The radio beacon CS3B on the Portuguese island of Madeira was destroyed in a wildfire on the 12th of October 2023. The image above shows the destroyed radio and what the original ICOM 7200 would have look like. This new radio was only installed in September of 2023
The CS3B was part of the International Beacon Project which is a series of HF beacons operating on 14.100, 18.110, 21.150, 24.930 & 28.200 MHz.
The location of CS3B is shown above off the north-west coast of Africa and it was an ideal location for testing radio propagation on the HF bands to Europe and to North America.
The amount of fire damage to the site was quite extensive as the building housing the beacon was destroyed as well as the antenna as can be seen below.
It's very likely that any traps on the antenna will have been damaged as well by the heat and I suspect the whole antenna will need to be replaced.
The chart above from the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) site shows the beacon operating on the 12th of October 2023 until it stopped suddenly around 15:00 UTC.
As can be seen from the chart above, the last reception reports were for 14:57 UTC.
Considering the extensive damage to the beacon and building, this HF beacon is likely to be off air for some time.
