What is AE6RT Beacon?
Beacon is a free, distributed peer to peer application that allows ham radio operators to share with each other observations of successful band propagation events. Beacon in the simplest sense is like a traditional “bulletin board”. Notices are posted to the board, and notices are read from the board. In the case of Beacon, these notices constitute “band open” announcements or assertions. Every announcement in Beacon therefore alerts users to propagation conditions between two different parts of the world. In this way it is useful to hams who want to make contact to those parts of the world at that moment, but also perhaps to scientists seeking realtime information on propagation phenomena. The latter would require lots of Beacon users on a consistent basis.
