RBN

On October 19 – 20, 2016, two new Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) receivers were installed at the United Astronomy Clubs of New Jersey (UACNJ) Observatory at Jenny Jump State Park in Hope, NJ. These receivers, assigned call signs K2MFF-2 and K2MFF-3, are sponsored by the New Jersey Institute of Technology Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (NJIT-CSTR). These receivers will listen for amateur radio Morse Code signals on the high frequency (HF, 1.8–30 MHz) bands and report “spots” back to the main RBN web site. These spots will be used by ham radio operators to find other hams to communicate with, and by scientists to study shortwave propagation and the ionosphere.

In “The Reverse Beacon Network” (Oct. 2016 QST, pp. 30-32), Pete Smith, N4ZR, and Ward Silver, N0AX explain how the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) is used to observe and report both CW and RTTY communications to the DX spotting network and to a data archive. This article explains how to be spotted by the RBN, how to download RBN data, and also how to become an RBN receiving node.