DK0WCY Beacon 10144 kHz

DK0WCY 10144.0 kHz 24 hours a day with 30 10 Watts to a dipole is known as the "Aurora Beacon". It broadcasts propagation information in CW, RTTY and PSK31.

Transmission on 30m started in 1983 (licence issued 4. January 1983) as part of the ITU World Communication Year (hence WCY) 1983.

It's website is at: http://dk0wcy.de

Transmission Schedule in English: http://dk0wcy.de/schedule_en.html

Datagrams are sent in CW every 10 minutes except H+10 and H+50 which are in RTTY and PSK31 respectively.

Between datagrams a beacon identification is transmitted in CW mode.

The CW Id is: DK0WCY BEACON 4/19/A/N _
In this example A index is 4, MUF is 19 MHz, for the letters please see the table on this page.

You can download the DK0WCY Reference Card in English at: http://dk0wcy.de/refcard_en.htm

A log sheet for recording the data for your reference can be printed from here: http://www.dk0wcy.de/logsheet.htm

This beacon could be heard even in VK when conditions are good. It is however easier to use the signal strength of DDK9 to measure propagation to Northern Germany (Europe).

It also transmits part time on 80m as DK0WCY and full time on 5195 kHz under callsign DRA5.

Update: DK0WCY has moved location from JO44VQ to JO44UO (DL9LBA QTH). In the meantime the antenna is a temporary installation dipole with centre at 6m AGL and ends at 4m AGL running East-West. TX is an ICOM M700 for all 3 bands. 80m TX is currently offline until all 3 Versatowers are errected again.

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