10 FEB 2014
70MHZ BEACON (GENERAL INTEREST)
Mike Schaffer KA3JAW would like to remind everyone in the British Isles and Europe that the WG2XPN 70.005 MHz beacon is active.
Some operators were mistakenly under the impression that beacon was active only during the summer season.
The beacon is on 70.005 MHz CW mode running 3 kW ERP beamed at 60 degrees towards Europe using a three element Yagi at 15 metres height on top the peak of Apple Orchard Mountain (1280 metres) along the Blue Ridge mountain range of Virginia state in Maidenhead grid square - FM07fm.
Thus far, there have been no reported detection of this beacon since the New Year 2014 from ITU region one.
The last ITU region one reception was last year on July, 7, 2013 at 1719 UTC from DI2MN (JN58wh) via Sporadic-E with a signal report of 559 QSB at a distance of 7092 km.
Also on the same date at 1710 UTC operator IS0AWZ (Sardinia Is.) Italy (JM49ng) detected the transmission at 7387 km with a report of 419 to 429 via 4x Es!