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1996-06-25
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NOTES
for
Amateur Radio
"DX Gazetteer"
&
"DX Bearing & Distance Tables"
w2iol
06 April 1993
CONTENTS
1. General Information on the ``DX Bearing'' & ``DX
Gazetteer'' Tables.................................
2. Paper, Pictures and PCs............................
3. Amateur Radio Prefix References....................
4. DX QTH Latitude & Longitude Coordinates............
5. Short Path Bearings, Returns & Distances...........
6. Long Path Data from Short Path Data................
7. VUCC Grid Locators.................................
8. ITU Regions........................................
9. Continents.........................................
10. Amateur Radio Zones................................
11. ``STATUS''.........................................
12. DX Awards..........................................
13. USA Third Party Traffic Treaties & Reciprocal
Licensing/Operating Agreements.....................
14. Time & Time Again..................................
15. HF Time & Frequency Standard Stations..............
16. National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ)...................
17. Northern California DX Foundation's (NCDXF) HF
Beacons............................................
18. Suggestions and Errors.............................
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1. General Information on the ``DX Bearing'' & ``DX Gazetteer''
Tables
a. The Amateur Radio DX Gazetteer includes latitude and longitude
coordinates, and status in DXCC, United Nations, ITU, etc. This
is the version at ARRL as "dxcc-w2iol-a-p" and "dxcc-w2iol-q-z"
and "dx_wiol.dat" on the Ham CD-ROM.
b. The DX Bearing Tables include Great Circle bearings, returns and
distances, time differences (DX - local), DXCC status, etc.
The Bearing tables can be produced for worthy causes at no cost.
c. CONTENTS for BEARING & GAZETTEER TABLES
DATA SET
______________________
DXCC "Country", "City"
Antarctic Bases
Continental U.S.A.
NCDXF HF Beacons
d. The Gazetteer and Bearing tables are available in prefix or
"country/city" order. The prefix order is 0-9-A-Z. The
"country/city" order is used for the gazetteer at ARRL and on
the CD-ROM. For a handy prefix order list see K2DI's DXCC list.
e. A special "Field Day" bearing version in prefix order that
covers the US and Canada by ARRL sections and divisions is also
available.
2. Paper, Pictures and PCs
Someone once said that a picture is worth 30 dB words. All the
bearing and distance information, accurate enough for almost all ham
radio purposes, can be found graphically very easily from an
azimuthal-equidistant global map centered on or anywhere near (by
many, many miles) the home QTH. Such maps are much more enlightening
as to what is happening than tables, such as DX Bearing Tables. They
also make a nice wall decoration and a good introductory discussion
piece, especially for non- (potential) hams. The ARRL Operating
Manual has about 20 such maps that are centered on various parts of
the world.
Suppliers of personalized A-E maps advertise in the ham magazines.
The ARRL and the Callbook sell multi-colored versions centered on
Kansas, the center of the continental USA. Other versions, centered
on major cities such as New York, are available from the US Government
Printing Office and elsewhere if you look around.
Great circle bearings from point A to point B do not take into
account other propagation paths such as the "Gray Line" or the
sunrise/sunset terminator path possible between some locations.
Computer DX aids such as "Gray Line Advantage" by MFJ, "The DX Edge"
by Xantek or Geoclock by Ralph Alghren, can show such paths (and start
conversations).
The latitude and longitude coordinates from these tables can be
used as input to any of several "Maximum Usable Frequency" (MUF)
programs to determine the best probable frequencies to attempt contact
between two points on earth for given solar flux and sunspot
conditions for a given day of the year and time of day. See the ARRL
Amateur Radio Handbook and ARRL Antenna Handbook.
A number of personal computer programs combine bearings,
distance, MUF and gray line propagation calculations and the day/night
map display. Thus, the value of this set of tables is not in
providing bearings, which can be obtained easily from the maps or
calculated using any one of dozens of available calculator and
computer programs, but in gathering a variety of DX data together in
one place.
3. Amateur Radio Prefix References
For general references for amateur radio prefixes, see: The ARRL
Operating Manual, "DXCC" By ARRL, Callbooks, "Worked-100-Nations" by
Worldradio, "DX Dynasty Award" by 73, and the Directory of Islands by
RSGB. For the latest prefixes see the DX columns in the magazines
(QST, Ham Radio, CQ and 73) and the many DX newsletters, such as the
DX News-Sheet. Geoff Watts, Norwich, England, publishes a number of
detailed reference guides including, "The ``DXNS'' Prefix-Country-Zone
List," "The ``DXNS'' DXCC Countries Guide," "The ``DXNS'' CQ & ITU
Zones Guide," and "The ``DXNS'' Soviet Oblast Guide." To identify the
home country for new, strange prefixes that appear without notice, see
the ITU prefix allocation tables for each country in the ARRL
Operating Manual, the ARRL Amateur Radio Handbook, or in the
Callbooks, etc.
4. DX QTH Latitude & Longitude Coordinates
Latitude & Longitude
- In Bearing tables, printed to 0.01 degree (truncated,
not rounded)
- In Gazetteer tables, printed to nearest minute
For references for latitude and longitude coordinates, see: US
Department of the Interior Geological Survey (USGS) topological maps,
The National Atlas of the United States, Polar Regions Atlas by the
Central Intelligence Agency, and also various atlases by Rand McNally,
Prentice-Hall, The Times, and other publishers. For a capsule
description of political and geographical points of interest, see
Chapmans World Gazetteer. The Rand McNally College World Atlas, is a
pocket size paperback for 5 dollars. Another compact reference is The
Portable World: A Complete Pocket World Atlas, (in the United Kingdom
sold under the name Philips Small World Atlas) by Willett, Gaylard and
Prince-Smith, published by Avon Books for 9 dollars. These altases
all have an index of locations with latitude and longitude
coordinates. Not all atlases list coordinates. The USGS USA Place
Names data base is now available on IBM PC-compatible disks and CD-
ROMs.
Recommended Reading for DX'ers: George J. Demko, former director
of the U. S. Office of the Geographer, with Jerome Agel and Eugene,
has a book, Why In The World: Adventures in Geography, (Anchor
Doubleday, 1992) that should be read by any DX'er. In addition, Jon
Fisher has two little books called Uninhabited and Deserted Islands
and The Last Frontiers on Earth - Strange Places Where You Can Live
Free, (Loopanics Unlimited, 1983 & 1985). These books describe the
location, geography, climate and general living conditions of many of
the obscure little islands and odd spots on Earth that we call "DX
countries." There are very good reasons why many are normally
uninhabited by sane folks (read non-hams) and why DX-peditions are
necessary to put them on the air.
5. Short Path Bearings, Returns & Distances
a. "BRNG" = Great Circle Bearing from local QTH to DX QTH.
= Short Path Bearing (degrees)
(measured clockwise from geographic or true North)
b. "RTRN" = Return = Great Circle "Reverse" or "Reciprocal" Bearing
from DX QTH to local QTH
= Short Path Return (degrees)
(measured clockwise from geographic or true North)
c. "DSTNC" = Great Circle Distance for Short Path in
"km" = kilometers, "sm" = statute miles, or "nm" =
nautical miles.
6. Long Path Data from Short Path Data
a. (Long Path Angles) = (Short Path Angles) + or - (180 degrees)
c. (Long Path Distance) ~= (Earth Circumference) - (Short Path Distance),
Where Earth Circumference = Average = 40030 km = 24874 sm = 21614 nm
Earth Earth
Radius Circumference
__________|____________|_______________
| 6378.16 km| 40075.2 km
Equatorial| 3963.20 sm| 24901.5 sm
| 3443.92 nm| 21638.2 nm
__________|____________|_______________
| 6356.77 km| 39940.8 km
Polar | 3949.91 sm| 24818.0 sm
| 3432.38 nm| 21566.3 nm
__________|____________|_______________
| 6371.02 km| 40030.3 km
Average | 3958.77 sm| 24873.7 sm
| 3440.08 nm| 21614.7 nm
__________|____________|_______________
The bearing and distance calculations are for an idealized
spherical earth with the "average" circumference. If the truer oblate
spherodial shape were used instead, the distances could change by
10-20 miles for the longer ranges (about 1 part in 300 depending on
distance and direction) and the bearing and return bearing, to the
nearest degree anyway, may not change at all. Unless you are building
a big rhombic antenna, you will never know the difference.
7. VUCC Grid Locators
"VUCC Grid" VHF/UHF Century Club grid location in IARU "Maidenhead" format
by Folke Rosvall, SM5AGM (QST, W1XX, Jan & Oct 83)
Characters Type Area (Long. by Lat.) Name
_____________________________________________________________
1, 2 letters 20d by 10d "field"
uppercase
A-R, S*
3, 4 numbers 2d by 1d "square"
0-9
5, 6 letters 5m by 2.5m "sub-square"
lowercase|-
a-x
* - Grid Locators define an area while latitude and longitude
define a point. Unofficial W2IOL conventions (not approved by SM5AGM)
for Grid Locators treat the North and South geographic poles1 as small
"point" grids. The South Pole "grid" is large enough to cover the
Amundsen-Scott base, KC4AAA.2 The North Pole "grid" would cover a
polar expedition camp site.
"Grid" Pole Notes
______________________________________________
AS00aa North Pole "S" unique to North Pole
AA00aa South Pole KC4AAA
|- - Another unofficial W2IOL convention is the use of lowercase
letters for characters 5 and 6, as a means to better distinguish them
from the uppercase letters for characters 1 and 2.
__________
1. The north and south magnetic and geomagnetic poles are
in the data base. They move around by many miles.
2. The geographic poles wiggle around a little, too.
Someone usually is assigned to move the real pole stuck
at the South Pole a few feet every so often.
__________
Examples:
Latitude Longitude Grid Locator
_________________________________________
40d 46.9m N 074d 41.4m W = FN20ps
40d 46.9m S 074d 41.4m E = ME79if
40d 46.9m S 105d 18.6m E = OE29pf
40d 46.9m N 105d 18.6m W = DN70is
Only the first four characters that are used for VUCC awards are
printed in the tables. There are 32,400 distinct 2d by 1d grid
squares. (If we counted the unofficial "point" grids for the North
and South poles, there would be 32,402.)
The ARRL World Locator Atlas by SM5AGM has maps showing all the
grid squares and also Basic language programs that can be used to
calculate the grid locator from latitude and longitude and vice versa,
as well as bearings and distances given grid locators. See also: The
ARRL Grid Locator (for US and Canada) map. The "VHF Plus" column in
CQ magazine for December 1992 discusses the history of grid square
locator systems.
8. ITU Regions
"ITU" = International Telecommunications Union, Geneva
"ITU rgn" = ITU "Frequency Allocation Regions"
ITU REGION AREA (Brief Description)
________________________________________________________________________________
1 Europe, Africa, Iceland, "Middle East", Turkey, U.S.S.R., Mongolia
2 North America, South America, Greenland, North Pacific
3 Asia-not-in-1, Iran, Australia, South Pacific.
For more precise boundaries, see the ITU Region map in QST,
October 1988.
9. Continents
The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) "Worked All
Continents" (WAC) awards program uses the following definitions for
"continents."
CT Continent
_________________________________________________________
Af Africa
An Antarctica (not used for WAC)
(Af, As, SA & Oc used for Antartica.)
As Asia
Eu Europe
NA North America
SA South America
Oc "Oceania"
= Australia + (most of Indian and Pacific Oceans)
See Callbook maps for continent boundaries. The Callbook has the
Egyptian Sinai peninsula in Africa, while the encyclopedias have it in
Asia. Amazingly, the normal "civilian" atlases rarely show continent
boundaries.
10. Amateur Radio Zones
"CQ" "CQ" Zones (1 to 40)
Used for CQ Magazine "Worked-All-Zone" awards
"IT" "ITU" Zones 1 to 75 defined by the ITU
= ITU "Geographical Broadcast Reception Zones"
+
"IARU/Callbook" Zones 76 to 90
for
ocean areas not specified by ITU|-.
Used for the IARU "Radiosport Contest"
& for "World ITU Zones" awards by K6YK
|- - These undefined-by-ITU areas usually have no land area above
water. One exception is Minami Torishima (JD) that is located in the
Pacific in Callbook-defined zone 90 and near-but-not-in ITU-defined
zone 45. It is sometimes listed as ITU zone 45 and sometimes 90. See
the ARRL Operating Manual and Callbook maps for "CQ" and "ITU" zone
boundaries.
11. ``STATUS''
#
ABRV RELATIONSHIP Entities
_________________________________________________________________
UN United Nations member* 180
IT ITU member* 165?
DX DXCC by American Radio Relay League 330
= "DX Century Club"
Is "Island DX Award" (IDX) by 169
Whidbey Island DX Club
73 "DX Dynasty Award" = DXDA by 73 Magazine 402
WR "Worked-100-Nations" = W-100-N by Worldradio 226|-
3P USA 3rd Party Traffic Treaties 43
RL USA Reciprocal Licensing & Operating Agreements 71
* Almost all UN members are also ITU members, and vice versa.
Exceptions include:
Switzerland & Vatican City that are ITU members, but not UN.
Switzerland is an Observer at the UN.
Bhutan, Dominica, Namibia, Seychelles & Vanuatu are UN members,
but not ITU.
Radiosporting magazine's "DX Centurion Award" program uses the
DXCC entity list.
|- The W-100-N total does not include Malyj Vysotskij (4J1) or
Rotuma Island (3D2) or many other amateur radio DX "countries." The
W-100-Nation intention is to include only sovereign nations, with
their own independent governments. Colonies, dependents, military or
research bases, and properties of the sovereign entities are counted
as the same as the home nation. Thus, the W-100-N entity total is the
smallest of the worldwide DX awards.
The Whidbey Island DX Club's "Island DX Awards" program uses the
DXCC entities that are defined as islands by the National Geographic
Society. The Directory of Islands by the Radio Society of Great
Britain (RSBG), that is used for the "Islands on the Air" (IOTA)
Award, lists 12 pages of islands for the world.
Most of the deleted DXCC entities, those that still have a
recognizable geographic location, appear in the tables under the
current valid entity.
During 1990, North and South Yemen joined, East and West Germany
re-united and East and West Berlin re-united.
In 1991, the Soviet Union (USSR) broke up into 15 separate
countries. Ten of them have formed a loose "Commonwealth of
Independent States" (CIS). Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia and
Lithuania are going their own ways for now. "CIS" has replaced "USSR"
in the tables.
In 1992, Yugoslavia disintegrated into four entities. In January
1993, Czezhoslovakia peacefully broke into the Czech Republic and the
Slovak Republic. Several other groups are trying to claim their own
territories within existing countries or lapping across two or more
nations. Several of these potential new "countries" are listed in the
tables under the existing entity.
During the '70s and '80s the former Canadian Northwest
Territories (NWT) districts of McKenzie and Franklin were divided into
the districts of Baffin, Invuvik, Keewatin, Kitikmeot and Ft. Smith.
Most of the eastern part of NWT is now becoming the new Inuit (Eskimo)
territory of Nunavut with the capital at either Resolute or Iqaluit.
The western NWT may be given a new name, perhaps Denendeh.
The DXCC Advisory Council is continually reviewing petitions for
acceptance of new places for DXCC status.
12. DX Awards
For information on:
AWARD TITLE SPONSOR
___________________________________________________
DXCC DX Century Club ARRL
IOTA Islands on the Air RSGB, G3KMA
WAC Worked All Continents IARU
WAZ Worked All Zones CQ
WITUZ World ITU Zones K6YK
WPX World Prefixes CQ
"WUN"? Worked UN(?) Kansas Radio Club?
and many, many, many more amateur radio DX award programs see: the
ARRL Operating Manual, The DX Awards Directory by K1BV, and the
"Awards" columns in 73, CQ, Worldradio, and many DX newsletters.
13. USA Third Party Traffic Treaties & Reciprocal Licensing/Operating
Agreements
"3P" "3PTT" USA Third Party Traffic Treaties
"RL" "RLOA" USA Reciprocal Licensing / Operating Agreements
These agreements and treaties usually also include territories of
the given country. For example: British and French territories
follow the home country. For Antarctic base stations, see individual
home countries listed for 3PTT or RLOA.
For Emergencies or Special Events, temporary agreements are
sometimes arranged with countries other than those listed. Otherwise:
Third Party Traffic, even an informal greeting, is illegal.
For the United Kingdom, Third Party Traffic is legal only with
pre-arranged "GB" prefix stations. "GB3" prefixes are excluded from
this agreement! An example is GB8SD, ("Scottish Day") (Kilmarnock or
Glasgow, Scotland) arranged for message traffic to and from the annual
Bellcore Pioneers "Scottish Day at Bonnie Brae" benefit event for the
Bonnie Brae boy's home (Millington, NJ, USA). Pitcairn Island (VR6)
follows an informal agreement for allowing handling of messages
dealing with health, safety and vital supplies.
See QST for June 1990 (page 58), and CQ for March 1990 (pages
90-92) and the Callbooks for more on 3rd Party Traffic Treaties and
Reciprocal Licensing/Operating Agreements and late changes.
14. Time & Time Again
One part of daily planning for DXing is figuring out when the
hams of the world are likely to be on the air operating versus
sleeping or working. The world daylight/nighttime maps by "Gray Line
Advantage," "The DX Edge" and "Geoclock" and a number of other dx
programs show this very clearly. You can see where hams are working
noon-time DX on 20 meters or grayline at dawn or dusk, or sound asleep
in the middle of the night. If you don't have either of these aids or
an equivalent, you figure it out with a quick mental calculation with
the time information in these tables.
World "time zones", used for everyday living, "clock time," are
defined as twenty-four one-hour-wide (15d) (usually) longitudinal
slices. Clock time increases eastward of of the "prime" or
"Greenwich" meridian (0d E/W) that passes through the Greenwich
Observatory, Greenwich, England, and decreases westward. "Ideal" one
hour zones are centered on a meridian of longitude that is a multiple
of 15d longitude.
Geographical and political boundaries don't match this ideal of
time zones centered on 15d intervals, so most time zone boundaries zig
and zag to reflect human needs and political realities. Several time
sub-zones are offset x hours plus 30 minutes to better match local
sunrises and sunsets. Liberia (-0045) and the Chatham Islands (+1245)
are offset by 15 (or 45) minutes. The World Book Encyclopedia has one
of the clearest world time zone maps. Saudia Arabia observes "Sun
Time" that goes by actual sunset and sunrise times (in the +0300 hour
time zone band). Arctic and Antarctic polar regions, with months of
daylight and darkness at a time, usually observe GMT. Even though it
spans 31/2 time zones, the People's Republic of China uses, or at
least is supposed to use, only the time zone (+0800) for Biejing. For
the Chinese in the far west, this is equivalent to the people in
California trying to live on Boston time.
The time zone at Greenwich has been commonly called "Greenwich
Mean Time", or more often just "GMT." (In military jargon, the term
"ZULU" time is also often used to refer to "GMT".) Local standard
times are referred to as being "ahead" (+hhmm, east) of GMT, or
"behind" (-hhmm, west) of GMT. The actual date changes at the
"International Date Line" that zigs and zags near 180d E/W longitude
where locations to the east of Greenwich are 12 hours ahead and
locations to the west of Greenwich are 12 hours behind. When crossing
the Date Line, one "gains" a day going west or "loses" a day going
east.
"Universal Coordinated Time" or "UTC" (from the French,
"Universelle Tiempes Coordinate") is now the proper term for the
reference time at the prime/Greenwich Meridian.3 UTC is adjusted every
so often by a "leap second" to compensate for variations in the
earth's rotation. Standard time stations, like WWV, follow these
adjustments. There are other "standard times" that are used for
astronomy and other scientific purposes.
To make better use of available daylight as the sunrise and
sunset times shift through the year, many locations shift their clocks
one hour ahead of "Local Standard" time from mid-spring to mid-autumn
to "Daylight Savings Time" (DST) or "Summer Time".
The "DX Bearing" and "DX Gazetteer" tables use the following
conventions:
a. "Greenwich Mean Time" (GMT)/(UTC)
"GMT" = (DX QTH Standard Time) - GMT
"+hhmm" = DX QTH Standard Time ahead (east) of GMT
by hh hours & mm minutes
"-hhmm" = DX QTH Standard Time behind (west) of GMT
by hh hours & mm minutes
b. Time Differences:
DX QTH Standard relative to Local (Home) QTH Standard
"TMDF" = "Standard Time Difference"
= (DX QTH Standard Time) - (Local QTH Standard Time).
"+hhmm" = DX QTH Standard Time ahead (east) of Local
"-hhmm" = DX QTH Standard Time behind (west) of Local
c. "DST" = Daylight Savings Time or Summer Time
"+N" Entities in the northern hemisphere that
advance local standard time by one hour
between March/April and September/October.
"+S" Entities in the southern hemisphere that
advance local standard time by one hour
between September/October and March/April.
__________
3. UTC is one of family of "universal times" that also
includes UT0, UT1 and UT2, that account for the
variations in the Earth's orbit around the sun and are
used for various scientific purposes.
__________
England, France, Spain and Mexico observe
"Summer"/"Savings" time year around. Several of the European
ex-USSR countries have changed their time zone from +0300 to
+0200.
In the US, by state law, Arizona uses Mountain Standard
Time (MST, -07:00) from October to April and Pacific Daylight
Savings Time (PDST, -07:00) from April to October. However,
Indian reservations in Arizona do observe normal Mountain DST.
So the towns of Page, Tsaile and Whiteriver may observe DST. In
addition, Kentucky allows local option for DST. The story on
how the US time zone and savings time system came about is told
in the article, "Standard and Daylight-saving Time," by Bartky
and Harrison in Scientific American, May 1979.
15. HF Time & Frequency Standard Stations
Twenty-seven high frequency (2-30 mHz) time and frequency
standard stations are indicated in curly brackets ({}). For examples:
{ WWV }, { WWVH }, { CHU }, { JJY }, ...
The "city" latitudes and longitudes used in the tables in these
cases are actually the "standard" station coordinates, not the "city"
center. For example, standard station RWM (55d 48m N 38d 18m E) is
about 20 km east of downtown Moscow (Moskva), USSR (55d 45m N 37d 42m
E).
The radio based navigation systems, LORAN-C, Omega, Transit and
NAVSTAR/Global Positioning System (GPS), and the CIS (ex-Soviet)
GLONASS depend on maintaining extremely accurate time and frequency
and can be used as standards for most purposes. See Reference Data
for Engineers: Radio, Electronics, Computer, and Communications
published by H. W. Sams and Reference Manual for Telecommunications
Engineering by R. L. Freeman, Recommendations and Reports of the CCIR,
1986, Volume VII, "Standard Frequencies and Time Signals," and also
NIST (former NBS) Special Publication 432, "NIST Time and Frequency
Services."
16. National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ)
a. NRQZ Boundaries:
Parts of Virginia & West Virginia
Bounded by
37d 30m N to 39d 15m N in Latitude &
78d 30m W to 80d 30m W in Longitude.
b.
The purpose of the NRQZ is to protect:
NRAO National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Green Bank, WV at 38d 26.4m N 079d 49.8m W
&
NRL Naval Research Laboratory
Sugar Grove, WV at 38d 30.7m N 079d 18.6m W
For more information on the NRQZ, see "Happenings," pages 53-54,
QST, June 1981.
17. Northern California DX Foundation's (NCDXF) HF Beacons
The Northern California DX Foundation (NCDXF) supports beacon
stations on 20 meters at 14.100 MHz at various locations around the
world. Whether the sunspots are hot or not, these beacons serve to
indicate openings to various parts of the world, help calibrate your
"S" meter, and act as in-band time and frequency standards. In early
1989, the USA FCC approved similar beacons for 21.150 and 28.200 mHz.
Other countries have not acted as of yet.
Schedule: Each beacon occupies a one-minute time slot on a
rotating basis with the others. For example, 4U1UN/B at the U.N.
headquarters in New York City is on the air at every "0" minute; i.e.
at the top of the hour, at 10 minutes after, at 20 minutes after, etc.
For now, there is no station for the nine minute slot. (Other
stations may be off the air occasionally for maintenance, having been
stolen, etc).
Output sequence: Each message begins and ends with a CW id at
100 watts. In between, the beacon broadcasts a series of continuous
tones at 100, 10, 1, and 0.1 watts.
TIME CALL LOCATION
_________________________________
00 4U1UN/B New York
01 W6WX/B California
02 KH6O/B Hawaii
03 JA2IGY Japan
04 4X4TU/B Israel
05 OH2B Finland
06 CT3B Madeira Island
07 ZS6DN/B South Africa
08 LU4AA/B Argentina
09 _____/B [ None for now ]
Also, at minute 02, the W6WX beacon at Stanford University
broadcasts on 21.150 mMHz. At minute 03, it transmits on 28.200 MHz
and it is then silent until its turn on 14.100 MHz at minute 11, etc.
The other beacons will eventually follow on 21.15 and 28.20 MHz.
Reports: The DX Foundation is eager to get reception reports.
They've even worked up a way for individual stations to best evaluate
day-to-day propagation changes. (It's based on assigning numbers to
the different power levels and adding up the total you can hear.)
For more information, contact:
Northern California DX Foundation
P.O. Box 2368
Stanford, CA 94309.
Put "Beacon Info" or some such on the envelope so it will immediately
be routed to the Beacon Manager without someone having to open your
letter to find out what it's about.
The foundation is more and more these days going by the name "The
DX Foundation" to avoid confusion with the Northern California DX
Club, which is an entirely separate group. So, the formal name is
still NCDXF, but don't let it throw you if you hear the shorter
version.
Happy beaconing!
[These "Beacon" notes are courtesy of Patty Winter, N6BIS.]
See also:
ARRL Operating Manual,
"20 Meter Beacons Revisited" by W5AE, QST, December 1988.,
"Tuning the 20 Meter Beacon Network" by K4TWJ, CQ, March 1984, &
"Worldwide Beacon Net: ..." by W6ISQ & K6RU, QST, June 1983.
18. Suggestions and Errors
Please refer suggestions and errors to W2IOL,
rcmcc@canis.bellcore.com.
06 April 1993
