BEACONS
The 6m and 2m beacons are located at the University of Port Elizabeth main building. These units were installed and are maintained by Al, ZS2U and Mike, ZS2FM. As can be seen from the pics, the site has a fair elevation!
The 2m Beacon Transmitter - A PYE T402 commercial transmitter, rated at 30W
continuously keyed.
This unit is set to 20W output. CW ID is done by means of a EPROM-based
keyer built many moons ago, and can be seen on the right just behind the
front heatsink. This keyer provides FSK of the carrier frequency by
means of a varicap across the TX Crystal.
The 6m beacon can be seen here below the 2m unit pictured above.
The basis of
this unit is an ex-army VHF rig, driving a home-brew RF power amplifier.
The 6m dipole and 2m 5 element
yagi used as antennae on the beacons.
A view over Port Elizabeth
from the top of the UPE building!
OM's Mike, ZS2FM (behind the
spanner) and Al, ZS2U (looking on) changing the 2m antenna azimuth during
July 2000.