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NCDXF/IARU beacons on 24930 kHz: the 12 m band checked every three minutes
The eighteen worldwide beacons on 24930 kHz, thirty seconds behind their 20 m slot. A band that is often empty and comes alive only with the sun: a distant callsign here is worth more than a loud one on 20 m.
What you hear
The chain from the main article: a Morse callsign and four dashes at 100, 10, 1 and 0.1 watts, a beacon every ten seconds, eighteen in three minutes. On 24930 kHz each beacon is thirty seconds behind its slot on 14100 kHz: 4U1UN at thirty seconds past the top of every third minute, VE8AT at forty, and so on.
Who transmits and why
The Northern California DX Foundation and the IARU, from the same eighteen sites. 12 m is the narrowest and least used of the five beacon bands, which is why the beacons matter there most: with no one else transmitting, they are often the only evidence that the band is open at all.
When and where to listen
Daylight only, and mostly in the years around a solar maximum. From Europe the morning brings Asia and the Middle East, midday brings Africa, the afternoon brings the Americas. In quiet years whole weeks can pass with nothing on 24930 but the nearest beacon; in active years the full set of callsigns comes through in a single round. Summer sporadic E brings short, strong openings to beacons within a couple of thousand kilometres.
In ShackDeck
Station catalogue → Beacons → NCDXF beacons 12 m. The program picks a public receiver that covers 24930 kHz, tunes it in CW and shows the waterfall; no receiver, antenna or account of your own is needed.