Ham Radio > NCDXF Beacons
Vector > Ham Radio > NCDXF Beacons
Data Source: NCDXF Beacon Project
Website: https://www.ncdxf.org/beacon/
Description
This layer shows the HF beacons run by the NCDXF/IARU International Beacon Project. There are 18 Beacons, though not all are operating at the present.
At any one time, there can be 5 beacons transmitting, on the following frequencies: 14.100 MHz, 18.110 MHz, 21.150 MHz, 24.930 MHz, and 28.200 MHz.
Each beacon transmits once on each band once every three minutes, 24 hours a day.
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.
At the end of each 10 second transmission, the beacon steps to the next higher band and the next beacon in the sequence begins transmitting.
Beacons are a great way to determine the current HF propagation conditions, unlike a propagation forecast, which is just a guess.
This Map Layer is a Vector Layer composed of Points, Lines and Labels, so the Style for each of these can be changed as desired by opening the 'Layers Menu' and clicking the relevant Style buttons. The color that you select for 'Labels' applies only to the non-transmitting state. The program changes the label font color and the border color to red if the beacon is transmitting, and to gray if the beacon is currently unavailable.
The Great Circle route-lines that connect a beacon point with the User Location only apply to those beacons that are currently transmitting. The label colors and the label text will change if a beacon is currently transmitting, or if it is off-air.
The 'Additional Layer Features' control on the 'Layers Menu' lets you display connecting lines and changing label text for a specific band, or for all bands.
When viewing the 'NCDXF Beacons' map-layer, you might also find it useful to see extra information about the beacons, including Beacon Footnotes, by typing 'IK' to view the Info Bar's 'NCDXF Beacon' page.