New Irish Beacon on 60 MHz Now on the Air

Back in early 2018, the 60 MHz (5-metre) band was allocated to radio amateurs in Ireland (EI) on a secondary non-interference basis. Now we have news that the very first beacon on 60 MHz went on air on the 16th of December 2019 using the call EI1KNH.

It is on 60.013 MHz and runs 25 watts into a vertical folded dipole. This is currently the only 5-metre beacon operational in the world.

The new 5-metre beacon is co-sited with some of the existing Irish beacons - EI0SIX on 50 MHz and EI4RF on 70 MHz. The elevated site has a locator of IO63VE and is located about 20 kms to the south of Dublin.

More Information - https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2019/12/new-irish-beacon-on-60-mhz-now-on-air.html

New Arkansas Beacon on Air

Bob AB5N has announced he has placed a new CW/FT-8 2 metre beacon on the air in Hot Springs, Arkansas using the RFzero board. 144.275.

Using a 5 watt PA brick after it into a Halo antenna at 750ft above 540 ft average terrain. Reports from 275 miles out have come in with no enhancement.

Three New Amateur Radio Beacons in Belgium

Belgium's national amateur radio society the UBA reports three new beacons were added to the ON0VHF site in JO20SP on 23rd October 2019

The 13 cm beacon has been in operation since mid-September.

23 cm - Frequency: 1296.875 (GPS controlled) 8 W - slot antenna 16 dBi

13 cm - Frequency: +/- 2320.888 (not yet GPS controlled, changes to 2320.875 in December) 1.5 W - slot antenna

6 cm - Frequency: 5760.880 (GPS controlled) 200 mW - slot antenna

3 cm - Frequency: 10368.825 (GPS controlled) 7 W - slot antenna 12 dBi

The beacons were mounted on the same site as the 2m and 70cm beacons of ON0VHF at a height of +/- 30m AGL.

Contributed to this project: ON4IV, ON5TA, ON7RX, ON7UN, ON4BCB and F6DPH.

Reception reports are very welcome!