our stations is 13584 km. David asked me to run at least 1 watt power making it easier to find my signal but the avaible beacon transmitter yields not more than 250 mW. After adjusting the lower power limit of my old ICOM 725 transceiver to 1,2 watts by the internal potentiometers I started a first QRSS3 test on 5th Dec. 2004. In the beginnng David could not find my signal due to a difference of almost 50 Hz between the actual frequency and that what the display showed. Also the cw keying was not free of FM and the relatively "high" power caused splatters on the monitors of european listeners. Therefore, I decided to use the ICOM never again for QRPP beaconing. The antenna was a simple 30 meters half wave dipole approx. 8 meters high in SW/NE orientation shown in the picture below during sunset at 16:30 local time (4th Jan. 2004).





*** 5th December 2004 ***


1.2 watt signal from ICOM 725 with bad modulation


And this is what it looked like at the other end in VK6



*** 11/12th December 2004  -  50mW ***

I reinstalled my 200 mW homemade beacon tx but for a unknown reason no more than 50 mW power came out. Sick and tired of searching for the defect I started the test with lower power. The original signals (green) and some captures from VK6DI, G0DJA and G6AVK below.


True, a highly individual signal shape :-)


The 50mw signal in VK6.


G6AVK.


Playing again with the software features of the CWK2 control unit a new wave form came into being.


signal pattern nr. 2


VK6DI: "Sharky's" (DL6NL) triangle wave below.


G0DJA called it "the children's sand castles"



*** 31st December 2004  -  240mW ***

After repairing the beacon TX, 240 mW are now available again. The message consists of 2 x 10 trapezoids, a DFCW, a QRSS5 and a "Slow Hellschreiber" portion. Only faint traces from the Hell in VK6 whilst the trapezoidal wave was copied well.


VK6DI


The "New Year Message" in Hell, captured by VK6DI


... distinct outlines in Europe, at LA5VNA



In the first January week several experiments with outputs from 40 down to 2.5 mW followed. A summary of the results is shown in the pictures below.

*** 1st January 2005  -  40mW ***


Less power but a quite good result !



*** From 2nd to 6th January 2005  -  20mW ***


Weak traces of the trapezoid were detected on 4th Jan. at 15:17 utc


Rising propagation conditions on 6th Jan. at 1834 utc allow clearer signal copies. The QRSS transmission
of OM1II appeared suddenly in a clandestine manner below mine :-)



*** 6th January 2005  -  10 mW ***

On 6th Jan. at 19:30 utc I was asked by David for dropping down power further to 10 mW. As he browse through his captured files on next day he was taken by surprise. At 21:18 utc the signal came up again and was much stronger than those previously seen at much higher power.


The 10 mW signal during a second band opening between 21 and 22 utc on Jan. 6th, the best result so far.



*** 11th January 2005  -  5 mW ***


Weak but 100% ID in VK6 at only 5 mW !

All the following tests at 1 to 2.5 mW level we made from time to time failed.


In the meanwhile Mike, ZL4OL and Larry, WB3ANQ, an very active HiFER specialist (high frequency experimenter) joined the "QRSS Knights". Peter, DL6NL, was successful during the summer months by doing some tests with ZL4OL as the following picture shows.


A permanent carrier with 4 power stages, 1W, 100mW, 10mW, 1mW, every sequence separated
by a negative pulse. Even the 1mW segment was visible in ZL.

Although the distance to ZL is larger than to VK6, signals in ZL were of a higher field strength and strangely enough, the long path signals were louder than the short path ones. Peter, DL6NL, assumes that "Grayline Propagation" could be responsible for this effect. Quite an interesting topic, so I decided to start a new series of beacon tests in October 2005.



*** 2. Oktober 2005  -  160 mW ***

On 2nd Oct. 2005 the beacons from DL6NL, G3GKI and mine were on the air while ZL4OL, VK6DI and WB3ANQ were prepared for monitoring our signals.


My 160 mW triagle wave arrived in VK6 around 1727 utc stronger than usual.


About 1 hour later (1817 utc) the short path report from ZL4OL came in showing
as expected a somewhat weaker signal.


On WB3ANQ's monitor the more powerful beacons from DL6NL
and G3GKI appeared at first. But approximately 20:30 utc my
weak triangle wave showed up too.


*** 3. Oktober 2005  -  160 mW ***


As often before the longpath signal was stronger in ZL than on short path.