PS! All beacons have been taken off-air in preperation for a long due renovation of the cabin. None of the beacons below will be transmiting until further notice.

 

ARK develops and maintains radio beacons from JP53EG at the top of Vassfjellet, a local mountain. Each beacon autonomously transmits a morse signal on a specific frequency. We use these for debugging of our radio equipment and for investigating propagation phenomena. The beacons can be heard on the following frequencies:

Not in service / Historical beacons:

  • LA2SHF 1296.963 MHz (23 cm) (QRT: 2019)

If you hear any of these beacons, we’d love to hear about it! We appreciate reports on DX clusters, or you can contact us directly. Details on the equipment and transmitted signals follow below.

LA2VHF

Latest posts on LA2VHF

Multiple incarnations of LA2VHF have existed throughout the times. The current beacon in use was built by LA3JJA and LA8TKA in 1999, and has faithfully and mostly uninterrupted pushed out a long stream of timed morse sequences since then.

It has a directive antenna pointing towards the North, with the intention that back-scatter from Northern lights should reach Europe.

QRG Power Antenna Polarization
144.463 MHz 25W 6-element yagi (pointing towards azimuth 15°) Horizontal

The sent CW signal consists of “LA2VHF JP53EG” and a long tone.

LA2VHF/4m

Latest posts on LA2VHF/4m

LA2VHF/4m was developed by LA7VRA and LA3JPA, and installed at Vassfjellet in 2015. The beacon was based on a 35-4400 MHz CW exciter board designed by LA3JPA Jon Petter in 2012, which has been made open source on GitHub.

QRG Power Antenna Polarization
70.063 MHz ~25 W 1/2 wl vertical Linear (vertical)

The sent CW signal consists of “LA2VHF JP53EG” and a long tone.

LA2SIX

Latest posts on LA2SIX

LA2SIX was developed in 2018 by LA1BFA and LA3WUA. It was licensed in early 2019, and deployed for the first time in the summer of 2019. The beacon is built on top of the same beacon platform as LA2VHF/4.

QRG Power Antenna Polarization
50.488 MHz ~25 W Diplexed with LA2VHF/4 Linear (vertical)

LA2UHF

Latest posts on LA2UHF

LA2UHF was QRT for five years, until it was refurbished by LA3JPA and LA7VRA in 2015 using the same beacon platform as LA2VHF/4.

QRG Power Antenna Polarization
432.463 MHz 22W Covered 12-element yagi (pointing towards Trondheim) Horizontal

The sent CW signal consists of “LA2UHF JP53EG” and a long tone.

LA2SHF (Not in service)

Latest posts on LA2SHF

LA2SHF is out of service for the foreseeable future due to interference issues with a primary allocation user.

The LA2SHF license was obtained already in 1979. A working beacon was made in the 1980s, but had to be taken down due to interference with an air traffic control radar at Gråkallen. In 2017, the need for a 23 cm beacon resurged due to activity in the 1 to 10 GHz project, finally culminating in a working beacon in January 2018 thanks to work done by LA3WUA and LA1BFA. The beacon was installed at Vassfjellet in June 2018, but had to be shut off permanently in 2019 due to new interference issues with a primary allocation user. The beacon was built on top of the same beacon platform as LA2VHF/4.

QRG Power Antenna Polarization
1296.963 MHz ~30 W Sleeve dipole Linear (horizontal)

The CW signal consisted of “LA2SHF JP53EK” and a long tone.