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Review of HF propagation analysis & prediction programs
58
programs at a glance
Beacons
of the NCDXF/IARU Network are
mainly used to "feel" the propagation to different countries of
the world, as far as the circuit is reciprocal. In a continuous way, 24 hours a
day and all through the year, up to 18 beacons
are emitting on 14.100, 18.110, 21.150, 24.930 and 28.200 MHz. On each of these
frequencies, during three minutes and without interruption each station in turn
transmits its callsign during 10 seconds in CW at 22 wpm at four power
level decreasing gradually from 100 watts to 10 watts, 1 watt and 0.1 watt. Signals
are synchronized with GOS time signals.
Every 10 seconds, the next beacon listed
starts emitting while the previously transmitting beacon setup up one band (from
20m to 17m, etc). After 50 seconds of transmitting, a beacon has cycled through
all five bands, and remains silent for 130 seconds. At multiples of 3 minutes
past the hour, all 18 stations have completed their transmission on 20 meters and 4U1UN
starts another cycle.
Most
programs work offline and simulate beacons activity displaying simply the call
sign and sometime the location of the current beacon on a world map. Some
applications using the VOACAP engine include a beacon module but very few predict
the signal strength and
reliability. Only
BeaconSee and PropView from DXLab suite are on-the-air oriented and work online connected to a HF receiver and
antenna.
Do not hesitate to give me your feedback
with any additional information.
DOS
Programs - Non-VOACAP
- VOACAP-based
Beacon
monitors - Web
& Research oriented
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HF
Beacon Tracker - Faros -
BeasonSee - BeaconMap
Beacon-Time Wizard - Active Beacon Wizard++
- BeaconClock - BJBeacon -
Pocket Beacon
- Beacon monitor - DXLab
- WinCAP Wizard 3 - ACE-HF Pro
- DX ToolBox - HFProp
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How
works a beacon monitor program ? This program takes advantage of
the sound card of your PC to display a relative indication of
the signal-to-noise ratio of NCDXF/IARU beacons in real time captured
on your shortwave receiver. First you must connect the DB9 serial port of your receiver
to the one of your computer so that the application can switches
automatically from one band to another. Then you set its amplitude with your
receiver AF control (audio level, set like for a QSO), and eventually you extract the signal out of the background noise setting correctly
your DSP filters (e.g. CW Noise Reduction ON or EDSP ON, CW
Bandwidth 200 Hz, Central frequency 800 Hz). In this way the signal
will be well identified by the system if it can be read. This
will help you to estimate quickly the propagation conditions in
various directions and amateur bands. |
HF
Beacon Tracker
W6NEK,
free |
HF
Beacon Tracker
Created
in 2002 by W6NEK, Frank
LaFranco, this software automatically detects the presence of
beacons. On request it also synchronizes the computer with a time
server. It
can display the beacon status either in a large window with all details
or a summary in a compact window that can be placed anywhere on
screen. A
red indicator (led) means that the beacon is active, X means that it
is off and a blu indicator means that it is operational but with
problems. This application
is free. It runs on Windows platforms with a 16-bit compatible soundcard minimum. It requires
a connection to a HF receiver (serial cable) and an antenna tuned on
HF bands between 14100 kHz and 28200 kHz.
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DXAtlas
Licence,
$25 |
Faros
Released
in 2006, it is a complete NCDXF/IARU Beacon monitor system programmed by
VE2NEA, author of the famous DXAtlas and iono maps.
Faros
automatically detects the presence of beacons, the short and long
path, measures the S/N (dB), QSB (%), and the propagation delay of
signal, as many functions among others that are displayed in graphic
form, and not available to some of its competitors.
Faros,
is compatible with web applications as it generates signal charts at
regular intervals. You can also create logs for analysis purposes.
Faros
deserve your attention. This application runs on Windows platforms Me, 2000
and XP, with a 16-bit compatible soundcard minimum. It requires
a connection to a HF receiver (serial cable) and an antenna tuned on
HF bands between 14100 kHz and 28200 kHz.
30-day-fully-functional free
trial.
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COAA
Freeware
(basic)
or
Licence, $35
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BeaconSee
Written
by Bev Ewen-Smith from the Algarve Astronomy Club in Portugal (COAA),
this program is on-the-air oriented.
Although it is aging, it stands always among the best products available by
its accuracy and the quality of its display, simple but efficient. It supports more
recent transceivers including WinRADIO cards.
If you have registered the
product, select the bands in depressing all five bands buttons from 14 to
28.
BeaconSee comes in two
versions, the basic and the full version, this latter permitting to save
automatically each display on disk (in various time intervals from 3
minutes to 12 hours or after a complete cycle, and in three formats
BMP, GIF or JPG) or to build up a continuous
monitoring without the least human intervention (band change on your
receiver is then automatic). In addition a grey
line freeware map called BeaconMap is bundled when ordering the full
version of BeaconSee. The licence version must be registered on COAA
website to get the key (different for each computer).
When
installed, you have to move the signal in the middle of the current frame.
Each
individual BeaconSee frame records a time slot of 2 hours from left
to right, and displays the 18 HF beacons on each of the five bands from
top (14 MHz) to bottom (28 MHz). Displayed like this, it also
constitutes an excellent educative tool to understand visually how
propagation conditions change according to the frequency and the sun
position (e.g. DX beacons that are weak at daytime become much
stronger close to the gray line, during quiet solar cycles bands
over 14 MHz are almost closed, etc). See a full
operational and automatic BeaconSee system on ON5AU's
website.
This
application runs on all Windows platforms with a 16-bit compatible
soundcard (in practice on all Windows plateforms). It requires
a connection to a HF receiver (serial cable) and an antenna tuned on
HF bands between 14100 kHz and 28200 kHz. Any additional DSP receiver-side
will improve the signal strength.
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PA1ARE
Freeware
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BeaconMap
Created
by PA1ARE, it
displays the NCDXF/IARU beacon currently transmitting on a gray line map of the
world and list its call sign, the country and the time.
For
Windows 95/98/NT platforms.
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Kangaroo Tabor Soft.
Licence,
$25 |
Beacon-Time
Wizard
Complete
NCDXF/IARU Beacon monitor system. It can be interfaced with WinCAP Wizard 3.
For
Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP platforms.
30-day-fully-functional free
trial.
Comes free when ordering
WinCAP
Wizard 3.
With
the passing of Jim Tabor in 2010, Taborsoft products are no
longer supported.
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Kangaroo Tabor
Soft.
Licence,
$10
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Active
Beacon Wizard++
It
displays NCDXF/IARU beacons with their call sign and a selection of solar and geomagnetic bulletin
and alert. Can be advantageously replaced by other products.
For
Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP platforms
21-day-fully-functional free trial.
With
the passing of Jim Tabor in 2010, Taborsoft products are no
longer supported.
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S.
& M. Huntting
Freeware
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BeaconClock
Windows
program updated in 1999 displaying in a small windows the NCDXF/IARU
beacon call sign currently transmitting, time and frequency, distance and
short/long path beam headings from your QTH. In case of
"missing file" error, install the library VBRUN60SP3
or higher.
For
Windows 95/98/NT/2000 platforms
Today,
the website is almost empty and there is no mean to download this
application.
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DC7BJ
Freeware
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BJBeacon
NCDXF/IARU
beacon
monitor written by Rainer in 1998 for DOS but it runs also on
Windows 16- and 32-bits (95/98/NT/XP/ME). It simply displays the
call sign of the current emitter on the specified frequency. The
program being not synchronized with the computer clock, if offers
the possibility to adjust the time with + and - keys.
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DL6IAK
Freeware
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Beacon Monitor
Written
in 2000 by Michael Keller, DL6IAK, this short program (296 KB) opens
a small window to display offline the call sign of the five current NCDXF/IARU
beacons emitting in HF. An additional BEACON.LST file editable by the user
lists the distance and beam heading to each beacon and displays this infomation on
screen below the concerned call sign.
For
all Windows 32-bit platforms.
Today
this concerned website
seems no more active.
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Chris Terwilliger
Freeware
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Pocket
Beacon
This
original program was created in 1997 for the PalmPilot subnotes and
updated in 2003. It displays in real-time the last, current and next NCDXF/IARU
beacon scheduled to transmit on the selected frequency. The list is updated every
ten seconds as the transmitting station jumps to another band. Information
displayed for each station includes the call sign, its distance (short path), and beam heading.
Requires MathLib (otherwhise
is provided). For PalmPilot. No more supported.
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