In this post, we'll look at the OZ7IGY beacon in Denmark which transmits on 40.071 MHz and how many times it was spotted on the DX Cluster in 2021.
Looking through the DX Summit DX-Cluster, I could only find 12 spots for the beacon on 40 MHz in 2021 and that was from just 9 stations. This is in marked contrast to the 146 spots from 16 stations in 2020.
(The 21M085 is I presume a CB station in Sweden who spotted it on the DX cluster. He was supposed to be 116km from the beacon so I made a rough assumption about his location.)
I was wondering initially if there was something wrong with the cluster as there seems to have been a large drop in DX spots in 2021.
There were no spots during the months of June, July or August which suggests to me that the beacon was off air during the Sporadic-E season. Considering I can see plenty of spots for the Irish 40 MHz beacons during the same time period, it would certainly suggest that the Danish 40 MHz was not transmitting.
The beacon itself was certainly off air while a fault in the PA stage was being repaired in September & October so perhaps it was operating with no RF output from late May 2021 until the end of August 2021??
Here are the top spotters for 2021...
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| # of spots for OZ7IGY/B on the DX Cluster |
Curious Fact... As of the end of 2021, there are a total of about 500 spots for the OZ7IGY beacon since it first became operational on 40 MHz in 2007. Out of all of the spots, there isn't one from outside Europe. There are no double hop Sporadic-E reports. There must have been plenty of times when the 40 MHz signal was audible in North America and South Africa.
DX Cluster... If you do hear the beacon then make sure to report it on dx-clusters like DXSummit or DXMaps as some of the other clusters ignore spots for 40 MHz as they assume they're a mistake.
More information about the OZ7IGY beacon can be found here... http://www.oz7igy.dk/
For more information on the 40 MHz band, go to this page... https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html
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