Many Lowfers also operate Part 15 beacons in the Medium Frequency range of 510-1710khz. These beacons are limited to even greater restrictions than Lowfers, including power levels of 100mw and a 3 meter length antenna. Still some enjoy the challenge...

MedFERs & HiFERs in the US and Canada

Here you can access a list of all known current or recently active MedFER/HiFER beacons in the North America. The list contains the callsign of the beacon, the frequency of operation, the location of beacon, the Maidenhead Grid Square of the station (aame as the VHF/UHF crowd uses), and comments. The lists themselves used to reside on this page, but have been "reunified" for now with their lwca.org counterparts so we can try to bring you current updates a little easier. Most MedFER and HiFER beacons send QRSS mode, which is just another form of Morse Code, or CW sent at very slow speeds. Listeners then use special software to detect these signals well below the noise. Such programs refer to their modes of operation by the length of the transmitted dots. For instance, QRSS30 refers to a transmitter sending 30 second dot lengths. This would make dashes last 90 seconds. The influx of high powered broadcast stations into the "expanded band" has reduced the amount of activity, however, digital modes such as QRSS and BPSK may give us a new lease on life. You will find many beacons sending CW, others using QRSS, BPSK or even PSK31. A few have even been known to run voice modes. Listen in, as these tiny beacons have been copied at distances of over 1000 miles in the past! Recently, many of the Part 15 crowd have begun using QRSS beacons in the 22 Meter HF band from 13,553-13,567khz. These flea powered beacons run 4.5mW or less of power, but have already been heard from coast to coast! 22 Meter Transmitters Jonathan Smick has taken the trouble to put complete plans for both AM and CW transmitters for this Part 15 band! Easy HiFer Transmitter Lyle Koehler, K0LR has designed a very simple keyer/transmitter circuit that can be assembled in less than an hour! Others are working on developing QRSS efforts on 49MHz...stay tuned for more news! View MedFERs and HiFERs Every effort is made to keep the list current, which means we need for all beacon operators to keep us up-to-date on their activies! If you have have changes, corrections, or deletions to your beacon listing, please use the convenient EZ Updater form at this site.

Site © 2002 Les Rayburn, N1LF & Others.