TIERRA DEL FUEGO ISLAND AUTOMATIC RADIO BEACON LU4XS

PLACE DESCRIPTION

Driving on the route J which has its origin from the route 3, it is possible to arrive at the fields of the cattle ranch and its stopping in a place called Pampa del Indio, from where it is possible to see the Moat Channel in front of you, the Beagle on your right and between others the Picton and Becassas Islands.

You go through beautiful landscapes, not less lakes and lagoons, the lovely and historical Harberton Ranch, where you can get a marvelous view of this part of the Channel. On both sides of the way you can see some docks built by beavers, some foxes and birds.

The MOAT ranch was established in 1902 by Antonio ISORNA on Public Land, after that by heritage it passed to Ana Teresa COSTA de LAWRENCE and her son Martin. The terrain is rugged with extensive plains, its soil is wet or very wet, generally consist of peat and rock.

The Moat river which flows into the waterway with a low level terrain, is close at the MOAT Ranch Main House, at a bit less of 2 Miles from it. With certain difficulty it is possible to remount it hundreds of yards and then you will be able to enjoy its landscape. After you cross it and riding four hours to the East you will be arriving at the Puerto Rancho ranch, the most austral place of the island.

From the Moat Beach you see the Moat Channel, and between the Picton, Nueva and Lenox islands you can stare the first spurs of the Cape horn.

PLACE: Moat ranch, in front of the Moat Channel, Tierra del Fuego Province of Argentine Republic.

OWNER: Mr. Martin Juan LAWRENCE, LU4XS. Martin is the Juan LAWRENCE s grandson who arrive at the island in 1870 and became the first teacher in Tierra del fuego

CONSTRUCTION: Firstly was built by Hector OMBRONI, LU6UO in the late 1983, and installed by Jorge F. VRSALOVICH, LU7XP and Oscar ZAMORANO in 1984. Rebuilt by Marcelo FRANCO, LU6DW after a fire. Rebuilt by Roberto Camporeale, LU3EPI in 1998.

TRANSMITTER: Modified Mckinley CB Solid state transmitter. Power Out max. 5 W. Its source consist of a 12 VCC 120 AH battery set and solar pannel.

AERIAL: Inverted VEE Dipole 10 m. High.

MESSAGE: Broadcast in a repetitive and automatic way the following message: LU4XS GACW LAT LON and the LOCATOR followed by a 90" silence.

Mode is Morse Code.

FREQUENCY: 28.190 khz. In the 10m. \par The best way to listen it is tuning your receiver in 28.190,3 kHz.

CW Group of Argentina- GACW- P.O. Box 9 - (B1875ZAA) Wilde - Buenos Aires - ARGENTINA

We will confirm your report of the complete messagge with a beautiful A4 size QSL.

Please send 4 IRCs.

+++ DATE 13 MAR 2003 - OUT OF SERVICE +++

Temporary replaced by LU1DZ signal

This image was sent by SWL Salvo Micciche from Sicily, Italy, and show the first two letter of the CALL. - RX AOR 7030 and Dipole.

Since a long time I am looking for your beacon transmitter LU4XS around 11.00 - 12.00 UTC. My antenna is a 2 element Quad about 10 mtrs high directed to 220° (Tierra del Fuego). My Grid is JN39UR (49° 42´ 42" N, 07° 40´ 09" E), location Meisenheim. Mostly I am searching for the begin of reception of the beacon using the program EasyGram.
It is made for audio frequency with a sound card. Sometimes the frequency of the beacon is decreasing about 210 Hz to 28.189.8 MHz. I guess this will be when the battery is nearly empty.
Here I will show you a picture of today: Code is as follows: 020403 = Year 2002, Month 04, Day 03, 11.00-12.00 UTC.
LU4XS was to hear exactly at 11.15 UTC with RST 589, then fieldstrength decreased slowly.
Every day I send a picture of LU4XS to DL1RXA to support his propagation predictions.
This is my Hobby in the Hobby, hi.
Wish You very good luck.
Best 73´s - Georg, DJ7KG