Illegal Fishing Buoy on the 28 MHz WSPR Frequency

Back in June of 2018, I had a post up about how I had noticed an illegal fishing buoy on the FT8 frequency of 28.074 MHz. Today, I noticed one on the WSPR frequency of 28.1246 MHz.

Truth be told, these things are all over the bottom of the 10-metre band and it's not hard to stumble across them.

The image above shows the fishing buoy on the waterfall display of the WSJT-X programme. It turns on as a carrier which rapidly drifts upwards, settles down and finally gives an ID in morse. The whole transmission lasts for about 10 seconds.

I was listening one day on 28.200 MHz for the International Beacon Project cluster of beacons and sure enough, there was one there as well.

From what I understand, they are used to mark the position of fishing nets at sea and are almost impossible to police or regulate.