Manchester Microwave Beacons

Keeper: G6GXK

NB: Due to recent sale of the site, the beacons have been removed and resited as below.

BEACONS AND STATUS

Operational ; Partially Operational ; Not Operational.

GB3MAN, Freq 10368.810000 MHz, LOC IO83WO, GPS locked, ERP 13dBW
Not Operational, No future site decided
First Operation from Rochdale IO83VO as from April 2000, Locked to GPS since March 2001.
Refurbishment Oct 2011 to Jan 2012

DX propagation from Rochdale:-
NW GM8BJF 194 km,
NE M0DTS 113 km,
SE G3EAT 279km, G8DDK 223 km, G4LDR 280km
S G4BRK 224 km, G3VKV 190 km,
SW G3UKV 100 km G4ALY 376 km,
No future site found - Beacon dismantled and parts sold

GB3MAN, Freq 24048.850000 MHz, LOC IO83WO, OCXO based, ERP 5dBW
Status: Operational (2012/03/19)

Modifications to ODU are complete and LO freq of 23737MHz is now stable and locked to a 105Mhz source.
The remaining variation is due to the unlocked xtal 14MHz oscillator which sets the
108.5MHz offset frequency in the LO. The new IF of 311.850MHz has been reprogrammed into the DDS.
The expected variation in frequency is within 300Hz.
(2011 Jan)
The beacon was first operational as from 09:00 UTC Sunday 26 Aug 2007, and locked to GPS as from April 2009.
Refurbishment Oct 2011 to Jan 2012
Removed from site June 2016. Future site not determined.
Transported to Finningly July 2016 for use as a future beacon

GB3MAN Freq 5668.880 and 5760.870MHz LOC IO83WO
Status: Not Operational (from June 2016)
The Out door unit (ODU) consists only of the Antenna (manufactured by Alan Moss G4VVT) and its waterproof housing. This has been taken to the new location (Nov 2016) at Drum Hill Derbyshire to be installed on an existing mast. The beacon Indoor unit (IDU) consists of a tray containing RF generation and PA and is being redesigned/ modified as the beacon GB3RCM.
Design:
The IDU receives a 10MHz reference signal to lock a PLL and a DDS. A 5.7 GHz mixer is fed from a LO using a PLL osc (ADF435X at 2850 MHz and doubler) giving 5700 MHz and a modulated IF of 60.870 MHz generated by DDS. The resulting output is fed through a filter to remove the LO and lower sideband. This is fed to a PA (Supplied by Brian Coleman G4NNS) and PSU(10V and -5V supplies plus interlock and fan cooler) Initially the output of the beacon at Drum Hill will be CW only but provision for multi tone signals will be made. (7 Dec 2016) Transfer to Drum Hill

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