Beacons
The NCDXF (Link will open in your Browser), in cooperation with the IARU (Link will open in your Browser), construct and operate a worldwide network of high-frequency radio beacons on 14.100, 18.110, 21.150, 24.930, and 28.200 MHz bands. These beacons help both amateur and commercial high-frequency radio users assess the current condition of the ionosphere, as well as performing a useful check on your receiving equipment. The entire system is designed, built and operated by volunteers at no cost except for the actual price of hardware components, shipping costs, and so on.
The beacons provide reliable signals that are always on the air, around the clock, from fixed locations worldwide. Within three minutes of listening for the beacons, one can find out either where a particular band is open or which band has the best propagation to a particular part of the world. In order to know which beacon is transmitting at any time, and on which frequency it can be heard, click the 'Plot > Plot Points > Beacons' radio-button. For a fuller display of beacons, see the Global Overlay Mapper's NCDXF Beacon tool, which provides all the real-time information you will need.
Adding the Beacons to the map provides a useful amount of basic Beacon information. When the Beacons are shown for the first time after the program restarts, the program will query the NCDXF website to see the latest beacon status. An extra panel, marked 'Beacon Band' is shown in the bottom-right of the map. This panel lets you select which band you are interested in. The chosen band will then dictate the beacon label-colors on the map:
If a beacon is currently transmitting on the chosen band, its label will be colored red.
If the beacon status is currently 'Off', its label will be colored gray.
If the beacon status is currently OK, but it is not transmitting, its label will be colored to the chosen points-color for the current background map.
The beacons transmit their signals in a pre-ordered sequence that repeats every three minutes, throughout the day and night. A transmission consists of the callsign of the beacon sent at 22 words per minute followed by four one-second dashes. The callsign and the first dash are sent at 100 watts. The remaining dashes are sent at 10 watts, 1 watt and 100 milliwatts. The Beacon labels show which stations are transmitting, and on which frequencies, by indicating the 'start-of-transmission' point in red.
You can hover your mouse over the beacon-label to see the associated city and country names, or hover over the small square block adjacent to the beacon's callsign to read the short-path and long-path bearings from your station to the beacon on the StatusBar below.
The accuracy of the beacon timing depends on the accuracy of your computer's clock - I would recommend that you automatically synchronise your computer's clock with 'time.windows.com', by clicking on the clock on the Windows taskbar and choosing the 'Internet Time' tab. An alternative is to use the highly-recommended Meinberg NTP (Link will open in your Browser) package. Do not use the oft-quoted 'Dimension 4' program, as this software has not been updated since 2004, and is no longer reliable.