Friday, April 13, 2007

New Drippy Pirate Beacon

A pirate beacon on 6626.0 kHz (dial freq in USB mode) has been reported. It produces a low chirping noise approximately 3 times per second. It is said to sound like a quickly dripping faucet.

The beacon is audible here right now, way down in the noise that has been S5 ever since yesterday's wind storm. Propagation points to the usual SW US location, perhaps the California or Arizona desert.

UPDATE 15 Apr: All bets are off on this signal. It's being heard in places where propagation would simply not happen from the SW US at that time of day on 6 Mhz. One person suggested it's a Link-11 that is so weak all you hear is the pong, pong, pong tone of the bursts. However, most Link-11 has different burst lengths, and this one's regular.