A few pirate beacon reception videos I put on YouTube

[Token]

Howdy all,

I did a few vid captures of some of the beacons that can easily be heard from my location pretty much daily and or 24/7. Just some quick grabs on September 5 and 10, 2010. Later I may add some of the harder to get beacons, but they may be a little noisy, not sure how they are going to turn out. I chose the SDR-IQ and SDR-14 with SpectraView for these recordings as I think the more simple display shows up better in small video than any of the other SDR GUI's. Besides that I simply like the waterfall of SV better than the others here, even if the SDR-IQ is not as good a receiver, on paper, as my Excalibur, my Perseus, or my Flex-5000.


4079.64 kHz, TMP in AZ: YouTube - Pirate Beacon, TMP in SW Arizona, Septembetr 10, 2010, 4079.64 kHz
4089 kHz, I think in Death Valley: YouTube - Pirate beacon, Death Valley Dasher, September 5, 2010, 4088.87 kHz
4096.26 kHz, Hexie: YouTube - Pirate beacon, Hexie in the Mohave Desert, September 10, 2010, 4096.26 kHz
4096.6 kHz, Kelsie: YouTube - Pirate beacon, Kelsie in the Mohave Desert, September 10, 2010, 4096.6 kHz
4097.26 kHz, Inyo Whooper: YouTube - Pirate beacon, Inyo Whooper in the Mohave Desert, September 10, 2010, 4097.25 kHz
4097.8 kHz, un-named dasher near Death Valley: YouTube - Pirate beacon, unknown dasher in California, September 10, 2010, 4097.8 kHz
4102.33 kHz, W, Windy: YouTube - Pirate Beacon, W for Windy, September 5, 2010, 4102.33 kHz
4102.8 kHz, un-named dasher near Death Valley: YouTube - Pirate beacon, unknown dasher in California, September 10, 2010, 4102.8 kHz
5205.36 kHz, Sally: YouTube - Pirate beacon, Sally in the Mohave Desert, September 10, 2010, 5205.36 kHz
6626.4 kHz, Rainy and Rocky together: YouTube - 2 Pirate beacons, Rainey and Rocky, in the Mohave Desert, September 5, 2010, 6626.4 kHz
6626.65 kHz, Rainy alone: YouTube - Pirate beacon, Rainey in the Mohave Desert, September 10, 2010, 6626.65 kHz
6700.5 kHz, Hexie 2: YouTube - Pirate beacon, Hexy 2 in the Mohave Desert, September 5, 2010, 6700.5 kHz
8000.5 kHz, S: YouTube - Pirate beacon, "S" in Colorado, September 05, 2010, 8000.5 kHz
11003.45 kHz, I think this is Echo: YouTube - Pirate beacon, "Echo" in Colorado, September 05, 2010, 11003.45 kHz

4097.8 and 4102.8 kHz un-named dashers, and their synchronization: YouTube - Pirate beacons, synchronized dashers in California, Septr 10, 2010, 4097.8 and 4102.8 kHz

T!
Mohave Desert, California, USA

 

[SCPD]

You going to have to excuse my newbness but what is a pirate beacon for?

 

[Token]

You going to have to excuse my newbness but what is a pirate beacon for?

Mostly because some people want to put them up.

However, they are interesting because they typically are very low power, most are 1 Watt or less and several are under 100 milliWatts (0.1 Watt or less). They can be very tough to pull out of the noise, a real challenge. When you hear one you know the band is really in to that area. They also tend to be in locations not well represented by radio, places such as Death Valley in California.

T!
Mohave Desert, California, USA

 

[E-Man]

Very Cool! How do you make a video capture? And what are you using for antennas?

 

[SCPD]

And what are you using for antennas?

LOL. Token is in the desert. He could put up a coat hanger and probably get better reception than most of us city folk!

 

[ridgescan]

LOL. Token is in the desert. He could put up a coat hanger and probably get better reception than most of us city folk!

the only RFI he gets is from a gekko's butt when it scurries across the dirt

 

[Fast1eddie]

Nice!

 

[Token]

Very Cool! How do you make a video capture? And what are you using for antennas?

The vid capture is very simple. Since I was using an SDR for these receptions (I think all of these were on an SDR-IQ, but one or two might have been on the SDR-14) the display is already on the screen, and the audio is in the Wave Out mix. I use a program called CamStudio to do the video grab off of the desktop.

Because the radio is an SDR I have the option of recording the spectrum to disk and later doing the video grab or I can do the video in real time.

Using a program like Argo for the morse display with HRD for radio control and a traditional radio might be an option to get something somewhat similar without an SDR.

The antennas used for the videos varied, but I would think most of those were done either on my 80M full wave sky loop or my three band single feed dipole (160/80/60). Those two tend to be my general purpose antennas. The Rainy and Rocky together video and the Echo video where probably done on one of my 450 foot Rhombics, the one pointing 035 deg true.

T!
Mohave Desert, California, USA

 

[E-Man]

I have always enjoyed the posted audio recordings, but the Video Capture is the coolest, especially for SDR-IQ/SpectraView users.

Thanks for Sharing, I will look into:

CamStudio - Free Screen Recording Software

 

[k9rzz]

Interesting. I've never heard of these before. How do you know that they are 'pirates' and not drift buoys or such?

 

[Token]

Interesting. I've never heard of these before. How do you know that they are 'pirates' and not drift buoys or such?

Because often the people who put them up and on the air advertise them as such. Also, there are a few web pages dedicated to them. Such as High Frequency Beacon - HF Underground and High Frequency Beacon Society

Also, it helps that I have RDFed and physically found a few of them myself Many of them are in very, even extremely, remote areas.

T!
Mohave Desert, California, USA

 

[k9rzz]

Son of a gun. First I have ever heard of it!

 

[SCPD]

This is all new news to me too. Very interesting. I kinda want to build one now and stick in somewhere is queens NY

 

[E-Man]

I installed CamStudio, and made a video capture, but my video was choppy. I also was not able to record audio, under options I am not able to uncheck record audio?

 

[brandon]

Very interesting videos. I'll have to see if I can pick up any of these.

 

[brandon]

Just tuned around and I'm getting the ones on 4096.26, 4096.60. 4097.80, 4102.33 and 4102.80 kHz

 

[SCPD]

Any idea what kind of antenna they use for those? I'm not hearing any of the ones you listed.

 

[SCPD]

I hear'em now. I switched over to my 300ft wire antenna and I can hear them.

I'm hearing the 4096.26 and 4096.65 tones. Very weak here - doesn't even move my needle.

Also hearing 4102.33 ... much stronger signal and can hear on my vertical.

 

[kilokat7]

Beacon "OK"

Token - the videos are great - thanks for sharing them. I've read about these desert beacons but probably don't stand a chance of hearing them from Michigan so it's neat to be able to hear and see them on your waterfall display. Beacon "OK" has been coming in here at night on 3449.8, rising just above the noise floor. My antenna isn't optimized for shortwave, so I'm probably lucky to even be receiving this beacon! Here's a recent capture for anyone interested:

YouTube - Reception of Pirate Shortwave CW Beacon "OK" from Michigan