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AN INTRODUCTION TO BEACON DXING:
Beacon Dxing is a fascinating and challenging aspect of the radio hobby, because unlike many other types of signals, beacons are usually audible on a regular basis, and in many cases are operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. With the constant variations in signal propagation throughout the day and night, there will always be plenty of targets for you to look out for, and during the daylight hours, whilst you will mostly be hearing the ones within local ground wave range, there are always the 'occasional' types, like Oil and Gas Platform Beacons to look out for, and these in themselves always provide a great challenge to the Beacon Hunter. In the winter months when daylight hours are very short, there is always the chance of hearing signals from much greater distances, and of course, after dark when the D Region has dissipated, beacons from very long distances, often thousands of miles away can often be heard. The changes that take place throughout the day and night, along with the constantly varying propagation and Sunspot Cycles, will also bring in more distant beacons from many other parts of the world, often with different directions dominating on some nights. This all helps to make the challenges all the more interesting, and with a little advance planning and knowledge of the right targets to look for, you can be sure that you will have a good chance of finding plenty of them when propagation conditions and local QRM levels permit.
So what is a beacon, and why is it broadcasting you might ask? Well in most cases these are used as 'navaids' (Navigational Aids) by aircraft, ships, oil platforms, military etc. as a means of 'homing' in to a particular location. These have been in use since around the 1930s, and have long played a role in the development of long distance travel. Newer and more advanced technology is bringing and end to some of the older systems, but the introduction of some newer modes like DGPS are bringing many new challenges for beacon Dxers. Many of the beacons should remain active for a few more years yet, and if you would like more information about what systems currently exist, and how they operate, I would strongly recommend that you download a copy of my 'Beacon Hunter's Handbook' from the Beaconworld 'Library' section, and also check out the links to a number of the beacon manufacturers' websites from the Beaconworld 'Useful Beacon Links' page.
As well as the more conventional navaids there are also a large number of 'propagation' beacons operated by radio amateurs. These are very useful in showing us which parts of the world signals are propagating from, and many hams use them to check for band openings, or carrying out research into how propagation works. These can also be great fun to chase, and of course most of the beacon operators are only too pleased to receive reports about where their signals are reaching. If you have other questions, but can't find the answer that you're looking for in any of the pages on this site, then please do drop me a line and I'll try my best to help.
You can contact me at:  webmaster at beaconworld.org.uk (you'll need to replace the 'at' with an @ symbol)
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