David Wrigley's Microwave Website, Manchester, England

The Manchester 10368MHz Beacon

Present Status: new antenna 12 + 12 slot with taylor distributed slot offsets and wings has been tested and is today being waterproofed. The tests carrioed out on Wed 29 AUG showed a fairly smooth horizontal distribution with twelve lobes and about +/-1 dB variability., The Vertical distribution was constant within +/- 0.3dB over +/- 2 deg and just over +/- 3 deg between 3dB points. ALtogether an excellent result and a significant improvement over the old antenna.Final adjustments to the remote sensor scaling resistors - beacon should be on the air sunday - 2007 09 01

The beacon was switchd off pending move to new site in August 2007 after being put back in TESTING mode on 6 October 2006 after a total rebuild to provide higher power, more flexible modulation system and improved reliability. The original beacon was FULLY OPERATIONAL until 14 December 2005 (It had been operational since April 2000 and locked to GPS since Mar 2001) - remember this is currently an "attended beacon" and therefore subject to shut-down until licenced as GB3XGH

The new beacon mounted on its bracket at the temporary location (now removed)


The Manchester 10GHz beacon at a temporary location. It will be moved about 4.5Km to a site with a new antenna with a better pattern and slightly better takeoff all round.

The present scheme is similar to a normal transverter in that it uses a mixer/ LO +filter to get to the final freq. This was due to the unsuitability of the DDS to provide a clean enough signal after multiplying to 10368MHz.

LO is 106.52MHz x 96 = 10225.92MHz locked to GPS IF from a DDS a la G4JNT (unlocked 10MHz OCXO ref) 71.445 x2 =142.89MHz The "out of band" IF is deliberate and intended to avoid interference with my 2m IF. The LO level is 20mW and the IF power level is 10mW as they go up to the beacon mast assy.

The output signal is as follows:

1. Morse 10368.810MHz using an amplitude ramped on off keying "G6GXK IO83VO" followed by a continuous tone until the end of the minute.

2. Morse FSK 10368.810MHz shifted to 10368.8106MHz "G6GXK IO83VO" followed by a continuous tone to end of minute.
And repeated

Reports from the temp location were very promising, some of them below:

North Wales - IO83IG John MW1FGQ - 59
Bell Hill, IO80UU -Paul M0EYT - 52 to 53
Swindon, IO91HP -Neil G4BRK - 52?
Guildford, IO91OC99 - Ian G8KQW 518/519
IO82WO - Russ G4PBP 52 to 42

(updated: 2007 AUg 30)

© David Wrigley 2000-7