A 50 Mhz multimode Antarctic radio beacon has been installed at Esperanza Base (WAP ARG-Ø4), Argentine Antarctic Territory. Locator: GC16MO
The purpose of the radio beacon is to provide the world’s radio amateur community with a tool
for propagation studies and detect openings in the 6m band, operating 24 hours a day all year
from the Esperanza Joint Antarctic Base in Argentine Antarctic Territory.
For this purpose, a new concept of operation was designed to take advantage of the automatic reception and recording systems that operate in the world such as PSK Reporter and CW.
Skimmer and at the same time that it can be received by radio amateurs that operate in FT8 and Morse code radiotelegraphic mode. auditory reception in real time.
For this purpose, the 50.313 MHz radio frequency was selected, which is the one used in FT8 mode and with the most traffic in the world.
The FT8 signal is emitted at 2500 Hz so as not to affect normal QSO traffic, likewise the CW signal is emitted at the same frequency to be detected manually or automatically by other systems. In FT8 mode it is broadcast both in odd and even sequence to allow its reception regardless of the operational configuration of the radio amateurs at any given time. The broadcast sequence is:
Chronogram according to the seconds of the minute.
00) CQ BCN LU1ZV GC16 (en FT8)
15) ESPERANZA BCN (en FT8)
30) VVV DE LU1ZV BCN GC16 AR (en CW)
45) stand by.
Transmit power: 3W, Half wave dipole antenna on sloper facing north.
Conceptual design: Andrés Travainni LU3HO & Alejandro Alvarez LU8YD
Hardware and software design, as well as Construction and donation: Andrés Travainni LU3HO
Antenna: Alejandro Alvarez LU8YD
Installation at Base Esperanza: Alejandro Alvarez LU8YD, Juan Benavente LU8DBS and Alejandro Petrecca
TNX Alejandro Alvarez LU8YD