UBAKoninklijke Unie van de Belgische Zendamateurs vzw

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Photo: Couloir

A new Next Generation Beacon

Date Until: 
02/04/2013
Today, Saturday 30 March, is the 56th anniversary of OZ7IGY and also the launch date for the new 70 cm beacon based upon the Next Generation Beacon platform: http://www.rudius.net/oz2m/ngnb.

The 70 cm beacon is now frequency and time locked to GPS. The sequence is timed to start at 00 second sending PI4 followed by a short pause then CW ID sending callsign and locator, then pause and carrier until next cycle. The nominal frequency remains the same, i.e. 432,471 MHz. To decode PI4 tune your receiver to 800 Hz below the nominal frequency, just like you do when you want to decode a normal CW signal at 800 Hz. On most radios this is a USB dial of 432.470.2.

At the same time the 6 m, 4 m and 2 m beacons have also changed MGM to PI4. The CW callsign, locator and carrier remain the same.

PI4 is a digital modulation (MGM) specifically designed with beacons and propagation studies in mind.

Download PI-RX to decode PI4: http://www.rudius.net/oz2m/ngnb/pi-rx.

PI4 encoding examples in Arduino C, Atmel C, Delphi Pascal, Microsoft Visual Basic and Microsoft C++: http://www.rudius.net/oz2m/ngnb/software.htm.

PI4 online encoding and frequency calculation: http://www.rudius.net/oz2m/ngnb/pi4encoding.php.

PI4 specification: http://www.rudius.net/oz2m/ngnb/pi4.htm PI4 is a cousin of JT4, JT9 and WSPR.

OZ7IGY status page: http://www.rudius.net/oz7igy.