# International Beacon Project

The International Beacon Project (IBP) is a worldwide network of radio propagation beacons. It consists of 18 continuous wave (CW) beacons operating on five designated frequencies in the high frequency band. The IBP beacons provide a means of assessing the prevailing ionospheric signal propagation characteristics to both amateur and commercial high frequency radio users.
The project is coordinated by the Northern California DX Foundation (NCDXF) and the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU). The first beacon of the IBP started operations from Northern California in 1979. The network was expanded to include 8 and subsequently 18 international transmission sites.

## History

The first beacon was put into operation in 1979 using the call sign WB6ZNL. It transmitted a 1 minute-long beacon every 10 minutes on 14.1 MHz using custom built transmitter and controller hardware. The signal consisted of the beacon's call sign transmitted in Morse code at 100 watts, four 9 second long dashes, each at 100 watts, 10 watts, 1 watt, and 0.1 watt, followed by sign-out at 100 watts.
Northern California DX Foundation and seven partnering organizations from the United States, Finland, Portugal, Israel, Japan, and Argentina operated the first iteration of the beacon network. Due to difficulties encountered in building beacon hardware, each site used a Kenwood TS-120 transceiver keyed and controlled by a custom built beacon controller. The network operated on 14.1 MHz and the beacon format remained unchanged.
In 1995, work began to improve the existing beacon network, so it could operate on 5 designated frequencies on the high frequency band. The new beacon network used Kenwood TS-50 transceivers keyed and controlled by an upgraded beacon controller unit. The number of partner organizations were expanded to 18 and the new 10 second beacon format was adopted.

## Notable Projects

Beyond helping amateur radio operators better understand HF radio propagation the project has aided scientists in better understanding the earths ionosphere, improved prediction models, and aided in radio direction finding.

## Frequencies and transmission schedule

The beacons transmit around the clock on the frequencies
    14.100 MHz
    18.110 MHz
    21.150 MHz
    24.930 MHz
    28.200 MHz
Each beacon transmits its signal once on each frequency, in sequence from low (14.100 MHz) to high (28.200 MHz), followed by a 130 second pause during which beacons at other sites transmit in turn on the same frequencies, after which the cycle repeats. Each transmission is 10 second-long, and consists of the call sign of the beacon transmitted at 22 words per minute (WPM) followed by four dashes. The call sign and the first dash is transmitted at 100 watts of power. Subsequent three dashes are transmitted at 10 watts, 1 watt, and 0.1 watt respectively.
All beacon transmissions are coordinated using GPS time. As such, at a given frequency, all 18 beacons transmit in succession once every 3 minutes.

## Hardware

Beacons transmit using commercial HF transceivers (Kenwood TS-50 or Icom IC-7200) keyed and coordinated by a purpose-built, hardware beacon controller.

## Beacons

The International Beacon Project operates the following beacons as of January 2024.
    Rot'n order Beacon region Call sign Transmit site Grid square Operator 1 United Nations headquarters 4U1UN New York City FN 30 as United Nations Staff Recreation Council Amateur Radio Club (UNRC) 2 northern Canada VE8AT Inuvik, NT CP 38 gh RAC/NARC 3 California, United States W6WX Mt. Umunhum CM 97 bd Northern California DX Foundation (NCDXF) 4 Hawaii, United States KH6RS Maui BL 10 ts Maui Amateur Radio Club (Maui ARC) 5 New Zealand ZL6B Masterton RE 78 tw New Zealand Association of Radio Transmitters (NZART) 6 Western Australia VK6RBP Roleystone OF 87 av Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) 7 Honshū, Japan JA2IGY Mt. Asama PM 84 jk Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) 8 Siberia, Russia RR9O Novosibirsk NO 14 kx Russian Amateur Radio Union (SRR) 9 Hong Kong VR2B Hong Kong OL 72 bg Hong Kong Amateur Radio Transmitting Society (HARTS) 10 Sri Lanka 4S7B Colombo MJ 96 wv Radio Society of Sri Lanka (RSSL) 11 South Africa ZS6DN Pretoria KG 44 dc South Africa Radio Society (SARL) 12 Kenya 5Z4B Kariobangi KI 88 ks Amateur Radio Society of Kenya (ARSK) 13 Israel 4X6TU Tel Aviv KM 72 jb Israel Amateur Radio Club (IARC) 14 Finland OH2B Lohja KP 20 eh Finnish Amateur Radio League (SRAL) 15 Madeira Island, Portugal CS3B Santo da Serra IM 12 or Rede dos Emissores Portugueses (REP) 16 Argentina LU4AA Buenos Aires GF 05 tj Radio Club Argentino (RCA) 17 Peru OA4B Lima FH 17 mw Radio Club Peruano (RCP) 18 northern Venezuela YV5B Caracas FJ 69 cc Radio Club Venezolano (RCV)