Every Geek should have one!

BeaconBoxLite

BeaconBox was first described in the March 2025 edition of Practical Wireless.

The NCDXF/IARU International Beacon Project has been around since 1979. It hosts 18 beacons HF beacons spread around the world from Hawaii in the west to New Zealand in the east. Each beacon transmits on each of the fixed frequencies 14.100 MHz, 18.110 MHz, 21.150 MHz, 24.930 MHz, and 28.200 MHz once every three minutes. The timing of the transmission and well documented and predictable. They are there to "to provide a mechanism for amateurs around the world to learn and understand more about radio propagation". By listening on the frequencies and noting the beacons being heard then you can quickly gain insight into the current HF propagation conditions.

BeaconBox was designed to do the listening for you and to display its findings on a map indicating which beacons you would be hearing at any given moment. The article in Practical Wireless made use of the classic YEASU RADIO AMATEUR’s WORLD MAP which is rather large and consumes a great deal of wall space. More details, including videos showing it in operation, can be found here.

BeaconBoxLite is a desktop implementation of BeaconBox. See below for a videos of the original BeaconBox. All the functionality of BeaconBox sitting on the desk of your shack.

Sold as an easy build kit. The manual and build instructions can be found here.

PCB size 165mm x 120mm. Overall height, including stand, 135mm. Overall depth, including stand, 70mm.

Features

• Configurable via a self-hosted web page.
• Configurable spotter location.
• Configurable LED brightness.
• Configurable animation mode.
• USB powered.