2020 Report for the 60-MHz EI1KNH beacon

The EI1KNH beacon on 60.013 MHz is currently the only operational 5-metre beacon in the world and has been on air since December of 2019. In this post, we'll look at how many times it was spotted on the DX Cluster in 2020.

A total of 6 stations spotted the EI1KNH beacon on 60 MHz during 2020 and the number of spots per individual were... EA3ERE (3), EI7BMB (3), F6HTJ (1), GW0GEI (1), NL8992 (2), SP7VVB (1).

As the map shows above, most were in the region of 800 to 1800kms from the beacon which is a typical distance for Sporadic-E signals at 40 MHz during the Summer season.

Note the reception report by GW0GEI in West Wales at a distance of 175 kms by tropo.

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 60 MHz as they assume they're a mistake.

More information about the EI1KNH beacon can be found here... https://www.qrz.com/db/EI1KNH/

For more information on the 60 MHz band, go to this page... https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/60-mhz.html

The ADIF format now includes the new 5m & 8m bands

 

Amateur Data Interchange Format (ADIF) is an open standard for the exchange of data between various amateur radio software packages from different vendors. For example, it allows for the import and export of data between various logbook programmes.

In the most recent edition updated on the 2nd of September 2020, the new 5-metre (60 MHz) and 8-metre (40 MHz) bands were added.

I.C. Changes from Previous Version
These changes from the previous version may necessitate application code or data changes:
Addition of the FST4 submode to the MFSK mode in the Mode and Submode Enumerations.
Addition of the 5m and 8m bands to the Band Enumeration.
Addition of ARRL-10-GHZ and WW-DIGI to the Contest-ID Enumeration.
(Released ADIF Version 3.1.1, updated 2020/09/02)

While this in itself is a small step, it is part of the process of having 5m & 8m accepted as new amateur radio bands.

(Thanks to Gintas, LY2YR for the heads up on this)

Link...

a) https://www.adif.org/