(Araucaria) [Fwd: [CQ-Contest] "Reverse Beacon" Progress Report]

[Felipe Ceglia - PY1NB]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [CQ-Contest] "Reverse Beacon" Progress Report
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:25:03 -0400
From: Pete Smith <n4zr em contesting.com>
To: CQ-Contest em contesting.com

In the last 48 hours, we have had 8 "reverse beacons" online, using various
broadband SDR receivers and VE3NEA's CW Skimmer software to sample what
stations are being heard on various bands at their QTHs.  Many people have
reported sending CQ with their antennas pointed in the appropriate
direction and seeing themselves "spotted" with seconds.  If you would like
to see what spots are coming in now, go to http://skimmer.dxwatch.com .  If
you would like to see which "reverse beacons" are active and which bands
they are listening on, go to http://skimmer.dxwatch.com/skimmers.php

In the meantime, we are still looking actively for additional stations to
fill in our geographic distribution.  The US east coast, western Europe and
Brazil are all represented on one band or another, but we need additional
bands covered everywhere, and additional sites in East Asia, the western
United States, Australia/New Zealand, and Russia.  If you'd like to join
us, or just try it out, all you need is a broadband SDR receiver of some
sort (a US$13 SoftRock works just fine), a trial copy of the CW Skimmer
software, and a small freeware application called "the aggregator",
available for download at
http://skimmer.dxwatch.com/downloads/skimmer_aggregator.zip

All you need to do is set up and run CW Skimmer, fill in your callsign and
grid square, and then run the aggregator.  It will take care of the details
of forwarding your spots to the hub server, at http://skimmer.dxwatch.com
.  We are working on some additional tutorials and a FAQ for the site, but
in the meantime, why not try it - it's fun!

73, Pete N4ZR

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