There are 18 propagation beacons around the world on the amateur radio bands. These beacons operate 24/7 on five bands from 20 meters through to 10 meters including the WARC bands. The frequencies are: 14.100, 18.110, 21.150, 24.930 and 28.200 Mhz. Make sure your receiver is set for CW reception or you will not hear the station if you are using the SSB mode as this is going to be slightly off frequency.

Each beacon comes on in turn and transmits its call sign and 4 dashes. The call sign and the first dash are sent at 100 watts, the second dash is at 10, the third dash at 1 watt and the forth and last dash is at .1 watt or 100 milliwatts. When propagation is good there is very little difference between 100 watts and 100 milliwatts.

These beacons are very good for determining the propagation paths that are open at any given time. Some times a band may appear dead but in fact is open and the beacons will show up. For example the other day 15 meters appeared to be dead but when I tuned to the beacon frequency, 21.150 I copied the following beacons: CS3B Maderia, ZS6DN South Africa, OA4B Peru, YV5B Venezuela and 4U1UN, the UN station located in New York.

The beacons will first transmit on 20 meters, then move up to each of the higher bands before resuming on 20 meters. If there were perfect propagations to all parts of the world you would hear all 18 beacons on any given frequency. The transmissions are in CW at about 22 words per minute so unless your CW is up to speed you will have a tough time to identify the beacons. There are several computer programs on the beacon web site that will show which beacon is transmitting at any given time. At this point in the sunspot cycle you will not hear much above 20 meters.

The following web site will give full details on the beacons
NCDXF/IARU International Beacon Project

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de Jerry/VE5DC